Sea Isle City — Close the school and give the building to the city.

That is what Sea Isle City school board member Terrence Libro decided at Tuesday’s meeting that he wants to do with the elementary school.

Coming in the middle of a discussion about the use of the building beyond the regular school day, and whether to demolish the attached “portable classrooms” that are no longer used and do not meet state requirements, Libro’s statement caught the audience and fellow board members off guard.

“I make a motion the board does a feasibility study to close the school and send the remainder, our pre-K to fourth graders, to Ocean City,” Libro said. “And we should turn the ownership of the building over to the city to use.”

Before anyone had a chance to question why Libro made his motion, Vice President Dan Tumolo, who has been a staunch supporter of doing exactly that, jumped at the chance to second Libro’s motion and bring it to a vote.

The other board members were not convinced.

Libro, who has often accused fellow board members of trying to close the school, did not attempt to explain his motion or why he made it then.

Board President Valere Egnasko, whose discussion of a proposed plan to offer adult education classes in the building in the evening at no cost to the district was interrupted by Libro’s surprise motion, cautioned the board about supporting the motion.

“Given what we know are the obstacles of our tenured teachers, entering into this feasibility study is not a good use of school funds.”

When the district previously discussed with Ocean City sending some or all of its students to Ocean City schools, a stumbling block was the tenured teachers. Should Sea Isle’s school cease to operate, its Ocean City counterpart would be required to accept all of Sea Isle’s tenured teachers into its district.

In September, Sea Isle’s fifth through eighth graders started their school year attending Ocean City Intermediate School, in an agreement struck between the two districts for Ocean City to take only one tenured teacher and the remaining staff to stay in Sea Isle City. That teacher then resigned before the start of the school year.

Still saying they were confused by Libro’s motion and the reasoning behind it, Egnasko and board members Ellen Ramsey, Jack Birkmeyer, Dan Organ and Joseph Schmidt voted against the feasibility study. Only Libro and Tumolo supported it.