WARE COUNTY, Ga. -- District school officials in Ware County, Ga., said a popular magnet school will have to close its doors because of a lack of money.

The decision brought a room full of students to tears at a meeting Tuesday night.

The meeting became so chaotic that district officials had to clear the packed room at the Board of Education building in Waycross as the group of parents and students let the superintendent hear their displeasure.

The controversial decision to close the county's only magnet school was met with anger.

"Let them vote on it," one student said. "If they can't look us in the face while we're crying that's they're problem. Look what they're doing to us."

"There's no reason do it," another student said.

Ware County's superintendent Dr. Joseph Barrow was the target of a lot of anger both after the meeting and after he left the building where the contentious decision was made.

"I don't think there was anybody sitting at that table that would've preferred to have been someplace else," Barrow said after the meeting. "It's a situation though as the elected officials, as board members, and me as their appointed superintendent that's our responsibility. Sometimes it's a tough job. Tonight it was really tough."

The district said it will save around $1 million in a very tight budget by closing the school.

The school is slated to close sometime around May of next year.

Efforts are underway to raise money for a last-ditch effort to keep the school open. Any fund donations should be sent to:

Ware Magnet School Fund, Inc.
1516 St. Marys Drive
Waycross, GA 31501

Donations can also be made by calling 912-281-4974.