A junior high school that was considered state-of-the-art when it opened less than 20 years ago is suddenly facing closure in Sydney.

The Cape Breton – Victoria Regional School Board says it is simply too expensive to keep Sherwood Park Education Centre open.

“It just seems like such a waste for it to close down,” says parent Donna Hagen.

The school opened in 1997 and is still in good shape, but student enrollment is nearly half of what it was when it first opened.

The school board says Sherwood Park is too big and too costly to maintain. The proposed changes are part of its ongoing efforts to reduce infrastructure.

“We have choices to make between real estate and programs and services for students and there are some hard choices,” says school board spokesperson Paul Oldford.

Another factor contributing to the decision is the fact that the school board doesn’t own the building, but leases it from a private party.

“It’s in the $6 million range to purchase. There would be a similar cost in extending the lease versus the relatively small cost to renovate Brookland,” says Oldford.

If the school board follows through with the proposed changes, Brookland Elementary School would become the new junior high school. Students who attend Brookland would then be redistributed to other nearby elementary schools.

Sydney Academy would then host grades nine to 12 and the junior high school would host grades six to eight.

Another junior high school, Whitney Pier Memorial, would also close.

No decisions have been finalized at this point, but some parents say the changes are inevitable.

“We can’t keep all of them open. We have to look at what the best options are to keep classrooms as small as possible, but still keep the budget down as much as we can,” says parent Lynn Dyer.

A public meeting on the proposed changes is scheduled for November. The changes would not take effect until the lease expires in 2020.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Ryan MacDonald