PONTIAC - Pontiac elementary school children will have a change in where they attend classes in the fall.

The board of education voted unanimously Thursday night to switch the district from neighborhood-based schools to an attendance center model. In that system, students are assigned to schools based solely on the grade they are in, not where they live.

The vote came despite calls from people attending the meeting for a postponement. They asked the board to do more research, conduct polls and form committees with parents, teachers and administrators.

"When it comes down to the bottom line … you really need to consider the community input," resident Alan Schrock said. "I'm disappointed that you haven't polled the community, and I would offer my assistance and finances to send a letter to the community, give them a couple of options to see what the community really wants."

Board members and administrators did not respond to the call for a delay before calling the vote. Officials previously said that they had to make a decision before March for budgetary reasons. They did speak in favor of the attendance center concept, however.

"With what we have in the district, I believe that this configuration works the best," board member Ed Lipinski said. "For me personally, this is the configuration that would benefit our children the most and is the one that we can live with for the most time."

Currently, Central, Washington and Lincoln elementary schools each have students in kindergarten through fifth grade in the neighborhood model. Each school will have two grades in the new model, but which schools will have which grades hasn't been determined yet.

Pontiac Junior High School, which houses sixth, seventh and eighth grades, will not change. Pontiac Township High School is in a separate school district and is unaffected by the change.

The school board recently had to cut $900,000 from its budget, which eliminated 10 full-time teaching positions and 15 teacher's aide positions. Attendance centers would allow the district to use its staff and resources more efficiently, Superintendent Steve Graham has said.

Officials said the cuts had to be made because enrollment has been going down, the state still owes the district $500,000, and the law capping increases in property taxes in Livingston County limits that income source.

Graham said the board will continue to research other ways to save money, such as looking into changing fees and cutting classroom expenditures. The district also may receive some help through the new federal economic stimulus package.

Shai Nyi, a father of two children in the district told the board he would have liked to see a poll of parents. A poll taken in 2006, when the district considered attendance centers before, showed 74 percent of people in the district who responded disapproved of the change.