The Warren County School District is making the right move in closing Youngsville and Sheffield high schools.

Many students and parents are upset — and it’s up to the district and the students’ new schools to make them feel welcome.

One way to do that, in our opinion, is to allow students who started their high school lives at Youngsville or Sheffield to keep some of the pieces of their schools alive until the students who started in the closed high schools graduate.

For example, there is no harm in allowing Youngsville and Sheffield students to wear their old school’s graduation tassels or cap and gown at their new school’s graduation. In neighboring Chautauqua County, when Ripley, a small school with chronically small graduating classes, merged with a larger neighboring school, Ripley’s top student was still honored as Ripley’s valedictorian until all of the Ripley students who began high school in Ripley graduated. Since then, all students are treated solely as Chautauqua Lake Central School students. It’s a model that could, and should, happen here. Students who have worked for years to earn the honors of being the top graduate shouldn’t be penalized now.

Ideally, clubs and activities offered in Sheffield and Youngsville should transition to Warren and Eisenhower, even if only while the Youngsville and Sheffield students who began their time in the activities graduate. And a way to allow athletes who began their high school careers in Sheffield or Youngsville should be allowed to keep part of that identity over the next few years.

There are ways for the school district to make this transition easier on Youngsville and Sheffield students. Now that the right decision has been made to close schools, the onus is on the school district to make sure the transition to Warren Area High School and Eisenhower High School is as seamless and painless as possible.