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Britain's smallest secondary school, which serves a tiny group of islands in Shetland and has just three pupils, is to be shut after a long battle by the islanders to keep it running.
Parents on the small archipelago of Out Skerries, home to 73 residents living on two of the largest islands, were dismayed to discover Wednesday the closure plan had been cleared by the Scottish government.
Mike Russell, the Scottish education secretary, who has been embroiled in arguments over his attempts to save local schools in his own rural constituency from closure, announced he would not call in a decision by Shetland Islands council to shut the school this summer, a move islanders have been resisting since the mid-1990s.
While the islands' primary school, which also has three pupils, will stay open, residents insist that having a secondary school is central to the community's survival and cohesion. Out Skerries has a church, two shops and a small fish-processing plant.
Shetland Islands council plans to close the school for good on 4 July, saving £73,500 a year but forcing pupils to commute each week to Anderson high school in Lerwick during term-time and stay in a hostel attached to the school.
Aircraft can take off from Outer Skerries' airstrip for a 20-minute flight to Lerwick and islanders can also reach Shetland's capital by a two-and-half-a-hour ferry ride. Residents are 90 minutes away from the nearest main island port of Vidlin.
The ferry timetable would force children to start their journey to school on Sunday evenings, but in one concession, urged on the authority by Russell, councillors are considering if the ferry schedule can be altered to allow pupils to travel on Monday mornings.
That lifestyle is common to thousands of children in Scotland's remotest and smaller island communities, but parents on Skerries are now searching for ways to challenge the decision. The cite Scottish government legislation introduced in 2010 to protect rural schools from closure.Russell received 25 objections to the closure and only one in favour.
Ryan Arthur, a salmon farmer who has a son, Scott, of secondary school age and another, Ethan, aged 10, said islanders might turn to a judicial review or a complaint to the Scottish public services ombudsman in a last effort to prevent the school's closure.
"The community is furious to say the least," he said. "It looks to us as though the government is acting against its own legislation. If this school closure decision can't be called in, I wonder which one can. We are ticking all the right boxes, such as health impact and social inclusion. They are making a mockery of the process."
The council's convenor, Malcolm Bell, used his casting vote to push through the closure, after the education committee was evenly split on the decision as the authority wrestled with spending cuts.
Vaila Wishart, chair of the education committee, said: "This has been a long and difficult process, and parents and pupils at Skerries school secondary department will undoubtedly be disappointed."
"However, we can reassure them that our main aim now is to make the transfer as seamless as possible, and to support pupils throughout the coming months.
"I will be asking officials to look into the possibility of changing the ferry times so the pupils can come out on Monday mornings instead of Sunday nights as commented on by the Scottish ministers."
A Scottish government spokesman said: "The 2010 act only provides for Scottish ministers to call in an education authority's decision to close a school if it appears to them that the authority may have failed in its statutory duties.
"After careful consideration of Shetland Islands council's proposal to close Skerries secondary department and the representations received, ministers have concluded that the council has fulfilled its obligations under the 2010 act and consequently will not be issuing a call-in notice for this proposal."
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