Claxton High School held a candlelight vigil at its football field, the Pecan Grove, Tuesday evening in memory of Julie Bass Sikes, a CHS teacher and instructional coach who died in a three-vehicle highway crash Monday evening.

The school will also close early Thursday to allow students and faculty to attend an afternoon memorial service.

“With a heavy heart the Evans County Charter School System announces the passing of Julie Sikes, a beloved teacher and instructional coach at Claxton High School,” Superintendent of Schools Dr. Marty Waters stated in a text to parents and a media release. “Ms. Sikes had a profound impact on everyone she met and loved her students fiercely.”

She was one of two people who lost their lives in the wreck, which occurred about 4:50 p.m. on Georgia Route 23, which is also U.S. Highway 301 at that point, just south of Glennville in Tattnall County. The other person who died was identified by the Georgia State Patrol as Ashley August Hartmeyer, 35, of Reidsville.

The Evans County school district was providing additional counselors, pastors and support staff to the students and faculty at Claxton High to assist grieving individuals, Waters stated.

He also announced that the high school would close early Thursday, March 17, at 1 p.m., to allow teachers, staff and students who wish to attend a 2 p.m. memorial service for Sikes to do so. That service was tentatively slated for 2 p.m. at Rehoboth Baptist Church. The school district will provide a school bus to transport students to and from the memorial service on Thursday, but students will need to arrange a ride home from Claxton High. All of the school’s athletic events had been cancelled through Friday.

Sikes, 42, was in her 10th year working for the Evans County school system. As an instructional coach, she worked directly with other teachers on their teaching techniques but also was teaching one class, for students interested in teaching as a profession, Waters said.

She also had a son, Cade, who is a current Claxton High student and baseball player, as well as an older daughter, Macy Barrow, and a granddaughter, McKinsey. There were unconfirmed reports that Sikes was on her way to a Claxton Tigers baseball game at Darien when the crash occurred.

Waters' first message to parents, Monday night, referred to Sikes as “a well-respected and loved teacher, a faithful mentor, an awesome instructional coach, and a devoted Claxton Tiger fan.”

“Her presence will truly be missed,” he wrote.

According to the preliminary accident report filed by Georgia State Patrol Trooper James Miller II of Post 18, Reidsville, the crash occurred when Sikes, driving south on the highway in a Chevrolet Blazer, traveled into the northbound lane and sideswiped a northbound Kenworth construction truck. Sikes' vehicle then crashed frontend-to-frontend with Hartmeyer’s Toyota Highlander, which was northbound.