MONUMENT – With a couple of new teachers, steady enrollment and the continuation of some successful programs, Monument School is set for the new school year.

In his second year as superintendent and principal at Monument School, Michael Reule said that the school’s enrollment is holding steady at 59 students for 2008-2009. Last year the school had 54, but seven of those graduated – a relatively large class for the school.

Among the nine teachers on the staff, preschool through grade 12, are two new faces.

Rachel Marble brings nine years of teaching experience to the Monument School table. As with many teachers in a small-town school like Monument, Marble wears several hats. She teaches biology, physics, anatomy and physiology, study skills, computers and personal finance. On top of that, she coaches girls volleyball.

Marble, who is from Clackamas County, has taught in Beaverton, Clatskanie and most recently, at La Salle Catholic College Preparatory School in Milwaukie for three years.

Before landing in Monument, Marble said she looked all over Eastern Oregon.

“I just wanted to move out of the big city,” she said.

She’s enjoying life and teaching in Monument, and she added, “The kids are just great.”

The other new face is Trisha Glover, who is from the Pendleton area.

The new kindergarten teacher, Glover also will head up the Title 1 program.

Her previous teaching experience was in the Hermiston area where she taught in the Echo School District and was the Title 1 coordinator.

Glover said she’s sure her previous Title 1 experience got her the job in Monument.

Already easily settled with her young daughter in the quiet community, Glover said, “I just wanted to teach in a small town.”

“I really like the unity of the teachers here,” she said. “From day one, I’ve felt like I was part of the crew.”

With a small student body, Monument’s elementary program combines some classes – grades one and two, three and four, and five and six. Ruele said this allows the school to increase the numbers in each room, yet the children still are with similarly-aged peers and the class sizes remain comfortably small.

Of the continuing programs at Monument School, Reule pointed out the successful “robotics club” headed up by Michele Engle, a fifth- and sixth-grade teacher. In the after-school program, students design and create catapults, rovers and other devices. Under Engle’s leadership, Reule said that Monument students have done well in statewide robotics competitions in recent years.

Improvements to the buildngs this year include new acoustic tiles in the gym and a recently installed scoreboard on the football field, Reule noted. The school is continuing its greenhouse and other agricultural programs too.

On a tour of the grounds, he paused in the woodshop quarters to show the local ranchers’ brands that students have been branding onto wooden planks that grace the walls of the shop.

“We may be small here, but we’re really able to offer a lot,” he said with pride.