SMITHFIELD — Parents and teachers at Johnston Christian Academy are scrambling to regroup after learning the school will not open again this fall.

The private school’s governing board made the decision to not reopen, said Jim Byrd, chairman of the church’s board of directors and the JCA school board.

“The decision was extremely difficult but necessary,” Byrd said.

Reading from a prepared statement, he said the school is closing due to budget shortfalls, shrinking enrollment and a bad economy.

The ruling board at First Assembly of God, the school’s host church, told its congregation Sunday that the church would end its relationship with the school, said Bryan Walker, the school’s athletic director and a member of the church.

The board of directors had said there would be a vote by the congregation, but on Sunday it took unilateral action, Walker said.

“It’s been very unchristian-like,” he said.

Non-congregation members, including principal Chris Dentel, were asked to leave at the end of Sunday’s services before the disbandment meeting began. Dentel had still not heard from the board by the morning after.

“All I really am prepared to say is the board has not seen it as necessary to tell me any decisions that were made,” Dentel said earlier this week.

Missy McFatter, a parent of two JCA students, said the school community was blindsided by the end-of-year decision.

“Between teachers and parents, we’re shocked, and heartbroken,” McFatter said. “Everything’s been so fast.”

The church dissolved the original school board in early April, former principal John Floyd said. Floyd resigned shortly after, when he was told he would be replaced by next fall.

As the decision to close approached, the church’s board told school faculty and staff to clear out of the building by June 9, Walker said.

Around the time of the decision, the church also froze all of the school’s financial accounts, according to Walker and former principal Floyd.

“We can’t even pay our bills,” Walker said earlier this week. He has been a church member for 20 years and worked at the school for nine of those. “They took our [sports] uniforms too.”

The church will retain ownership of the school’s facilities but also will be burdened by its debts. Floyd and Walker said more than half a million dollars of debt is left from the construction of the school’s $1.1 million gymnasium, which opened last summer.

The church had also taken over a school loan payment of thousands of dollars a month after the school’s enrollment dipped, Walker said.

The school had about 150 students this year, down from about 190 last year; two seniors graduated this year, compared to a dozen last year.

“It’s just been bad decision-making,” Walker said. “This didn’t come overnight.”

This might not be the end of the line for the school, though. A steering committee of parents and faculty met Sunday night, after the church board decision, to explore ways to keep the school afloat.

“We’ve only got two months,” McFatter said. “You have basically two months to figure out ‘Can we save it, can we do it, can we separate?’”

Even as parents look to public schools for next year, JCA organizers are searching for another church to call home.

“The ball’s really rolling,” Walker said. “There’ll be another school, it just won’t be Johnston Christian Academy.”

He said there had been an “outpouring” of support from local churches and that there was a real possibility the school would find a new host in time for next school year. The clock is ticking, though; Walker said the steering committee had hoped to make a decision about the school’s future by June 12.

Any later, he said, and they might lose much of their enrollment. If necessary, a school could be hosted on multiple campuses next year.

“It’s all one big family,” Walker said. “It’s almost like a divorce.”