It was a quiet protest. There were no speeches or chants. The aim was simply to demonstrate the number of people who walk to the 102-year-old school every day from the surrounding neighborhoods.

“It really is part of the fabric of this community,” said Stephen Cooper, who has a 6-year-old daughter in kindergarten at the school and two younger children who he hopes to enroll there.

It was the second year the school has held a “Walk your child to school day” to raise awareness about exercise, but this year’s event had another message. Many parents came out to show their opposition to a cost-cutting proposal that could see Wakefield Elementary close this summer.

It’s one of four school closings being considered by the School Department to fill a projected $926,000 budget hole due to a drop in state aid. The other schools on the list are Curtis Corner Middle, Matunuck Elementary and West Kingston Elementary. The department is also looking at program cuts and eliminating all-day kindergarten to balance the budget.

“It’s been a difficult time for the town and the state,” said Wakefield Elementary Principal Michelle Little.

South Kingstown is just the latest Rhode Island community to consider closing schools in response to the state budget crisis that is restricting aid to cities and towns. Providence is set to close a middle school and a high school this summer. West Warwick is closing an elementary school.

Of the four schools on the table in South Kingstown, the highest estimated cost savings would come from closing Wakefield Elementary — $676,000 in the first year, compared with about $272,000 for each of the other elementary schools, according to the School Department. Closing the middle school would cause a cost increase in the first year before leading to approximately $200,000 in savings in subsequent years.

If Wakefield Elementary closes, it would mean that many children who now walk to school will have to ride buses to schools that are farther away. For some, the ride could be short: to Peace Dale Elementary School, in the neighboring village. But others, such as Todd and Alison Corayer’s 7-year-old son, would face a longer ride, to Matunuck Elementary School.

The Corayers live up the street from Wakefield Elementary, and for their son, a first grader, the walk each day to school takes just a few minutes. Todd Corayer says the school’s location in the heart of the town encourages community involvement.

“This is a school supported by parents, many of whom, like me, walk their children to and from school, sit in the newly dedicated outdoor classroom and watch our children grow up on the Nancy Brown Memorial Playground,” Corayer wrote in an e-mail.

Corayer, who was also at the protest, said the School Department is preparing to make a decision with ambiguous information. The issue he and others point to is that the School Department’s budget is largely dependent on what happens at the state level.

And the parents say the town won’t have a better idea of the state budget until after a May 25 meeting when the School Committee is scheduled to vote on which cost-cutting measure to adopt.

“This site has had kids here for over 100 years,” said Jonathan Daly-Labelle, who has three children at Wakefield Elementary and two older ones who went there. “You don’t just abandon that on a maybe.”

“You’re making a long-term decision based on a one-year projection,” added Chris Roman, who brought his two young children to the march in a stroller.

Roman’s children aren’t in school, yet. They are just 3½ and 1½ years old. But he felt an obligation to participate in the walk. A key draw for him and his wife when they moved to Wakefield was the nearby school. Would its closure deter other young parents from coming to town in the future? he asked.

“You have to ask yourself, ‘What’s good in the long run for the community?’ ” said Roman.