LONG CREEK – The count is up to 14 … 14 more students than last year.

So far.

For Long Creek School, that’s a veritable surge in enrollment – perhaps the highest increase seen in recent years.

Superintendent and principal Brian Gander said that for preschool through grade 12, the school this year has 52 students.

Eight are foreign exchange students. But many of the added students are from families who have recently moved to the Long Creek area.

This is exciting news for Gander and the school, and also the community.

Long Creek also has added one new teacher. Eugene Russell teaches a variety of subjects and grade levels: high school biology, accounting, welding and a leadership class. For middle schoolers, he also will teach introduction to agriculture science.

He joins a team of teachers in an exploratory program at Long Creek School. Four groups of students in grades 1-8 rotate every few weeks or so through different vocational classes. Russell will teach the woodshop class.

“It’s a lot of prep work for a new teacher, handing four to five subjects,” Gander said. “The kids like him. It’s been a smooth start for him.”

Russell has a master’s degree in business administration and his professional technical educator’s license from Oregon State University. He also has work experience in the field of forestry, both public and private.

Russell and his wife Susan moved to Long Creek from Corvallis in mid-August.

Meanwhile, one of the biggest new projects at Long Creek School this year is to build a greenhouse. The materials and framework have already arrived. Eventually, the school will set up bins for composting and worms, plot out terraced gardens, build cold frames, and even plant an orchard.

The project was mostly the brainchild of Russell, but Tina Lau, who teaches horticulture,science and math, also will have a hand in the new projects.

“Our main focus is to get the greenhouse going. Everyone’s excited about it,” Gander said.

And indeed, the staff is eager to get going on the project.

Lau and Russell took several high schoolers on a field trip last week to gain information and ideas for their new agriculture-based ventures. They toured orchards in Kimberly and learned about beekeeping and honey harvesting from Andy Schutz of the Flying Bee Ranch in Monument.

Long Creek’s foreign student enrollment is up by one this year, and one of last year’s students, Chi Guk Sung from South Korea, is back at Long Creek for his senior year.

Still another of last year’s group, Chi Nguyen from Vietnam, has returned to the area – this time as a student at Eastern Oregon University in La Grande.

Long Creek School students have opportunities to explore their creative side too. The school continues its art program under the direction of visiting artist and teacher, Jan Stiver. Gander said a new music program will be introduced in the coming weeks.