NASH (AP) - People around the Walsh County town of Nash have cooked potatoes and taken on other fundraising tasks in a fight to keep their school open. But with just nine students in the two classrooms, they decided it's time for a change.

Friday is the last day of classes at the Nash Public School. Next year, the students will transfer to Grafton.

A May 30 auction is set to sell the Nash school building and remaining fixtures.

"It has been a tug of war in the heart and in the mind," Nash School Board President Jackie Rutherford said. "There's a lot of emotions that go into it. But as a board, we just feel it's the right decision for the students here."

Nash is one of about 30 North Dakota elementary school districts that are known as graded districts, those not attached to high schools, said Robert Marthaller, director of school organization for North Dakota Department of Public Instruction.

The Nash School District land will be divided among three surrounding districts with most of it going to Grafton, if the State Board of Education approves.

Nash, settled in 1890, was named for Edgar Nash, part of a pioneering family of brothers who in the late 19th century started a grocery store that became the Nash-Finch wholesale food company.

The potato-rich farming community hit a peak population of about 55 in 1940. Area residents say it's about half that size today.

The Nash school has been around since 1957. In the late 1970s, there was talk of consolidation with one of the larger schools around but residents and parents fought to keep it open.

The school's Mothers Club started annual fundraising events, including Spud Night. Virtually every family in the district cooked potatoes for the event.

Linda Johnston started as a part-time Nash kindergarten teacher in 1983. For the past few years, she has been the school's only full-time teacher, with classroom help from two aides. She also has been the school's administrator and technology coordinator.

Johnston, a Grafton native, and her husband, Jim Johnston Jr., live just four miles away. They raised four children, all of them graduating from Nash and from Grafton High School.

"They were all here at one time," Johnston said. "That was a great for me. I was working more and my kids were coming to school with me."

In the 26 years she has taught in Nash, enrollment has ranged from nine or 10 to more than 30. Now the district has just two preschool children.

On the last day, a field trip is planned to Grafton, before ending the school year after lunch.

While Johnston likes the special relationship in a small school, she knows it's time for change.

"It'll be good for these kids to have classmates," she said. "I believe in a social education along with a classroom education. These kids are good with older and younger students, but it's good to socialize with kids your own age."

Jackie Rutherford's husband, Richard, attended Nash School in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

"Both of my boys are in a grade by themselves, and socially, they're missing out," Rutherford said.

"You hate to see it close," she said of the school. "It's quite an experience for the kids, but it'll be good."