In Knights Landing, the economic downturn started decades ago, when the once-busy port on the Sacramento River began its slide into obscurity.

Today, the Yolo County town's farmworkers and retirees have been hit hard by the bleak economy, and its few businesses struggle to survive.

Residents say one of the few bright spots is Grafton Elementary, the town's only school, where the sound of children's voices can be heard for blocks around.

"It's the heart of the town," said Teresa Guerrero, the school's office coordinator, who echoed the feelings of many of Knights Landings' 1,100 residents.

So, it came as a jolt Feb. 26 when the district school board voted to close Grafton at the end of this school year and bus the children 16 miles to Woodland.

Closing the school will leave the town lonely and silent, Guerrero said.

Woodland Joint Unified School District officials said an unprecedented $7 million budget gap required hard decisions by the board members.

"I don't think any of them wanted to close the school, but they felt it was necessary," said Michael Stevens, the district's assistant superintendent.

The trustees also voted to close another school in Woodland and to lay off dozens of district employees, he said.

Grafton, the smallest of the district's schools, was deemed an inefficient use of resources, he said. The school's low test scores weren't a factor in its closing, he said, but some board members felt its students might benefit from a larger school with more programs.

Residents say the issue is bigger than school budgets. Closing Grafton will be a death blow to the town, they said.

"It's going to kill it," said Wayne Green, who heads the Knights Landing Advisory Committee and the local service district. "We don't have any business worth a hoot, and it's going to be a big dead sore in the middle of town."

The school has served as a community center. The Family Resource Center, which once provided help to parents and children Monday through Friday, is now only open a few hours each week – and may close along with the school, Green said.

Tough times in Knights Landing already have left scars. The town's only medical clinic, on Grafton's campus, closed last year because of financial problems.

Boards cover storefronts. Plans to build hundreds of homes on the edge of town have been scrapped. Farmworker families worry there won't be enough work to sustain them through the year.

But, at the center of town, Grafton's blue-and-white campus has an inviting library, a modern computer lab and a shining lunchroom where 90 percent of students get free breakfasts and lunches.

Brightly colored murals, painted partly by students, depict laborers in the field, relatives sharing a meal, and Latinos and Anglos grasping hands in friendship.

"A united community," reads one mural. "Knowledge is liberation," says another.

Teachers such as Maria Kirkland form bonds with students and their families.

On Wednesday, Kirkland led a group of first- and second-graders as they read aloud from a storybook.

The class was English language development for students whose families speak Spanish. Nearly 93 percent of the students are Latino. Most are the children of farmworkers, school officials said.

"Pause here," the teacher said, a page or two into the book about a mother duck. "There's a really, really exciting verb and it starts with a digraph."

From prior lessons, Kirkland's 7- and 8-year-old students knew that a digraph is a group of two letters that form a single sound – " sh," for example.

The verb was "shiver." What's a synonym for "shiver," the teacher asked.

"The synonym for shiver is shake," answered a soft-spoken girl named Lupita.

Kirkland said she addressed the district's trustees just before their 5-2 vote to close the school. "This school symbolizes the hopes of the families here in Knights Landing," she told them.

She said she started teaching at the school this year but quickly grew to care about the community. "It inspired me to be a better teacher," Kirkland said. "I wanted to reach these kids."

The small size – about 138 students compared with more than 800 at her former school – creates a much different feeling on campus and allows for a closer connection, she said.

"There's something about a small school that touches your heart," Kirkland said.

The teacher worries the planned busing of Grafton students to Plainfield Elementary School, on the far side of Woodland, will lead to a feeling of emotional displacement.

Mothers picking up their kids after school said they didn't want to see their children leave town on a 45-minute bus ride.

Many parents' workdays start hours before dawn when they head to Napa Valley vineyards or Yolo County tomato fields. Often families have only one car, and the husband takes it to work. What if a child gets sick at school, the mothers asked. Who will pick them up and care for them?

Right now, an extended network of relatives and neighbors, who live close to the school, make sure all the children are cared for, they said.

"It's a big family," said Ana Ramirez, a parent of two Grafton students.

The Knights Landing school operates on a schedule attuned to the rhythms of field labor and harvest. Plainfield doesn't, she said.

The parents said they protested at school board meetings and intend to keep fighting the decision. The Cesar Chavez Foundation, a civil rights group, has offered to help, they said.

A meeting is set for April 1 in Knights Landing at which board members are expected to hear from the parents.

Stevens, the assistant superintendent, said district officials are sympathetic but fear a worsening budget situation.

"We're trying to do everything we can to make sure the transition is as smooth for them as possible," he said.

Call The Bee's Hudson Sangree, (916) 321-1191.