Wailupe Valley Elementary School held its last day of classes ever yesterday, with parents, teachers and students tearfully saying goodbye to one another and to something they say only small schools like Wailupe can create — a tight-knit sense of family and community where every student has a chance to do well.

"The school, to me, was just like an 'ohana. It's just like a big family," said Fred Cresanto, whose youngest child is a fifth grader at Wailupe Valley Elementary and whose three other children also attended the school. "I tell people Wailupe Valley is a public private school. The teachers have the ability to really teach the kids."

Dozens of parents and alumni joined teachers and students at the school yesterday for a big send-off, complete with water slides, a train for kids to ride and a DJ. The gathering overflowed with smiles, giggles and hugs, but there were also lots of tears and words of frustration from parents still upset with the closure.

"I am irked as a parent," said Eric Carlson, who has two children at the school, adding that he still doesn't understand the reasoning behind closing the school and is disappointed with the process that was used to come to the decision. "What our kids got here is a very intimate setting where all the kids knew each other," he said, as he waited at the school for the festivities to start. "I think that's something that is hard to come by."

Wailupe Valley, which has just 75 kids in kindergarten through fifth grade and classes with as few as eight students, is the first school in the state to be consolidated since 1987. But it comes as part of a statewide effort under way to close small or underused schools, which is spurring concern about the fate of schools in other areas.

More than half of Wailupe's students come from outside the district, school officials say, and some come from as far away as Mililani and Makakilo. Wailupe students, including those on geographic exceptions, will attend 'Aina Haina Elementary School next school year — about a mile down the road — where in some cases the number of students in just one grade will be more than all the students who attended Wailupe.

But Wailupe parents and teachers say losing the school won't just affect students. It will affect the community, which has embraced the school as a hub of activity and a source of pride.

"It's sad because we're such a close environment," said Neva Romano, who lives just behind Wailupe Valley school and is its parent-community networking center coordinator. Romano's son, 7-year-old Antonio, also attends Wailupe. "It was such a wonderful place to be in. You really have that true feeling of 'ohana."

BENEFITS VS. COSTS

Wailupe has been under threat of closure for more than three decades. Even so, Ross Watanabe, who attended the school in the 1970s and whose child is a third-grader at Wailupe, said he never thought the school would close its doors. "There's a need for smaller schools," he said yesterday, as he set up for the big farewell party at Wailupe. He said Wailupe kids get "a lot of opportunities that they might not get at bigger schools" — opportunities, he said, for leadership, after-school activities and service projects.

The other big advantage of Wailupe's size, he said, is strong parent involvement.

Wailupe Principal Susan Okano said Wailupe parents "give a lot of time to the school to make it joyful."

Those benefits, though, were weighed against high per-student costs at Wailupe in the closure decision.

A school consolidation task force found the state spends about $12,079 per student at Wailupe Valley — more than double what the state spends per student at 'Aina Haina Elementary.

Also, though Wailupe's classes are smaller (eight to 14 students), compared with the 17 to 22 students at 'Aina Haina, students at 'Aina Haina fared better on standardized tests. In 2007, 88 percent of 'Aina Haina students tested proficient in reading, compared with 77 percent at Wailupe.

About 77 percent at 'Aina Haina tested proficient in math. That's compared to 54 percent at Wailupe.

But teacher Lori Kuwahara, who has nine students in her first-grade class at Wailupe, said the campus — which celebrated is 50th anniversary this year — has real benefits for kids. For one, she said, almost no one falls through the cracks because there are so many eyes on kids making sure they're keeping up and getting help.

The school, she added, "is more like one big family."

The future of the campus has not yet been decided, but in a vote yesterday the Board of Education's Committee on Administrative Services recommended that the property be turned over to the city. The issue will now go before the full board for a final vote.