Gloucester Charter School To Close Next Week

A charter school in Gloucester that had agreed to close at the end of the school year is instead shutting down at the end of next week.

The 100 remaining students at the Gloucester Community Arts Charter School will be moved into regular public schools.

School Board President James Caviston said he's disappointed by the decision because the school was improving.

"The charter school laws are written so that you have five years and we really needed that five years," he said. "We got off to a slow start and we were building up and getting a lot of positive feedback from the parent community."

The board surrendered the school's charter but had planned to stay open until the end of the school year. But trustees said declining enrollment made that impossible.