John Essex supporters attend Marengo BOE meeting

Members of the John Essex Schools community attended Thursday’s Marengo Board of Education meeting to speak on behalf of their institution. Supporters also presented a petition with 172 signatures in support of keeping the school open.

“I’m speaking on behalf of the student body at John Essex High School concerning the closing of our school,” Krisshandra Fluker, a member of the John Essex Class of 2015 said in opening the address to the board. “When you walk into our school, it is very inviting. It is very family oriented. We have all been in school together since kindergarten. Even our parents went to this school. We feel we can get an education there the same as we can get anywhere else. Our school really means a lot to us and it would be very, very devastating if it were to close for our senior year. We would miss out on opportunities such as being valedictorian and salutatorian.”

Following Fluker’s address, Julian Murdock, a member of the Saltwell community, spoke up to lobby for the school.

“We are very concerned about our school closing. We understand that it has not been stated that it would close, but there has been insinuations,” Murdock said. “We are concerned about the enrollment at John Essex. But how can the enrollment be affected when, each year about this time, the indications are that you don’t know whether the school will be open or not. If I were moving into a community and wouldn’t know if the school would be open or not, that is something I would look at very hard.”

Murdock became emotional as he concluded his pleas with the board members.

“I’m begging you. I’m pleading with you with God’s help, and I am a praying man, that we keep John Essex open,” Murdock said. “If the school closes, what is going to happen to our students?”

Mary Murdock concluded the pro-Essex pleas, beginning by stating that she is an alumnus of John Essex.

“To me, that’s the best school there is. It’s a school where children can get one-on-one training. They can get one-on-one teaching. They can’t get that at these other schools that have so many students,” she said.

She went on to put at least a portion of the school’s enrollment problems at the feet of the board of education.

“That’s why we can’t get no enrollment because you don’t ever know until the last minute if it is going to close,” she said.

The John Essex situation was not on the agenda during Thursday’s meeting and will have to be revisited at a later date.

“There’s just a lot of concern about the school. The school has a tremendous amount of history and tradition. Any time rumors or discussion is brought about a school, it causes a community to be alarmed and wanting to know more about their situation. I think that is probably what brought some of the students from the school and some of the members of the community to the board meeting tonight, to give them an opportunity to talk about the school, to talk about how much it means to them,” Marengo County Schools Superintendent Luke Hallmark said of the turnout at the meeting. “I’ve tried to explain, (the board members) did, that John Essex means a lot to us too. It means the world to us because it is one of our community schools. It’s a school we’re proud of. We’ve just run into a situation where the enrollment has dropped off so much over the past few years that it makes things difficult for us to be able to fully fund a staff at the school.”