Editor’s note: This article is by Howard Weiss-Tisman of the Brattleboro Reformer, in which a longer version was first published on April 11, 2014.

BRATTLEBORO — The Vermont Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Board of Directors has voted to close the Austine School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and the Williams Center in June.

The board on Friday voted 8-1 after discussing the school’s future in executive session for almost an hour during its monthly meeting.

The Williams Center was opened in 2004 to meet the special emotional and behavioral needs of children who are deaf or hard of hearing.

VCDHH President Bill Gurney said the organization will try to reopen a residential program on the campus by July 2016, renamed as the Austine Center, though he said it was too early to announce how many students would be recruited or what the program would look like.

“It was a very hard day here, and there were some tense discussions we had,” Gurney said after announcing the board’s vote. “We know how important Austine School is to so many people but we really had no choice. We are out of money.”

The decision was made Friday after months of talks by the board about the dire situation in which the Vermont Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing found itself.

Years of declining enrollment forced past boards to use the school’s endowment and Gurney said there was simply no money left to open next year.

Gurney said VCDHH was going to end this fiscal year with a $38,000 deficit and the organization had extended its $1 million line of credit as far as it could go.

“This is not about the quality of our staff or about the quality of the work we do,” Gurney said. “No one is at fault. We don’t have enough students to make it feasible. We don’t have enough students to pay our bills.”

Gurney said the board asked him to come to the May board meeting with a new 2015 budget, which include proposed staffing cuts.

About 50 people will lose their jobs.

The VCDHH will retain many of its profitable programs, including The Little Arrows Daycare Center on campus and the statewide consulting program it runs to support students who are deaf and hard of hearing.

About 50 staff members and alumni filled the fourth floor conference room for the board meeting.

Before going into executive session, Gurney said he has been making a number of agreements with other organizations to rent out space in the vacant buildings on the 174-acre campus.

Gurney also said VCDHH is a finalist for a state-sponsored solar farm that could be installed this summer, and he authorized a timber sale that he said was going to help close this year’s deficit.

But even with that extra money coming in, Gurney said it would be impossible to open in September.

Howard Weiss-Tisman can be reached at 802-254-2311, ext. 279, or hwtisman@reformer.com. Follow Howard on Twitter @HowardReformer.