During Tuesday night's Flint School Board meeting, members decided to close the district's two remaining middle schools, Holmes and McKinley.
Neighbors say closing anything down makes them nervous, fearing when students move out, gangs, illegal metal scrappers, and other crime will move in.
Russell Tate lives near McKinley. He says, "It's just going to go downhill. The whole city of Flint is going downhill. They need to cut other places than schools. Schools are important."
Students will be transferred into three high schools next school year.
"It's a terrible thing. We don't need schools closing. We need schools open and working together to straighten this out," says Fannie Mack, who lives across the street from Holmes.
The harsh realities show Flint losing around 1,000 students a year for the last several years.
Last year's count for the district was around 10,000 pupils.
That's down from around 13,500 in 2009 and nearly 15,000 in 2008.
Neighbors say they understand why the district is closing schools, but they don't like it.
"It's sad. It's super sad. It was a good school. It's too bad they're going to have to close it," says Tate.
