Chamberlain Hunt Academy closing

PORT GIBSON, MS (Mississippi News Now) - The Vicksburg Post is reporting that after more than 130 years, Chamberlain Hunt Academy is closing it's doors. Declining enrollment was cited as the main factor for the school's closing.

According to the newspaper, school president Jim Montgomery has confirmed the closing, but declined to comment further pending the issuance of an official statement.

Chamberlain Hunt Academy is an old school and has roots in Oakland College, which became Alcorn State after Oakland was sold to the state of Mississippi when it was unable to reopen after the Civil War.

The proceeds from the sale built Chamberlain Hunt Academy on the south end of Port Gibson. The school is owned by French Camp Academy today, but still operates as it always has, as an independently run military-type boarding school for young men.

Less than a decade ago, the student body of the all-boys upper school was nearly 100. During the 2013-14 school year, the enrollment was less than 30.

Tuition for boarding students was about $25,000 annually, but varied based on merit scholarships, financial assistance, and work programs.

Seventh to twelfth graders, from Port Gibson as well as 18 states and a couple of foreign countries, made up the student body in the 2012-2013 school year.