Puerto Rico Shares Details Of 100 School Closings

WOODRIDGE, IL - OCTOBER 22: A general view of students, in Teacher Maryella Bifano's classroom, on the day she is surprised with $10,000 as a Knowledge Universe Early Childhood Educator Award Winner, on October 22, 2013 in Woodridge, Illinois. (Photo by Jeff Schear/Getty Images for Knowledge Universe) (2013 Getty Images)

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) – Puerto Rico's education secretary announced Saturday that he will close some 100 schools across the U.S. territory starting in August amid a drop in student population.

The move will generate some $27 million in savings and will target mostly elementary schools, Education Secretary Rafael Roman said in a press conference. The government had previously announced the closures but provided no details.

Roman did not specify which schools would be closed, but he said notifications would be sent starting on Monday. He stressed that no layoffs would occur.

All schools that will be closing are located within four miles of another school, he said.

The department served some 423,000 students in 2013, a number that Roman said is expected to drop to 317,000 by 2020.

Some 450,000 people have left Puerto Rico in the past decade as the island struggles to emerge from an eight-year recession.