As the school year wrapped up Friday in Willow Run Community Schools, staff at two of the district’s buildings felt they were finishing one chapter of the district’s history and looking to start another.

Kaiser Elementary School and Cheney Academy both closed their doors as part of the Willow Run reconfiguration plan that is set to go into effect for the 2011-12 school year. The district will now house pre-kindergarten through first grades at Henry Ford Elementary School, second through fourth grades Holmes Elementary School, fifth through seventh grades at Willow Run Middle School and eighth through 12th grades at Willow Run High School.

Kaiser principal Charles Raski said, while there are definite feelings of sadness around the building’s closure, he’s received a positive feeling from staff and parents. He said many at the school are viewing the end of Kaiser as the beginning of a new Willow Run district.

Kaiser Elementary School closed its doors Friday as a part of Willow Run Community Schools' reconfiguration plan.

Kyle Feldscher | AnnArbor.com

“The vibe has been pretty good with the community,” he said. “Nobody wants to close a neighborhood building, but overall, it’s been pretty good as far as parent support and with the reconfiguration the way it is.”

The typical end-of-the-school-year atmosphere was in full swing at both Kaiser and Cheney Friday morning, but many described the feeling as bittersweet.

Raski had students from each grade level of the school participate in the morning announcements and the final shouts of the Kaiser school motto reverberated throughout the building.

At Cheney, the school went through its award ceremony with loud cheers echoing around the school. However, it didn’t take long for tears to start flowing as students walked back to class.

Renee Smith, principal at Cheney, attended Cheney as a student and lives in the Superior Township neighborhood near the school. She said the building being taken offline is a necessary step for the district to move forward.

“This is a building and it means a lot to all of us. But, this is, when it comes down to it, brick and mortar,” she said. “It’s a building, it’s a shell. It’s the people and the staff and the students and the families that make the building a special place. We’ll continue that forward in the buildings we’re relocating to.”

Cheney Academy was the second school to be taken offline in the Willow Run reconfiguration plan.

Kyle Feldscher | AnnArbor.com

Smith will be heading to the Willow Run Primary Learning Center, the preschool through first grade school, in the fall. Raski will be going to the Willow Run Intermediate Learning Center, the fifth through seventh grade school.

Many of the staff members at Kaiser said the new format of the schools would allow them to improve their performance by being able to work with other teachers of same grades.

Third grade teacher Noncy Fields said she’s the only third grade teacher at Kaiser but she will be one of four fourth grade teachers next year at the Willow Run Elementary Learning Center. She said being able to plan and confer with those other teachers would expand her teaching abilities.

“I’m the only third grade teacher and when it comes to planning and we break off into teams, I’m by myself or I’m in a room with someone but planning by myself,” she said. “Now, I’m kind of looking forward to … teaming with a teacher I consider a master teacher that is my mentor. I’m excited about the possibilities and I’ve already started planning for next year.”

The staff got together for meals after school often during the past week, Raski said. He said the staff has been a big part of the transition process and has been supporting the district since the very beginning.

He said one of the hard parts about closing down Kaiser would be losing the family atmosphere among the staff.

“In this building, there’s such a family culture,” he said. “There are folks who worked together for years in this building and they’re moving on to other buildings and some of these people worked here for a long time.”

Christine Humes teaches a first and second grade split classroom and said Friday was the first day she got choked up about the building closing. After 13 years of teaching at Kaiser, Humes said it was getting increasingly difficult to think about leaving the students and staff behind.

Humes will be moving to the elementary learning center in the fall to continue her program, which is an inclusion program that has many special education students mixed among general education students. Instead of teaching kids in first and second grades, she will be teaching second and third graders. The thought of starting somewhere new might be exciting but she said it’s hard to leave Kaiser.

“I’ve been here 13 years and it’s like your home away from home,” she said. “This is really the first day I got choked up because we’re losing that feeling of home at Kaiser.”

Introducing students and families to their new buildings has already avoided some of the emotion over the two schools being taken offline, Smith said.

She said the primary learning center held an open house and had more than 150 families show up and the feelings that day were almost beyond words. She said there has been a sense of energy from students, parents and staff that gives her a lot of hope for the future.

“I look forward to having that community connection with families and inviting them to be a part of our lives,” she said. “Everyone’s really excited about the fall and when one door closes another one opens.”

Kyle Feldscher covers K-12 education for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at kylefeldscher@annarbor.com or you can follow him on Twitter.