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Lost City School will be lost to the history books at the end of this school year.

State school board members voted Wednesday to approve the mandatory annexation of the 87-student school district despite the pleas of nine community members.

"This is tough for us, too, but we're thinking this: At this point we're talking about running a school on donations,” state schools Superintendent Sandy Garrett said.

Chief George Wickliffe of the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians said his tribe already has given tens of thousands of dollars to the financially troubled school district and is prepared to give more so that the district can get back on its feet.

But Kay Harley, legal counsel for the State Department of Education, said a 1968 attorney general's opinion states that an unaccredited school district cannot operate, even if it has enough money to do so, without receiving state aid.

At a meeting last month, state school board members voted to deny the district's accreditation for 2008-2009.

The department will survey Lost City parents and guardians to see where they would prefer their children to go before deciding how to divide the territory that will be annexed, Garrett said.

The district will be allowed to operate through June 30.