A Rotary Park School parent has launched a campaign to save the collapsing Dunedin primary school.
The school reopened for term 1 this year with about 30 pupils, but the roll has since dropped to 21 pupils.
Parents began removing their children from the school when it became clear principal Carmel Casey was returning after six months' leave.
Mrs Casey has been the focus of allegations of incompetent teaching practices and bullying of staff at the school.
At the Ministry of Education's request, a community meeting was held at the school on Thursday night to consult on the school's future.
While many parents appear to be resigned to the closure of the school, one parent - Dannie Hawkins - is calling on other parents, former pupils and stakeholders of the school to show support for it by emailing commissioner Cleave Hay with their reasons and initiatives for keeping it open.
"The more people that have a say, the more likely we are to come up with a solution to avoid the closure process," Mr Hawkins said.
One initiative being floated to keep the school open was the idea of sharing the premises with another school, such as Te Kura Kaupapa Maori o Otepoti, he said.
"It would be advantageous for both of our schools. They need to move into the city to be more accessible, and we have the space.
"We welcome any ideas that people have got."
Mr Hawkins said the school punched well above its weight in academic terms, and he would hate to see it close.
"There are so many good things about the school.
"For example, the ODT Extra! Quiz results over the last few years show some of the school's academic prowess.
"It would be a shame to see it all go.
"The quality of teaching is exceptional. It's just unfortunate that this employment dispute has created this situation," he said.
