Giving up the family homestead can be heart-wrenching. Maybe Mom and Dad can't afford to fix the place up to its former grandeur. Or they've found that a different setting can better support their lifestyle. But, oh, the memories.

The students, parents, graduates, staff members and friends who make up the extended family of Pittsburgh Schenley High School are roiling with those feelings as the Board of Education prepares for a possible vote Wednesday on a proposal to close the school permanently.

Most of Schenley's supporters want the district to put money into repairs, and they contend a partial renovation could be completed for far less than the district's estimates. The most recent one, prepared by the firm whose architects designed Schenley, was $76 million to make the building safe and sound for the long term.

That sum equals 14 percent of the district's 2008 budget. Most families don't have that kind of nest egg, and neither does this one. If the district were to borrow the money for reconstruction, debt service would cost $7 million a year for 20 years, the cost of salaries and benefits for 79 teachers.

This is a difficult decision for the district, but a financially responsible one that the school board must make.

At the same meeting where Superintendent Mark Roosevelt wants the board to act, board member Theresa Colaizzi is expected to seek approval of her proposal for a voter referendum instead. Since the vote is advisory, the board would get only ammunition and political cover before having to make the final decision anyway. Even with a ballot question in November, Schenley will not re-open to students this fall.

In other words, postponing the decision to gauge voter sentiment would be a near-abdication by the board that is elected to make the tough calls for the Pittsburgh Public Schools.

No one wants to see the architectural masterpiece that is Schenley High School shut down, but the district can't afford the extensive repairs necessary to keep the 92-year-old building functioning as a school. Saying goodbye to a beloved home is not easy, but sometimes there is no better choice.