At one time, Youngstown, spurred by an explosion of industry and immigration, boasted as many as 170,000 residents. To accommodate the growing population, the city grew to have six public high schools.

As the industrial economy slowed and eventually collapsed, however, Youngtown’s population began a sharp and decades-long decline, leaving the once-burgeoning city to rust and many of its half dozen high schools to shutter.

The six public schools that comprised the City Series – East, North, Rayen, South, Wilson and Chaney – quickly began to feel the effects of the ever-decreasing pool of students, and in 1980, North, the smallest and most eastern of the original six, closed. South followed suit in 1993, as did East in 1998, halving the number of schools that existed 20 years earlier.

In

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