Under an overcast sky the morning of June 16, students and staff of the Long Beach Island Grade School in Ship Bottom gathered for a photograph that will likely appear in yet-to-come LBI history books: the last classes to ever attend the school. By contrast, a blue early-evening sky had greeted the Class of 2025 a few days earlier as they arrived at the circa-1950s building and became the final sixth-grade graduates to flip the tassel from right to left within the LBI School.

“We recognize all of the emotions that come with closing the school and saying goodbye to the classrooms where we’ve…