Detroit ? Doors are expected to shut on more than a quarter of Detroit’s 172 public schools in June as the district fights through steadily declining enrollment and a budget deficit of more than $219 million, an emergency financial manager said Wednesday.

Three aging, traditional and underpopulated high schools would be among the 44 closures. Another six schools are to be closed in June 2011, followed by seven more a year later, emergency financial manager Robert Bobb said.

Detroit already closed 29 schools before the start of classes last fall and shuttered 35 buildings about three years ago. Parents like Jena Williams, 41, call it a worrisome trend. Her 5-year-old daughter’s school is on the June list.

“I am not happy about it, but the population of the city is shrinking and the people who have the means are moving out,” Williams said after picking up her daughter, Payton, from Bunche Elementary on Detroit’s east side.