The Roanoke School Board voted Thursday to close Forest Park Elementary School next month and open a new academy for overage students in its place in September.

The 4-3 vote capped two emotional weeks for school officials and for residents of the school's Northwest Roanoke neighborhood who have fought to save their school.

Board members Courtney Penn, Mae Huff and Mignon Chubb-Hale voted against the plan, saying closing the school would disrupt the surrounding community. Before the vote, Penn proposed an alternative plan that would open the overage academy at Oakland Intermediate School for at least one school year. A majority on the board killed his proposal.

The board also voted 5-2 to try to move Oakland's students into Preston Park Primary School in order to relocate the Noel C. Taylor Learning Academy to Oakland. Taylor is currently housed in space the school system leases, which means the program's move is contingent on the board being able to negotiate its way out of the lease. Penn and Huff voted against that plan.

School officials have been speaking with the property owner about getting out of their lease. Officials said the board will have to reach an agreement over the lease in the near future in order to make sure Oakland is ready to receive Noel C. Taylor students by the start of the next school year.

Forest Park parents had been rallying to save their school since word of the proposed closing emerged about two weeks ago. Their efforts culminated Wednesday evening when enraged parents assailed the board for wanting to shut their community's most visible landmark.

On Thursday, Penn said he had been "very surprised" by the parents' passionate reaction and urged his colleagues to consider an alternative location for the academy.

Penn added that the school system is in the process of examining its attendance areas, a study that may result in creating more neighborhood schools in the coming years. Right now, many city schools draw students from outside their neighborhoods, the legacy of a 37-year-old attempt to desegregate the public schools.

Forest Park, as the city's only neighborhood school, is the exception. Most of its students walk to class.

Penn called it "unconscionable" to close a neighborhood school this year while considering creating more such schools next year.

"We have some fires to put out, and I would rather put those fires out in a contained geographic realm like Forest Park than break those students up over the city," he said.

Chubb-Hale agreed.

"I just really couldn't ignore the community," she said. "Resources need to be put there to show the African-American community that it can work."

The overage academy would serve middle and high school students who are older than their grade level, are at risk of dropping out or who have already dropped out. The goal, supporters said, is to boost the city's graduation rate, which has hovered around 57 percent for several years.

To board Chairman David Carson, that dismal statistic indicates that "we're past crisis stage."

Superintendent Rita Bishop said she expected about 250 students to enroll in the academy, although some board members questioned that number. Administrators estimate it would cost $1.5 million to convert Forest Park into the academy.

Board members also endorsed a plan to pour resources into Highland Park Elementary, Hurt Park Elementary and Roanoke Academy for Mathematics and Science, the three schools that will receive Forest Park's roughly 260 students in September.

Those schools will get a full-time nurse, guidance counselor and physical education teacher, reading and math coaches, as well as more instruction in art and music. The idea, board members said, is to help Forest Park's students, who have struggled on state tests although they have improved significantly over the past two years.

"We have failed these kids. We have failed Forest Park," said board member Jason Bingham. "Although this is extremely impactful to that community ... I would prefer to make a decision that is in the best interests of the students we have failed."

But LeVita Washington, Forest Park's PTA president, said she felt let down by the board's decision.

"The means don't justify the ends," she said after the meeting, vowing to continue the fight. "I'm ready to take on the challenge to fight for this school and for this community."