By LINDA KELLETT

C-S-E News Staff

OPPENHEIM — Members of the Oppenheim-Ephratah Senior Honor Society, assisted by advisors Johanna Sweet and Dolores Hayes, provided guided tours of their school for about 35 St. Johnsville students and their parents before a joint meeting of the O-E and St. Johnsville school boards last month. 

Among the students who gathered for a photo in front of a pictorial display of the history of the O-ECS District were seniors Tiffany Gallt, Ashley Hill, Zackry Kadlic and Paige Songer; junior Breanna Dunn; sophomore Sam Mumford; and freshman David Rackmyre III. 

Because high school students from both districts will be attending classes in what is now the St. Johnsville Junior-Senior High School building, it was a bittersweet occasion for seniors and underclassmen alike.

Dunn said while she’s happy the districts are merging, she has an emotional attachment to the building that she’s attended since the primary grades. She likened the familiar surroundings to a security blanket. “It kind of sucks that I have to leave this building next year. It’s OK. I’m happy we’re merging, but I feel sentimental.”

Another student noted that it’s a “good change, but it’s hard.”

Hill said that is “kind of the way the seniors feel. We’re not able to come back.”

Sweet, who will also be moving to the new school, said that she has been in the building since she was four years old. A supporter of the merger, the alumna of the O-EHS Class of 1974 is looking forward to the educational opportunities that a merged district will offer the students. 

In reference to the comment about the security blanket, she said, “This is your security blanket, and the better education is your future.”