GLOSTER &045;&045; About 65 Pine Hills Academy stockholders voted Tuesday night to offer a Christian homeschooling program on the campus beginning Dec. 1, an organizer said.

At a meeting on Monday, stockholders voted to close the academy.

The school had operated for 33 years as part of the Mississippi Private School Association, but suffered recently from a low enrollment and mounting debt.

The home-schooling program will be sponsored by Kosciusko-based Old Dominion Christian School, according to PHA stockholder Betty Stevens.

Stevens said an ODCS representative explained the home-schooling program to stockholders at the Tuesday meeting.

&uot;We believe this program will be great.

All of the kids will get to work together,&uot; Stevens said.

Calls to officials at ODCS were not returned on Thursday. An ODCS spokesperson said the school does not have a Web site.

More than 60 students are expected to enroll in the home-schooling program, which will combine classes and use fewer teachers to cut expenses.

&uot;We’ll probably close some rooms in the building to keep expenses down.

We expect to employ a secretary and about five teachers at first,&uot; Stevens said.

Tuition for the home-schooling program will initially remain at the same rate charged at PHA, Stevens said. Meanwhile, stockholders have decided to sell the school’s three buses and a portable building to help erase a $48,000 debt.

In August, PHA officials said an enrollment of 150 students was needed to cover operating costs without raising tuition.

Despite donations and pledges, only 95 students were enrolled when PHA closed this week.

Some former PHA students have since enrolled at other private academies in the Wilk-Amite area, school officials said.