School board votes to close Morehouse Elementary

MOREHOUSE, MO (KFVS) - The Sikeston school board met Wednesday evening and voted to close Morehouse Elementary School.

The meeting started at 5 p.m. Wednesday at the Sikeston High School cafeteria.

Superintendent Steve Borgsmiller said closing the school will save the district money, however many parents say they were against the move.

"It's a horrible choice it's the wrong choice," said Morehouse parent Amy Rudisill.

"I'm sad and I think it's the saddest thing that could happen to Morehouse," said Morehouse teacher Mattie Trum.

"I'm very saddened," said Morehouse parent Gabrielle Hodgekiss.

Sad was the word people used to describe the mood after Sikeston School Board members voted 5 to 1 to close Morehouse Elementary.

"I believe as a board member that the best decision for our school district is to close Morehouse," said Board member Amy Blanton.

"I too will be voting to close Morehouse Elementary," said board member Jill Hopson.

"I hope the board put a lot of thought and research into what they did, because they hurt a lot of people today," said Trum.

Trum says Morehouse is special, and members of the community share a special bond.

"It's not the fact that we're afraid to change schools, we know we can teach anywhere, it's that fact what we have at Morehouse, it's the community," said Trum.

A community, that says they've already been through enough with the recent storms.

"These kids have lost everything they had in the flood and now added to that is the school," said Rudisill.

Morehouse Mayor Pete Leija says he too loves the tight-knit community feel, and hates to see it slip away.

"This is not over with," said Leija.

He says he's looking at moving the school to another district.

"We're going to stick together," said Leija.

Gabrielle Hodgekiss is a Morehouse parent, and says she's skeptical of the board's decision. She says teachers were told to pack up their classrooms, and were given new school assignments prior to the board meeting.

"So at that point we knew the decision had already been made, this was just for show tonight," said Hodgekiss.

But Superintendent Steve Borgsmiller says the district did that measure, just in case.

"We were planning, because of school being out, and having teachers come back in, teachers knew their assignments, in the event that it should closed because we were asked 'where are we going?'," said Borgsmiller.

Even though parents and teachers are upset, most people said they realize who this decision will impact most.

"It's not about the parents, it's not about the adults, it's about the kids," said Rudisill.

"The kids are going to be fine," said Borgsmiller.

Copyright 2011 KFVS. All rights reserved.