Residents, students and business owners in Harrow are bracing for the fallout once the town's only high school closes in June.
One Essex Councillor even went as far as saying the decision to shut down Harrow District High School is borderline criminal.
"The Ministry of Education, through (its) policy, is going to allow this to happen," says Essex Councillor Bill Caixeiro. "And not only allow it to happen, through the way they're funding consolidations, are encouraging it to happen -- and that to me is borderline criminal."
There's a negative impact whenever any school closes, but Caixeiro says there's more at stake when it's a rural school.
"The impact is far less when you close one school when it's in close proximity to another school in a city," he says. "As oppose to closing a school in a small rural centre, and that was the only school that was there."
Caixeiro says it's a shame trustees decided to ignore a proposal to keep Harrow open. If the plan was explored and voted down, the school would have still closed in June 2016.
He says student co-op programs will suffer, youth part-time jobs will be affected and businesses that rely on students will be in jeopardy.