The Butler School District approved a consolidation plan Wednesday evening that will bring dramatic changes to the district by the start of school this fall.

The vote can be seen as a milestone, and it was. But it was also just the beginning of a process, and the most challenging work lies ahead.

Following six months of debate and consideration of three or four different consolidation plans, the board voted 7-2 for a plan that will close five of the district’s 11 elementary schools. The primary schools staying open — Center Township, Connoquenessing, Emily Brittain, McQuistion, Northwest and Summit — will handle kindergarten through fourth grade, with fifth- and sixth-graders moving to the junior high building. The district’s intermediate school will then house 7th through 9th grades while 10th- 11th- and 12th- graders attend the high school.

In addition to these changes, the board approved a plan to convert the Center Avenue school to a special-needs and alternative education school.

All of these changes are scheduled to be implemented by the start of school at the end of this summer.

Consolidation has been discussed informally for a few years as a recognition of a four-decade decline in enrollment that saw the district’s student population peak in 1970 at 12,000, gradually falling to the current 7,200 students. Clearly, some adjustments were needed to address excess building capacity and try to restrain operating costs.

The approved consolidation plan is expected to save the district about $1.5 million a year, in a $100 million budget. Some critics of the plan say those savings aren’t enough, pointing out that routine annual property tax increases from the district are a burden for many taxpayers.

Costs and property taxes were certainly on the mind of many supporting consolidation. Saving $1.5 million a year is not insignificant, but estimates for savings tied to plans that closed more schools were $4 million or more.

Not everyone is pleased with the board’s vote to close five schools and reconfigure the junior high, intermediate and high school buildings. But overall, everyone involved in the process deserves credit for keeping the discussion civil. In many other communities, talk of closing schools often produces more shouting by opponents than serious debate of the pros and cons of consolidation plans.

Some critics complain the district moved too quickly on consolidation, but the topic is not new. Nobody argued for the status quo. Once serious discussions began and a consultant presented numerous options, there were more than a dozen or more special meetings. There was plenty of notice about what was being considered and discussions ranged from cost savings and the impact on students to how closures would change the character of the city and concerns over long bus rides for some students.

Despite many issues being considered before this week’s vote, there is a long to-do list facing administrators as they begin implementation of the plan.

Letters are being sent this week to parents of students being affected. Some observers of the process are urging parents, even if they preferred another plan, to be positive about the changes when talking with their children. It does seem right to say that they will be doing their children a favor by being positive about the coming changes.

Change is not easy, maybe more difficult for some adults than children. But despite often being feared or resisted, change can positive. It’s best for parents, administrators, teachers and others to focus on making the best of the coming changes — for the sake of the students, the district and the broader community.

Butler’s board took a difficult and significant vote Wednesday night. But as big as the vote was, the toughest work lies ahead, in the three months between this week’s vote and when buildings open for the next school year in a district that looks a lot different.