As enrollment falls, old schools find new life as apartments

[Jilly_in_VA]

2. Not just that

People are moving out of some districts. In Madison, WI, where I grew up, the schools downtown closed because families moved farther east or west. The schools that used to serve those families, both Catholic and Protestant ones, were repurposed or torn down as students moved into the areas. These schools could have been made into housing, but nobody thought far enough ahead.

As for the old Knoxville High school, it simply outgrew itself and new ones had to be built nearby, Fulton, Central, and Austin-East (a consolidation of what used to be Black schools and still mostly is). The building was, for a time, school district offices, until someone decided to buy it and turn it into senior living.