LITTLE ROCK — A group of Redfield residents that organized to attempt to keep the town’s middle school open asked the Arkansas Board of Education to intervene Monday after the White Hall School Board recently voted to close the school.

“Our children should be first and foremost,” said Ronald Meredith, vice president of the “Keep Redfield Middle School” Task Force.

“They are meeting state standards. We feel it would be best to leave them where they are.”

The task forced asked the state board to consider overriding the local district’s decision or to consider making Redfield an independent school district, separate from White Hall.

State officials are limited in how they can intervene with local school decisions, Education Commissioner Tom Kimbrell said after the meeting.

The White Hall School Board voted last week to close Redfield Middle School, originally constructed by Works Progress Administration workers in the 1930s, and transfer its 125 students to White Hall Middle School, which has about 615 students. Both schools have sixth through eighth-grade classes and are about 13 miles apart.

District leaders hope to save about $350,000 in annual maintenance, operations and staffing expenses, Superintendent Larry Smith has said. Any staff reductions will likely happen by leaving positions unfilled as employees retire or leave, he said.

But Redfield residents questioned whether closing the school would be the best way to cut costs.

White Hall’s proposed facilities plan calls for several new projects, including a new multipurpose facility for band and athletics and a performing arts addition to White Hall High School, Meredith said.

Front Section, Pages 5 on 01/15/2013