The school, which opened in 1930 and was later expanded, is being closed because of budget cuts. The Devine’s kindergarten and preschool classes will be moved to the town’s four elementary schools.

For three-quarters of a century, the Devine School was an elementary school serving neighborhoods in North Randolph. It was converted into an early childhood center two years ago when the Tower Hill School was closed, also for budget reasons.

While the end of the Devine as an elementary school was met with protests and petition drives, there was nearly no opposition to this closing.

“I had a few comments, but not many,” said school committee Chairman Larry Azer.

Azer suggested that there are fewer emotional ties to an early childhood center than an elementary school. Most students attend for a year, then move on to an elementary school. There’s more of a tie to an elementary school, where students attend for six years and parents and staff get to know each other, he said.

“There’s not a big support base among parents,” Azer said.

Barbara Maged, the principal of the school, said that year-end celebrations have been taking place for a couple of weeks, since some preschool programs end before the last day of school. But there was no big event to mark the closing of the school.

“It’s been very low-key, because of the age,” said Maged, who is finishing her first year at the school.

Teachers are packing up their classrooms, but she said that is routine at the end of the school year, as rooms are cleared out for maintenance work over the summer.

Maged, who is staying on with the Randolph public schools to oversee kindergarten and preschool programs, has mixed emotions about the final day. One of the sad things is watching the school’s dedicated teachers and staff split up and move to other buildings.

“This is a family,” Maged said. “It’s asking a family to live in four different houses. But they’re all excited they’ll be part of bigger elementary schools in the fall.”

One thing she’s looking forward to is the start of a new full-day kindergarten program for some students in the fall.

Maged said her priority is that the move doesn’t hurt the programs for students.

“We’re just going to have to shift gears and do it differently,” she said. “The quality of our program should transfer wherever they send us. It’s a great building, but it’s just a building.”

Azer said the school system is seeking proposals for prospective tenants of the Tower Hill School. The Randolph Community Food Pantry occupies part of the building.

As of now, the school system doesn’t have any plans for the Devine building, he said.

The school is named for Charles Gabriel Devine of the Navy, who died at the Great Lakes Navy Base, outside Chicago, in the 1918 flu epidemic. Devine one of six Randolph men who died during World War I.

Fred Hanson may be reached at fhanson@ledger.com.