McCumber

PRAIRIE CITY — The Prairie City School District has three new hires headed into the 2022-2023 school year.

Rhonda McCumber is set to take over as the elementary school principal, Heather Mosley will teach second grade and Mandi Loud has accepted a post as the Title I teacher for the district.

McCumber is taking on an administrator role in Prairie City after 24 years with the Grant School District, where she started as a lunch lady in 1997 and worked her way up to special education director for Grant Union High School.

McCumber said being an administrator wasn’t necessarily one of her goals when she first started with the school district.

“I’ve just kind of evolved as time has gone on through the years,” she said. “I never had an end goal of being a principal, necessarily, but that’s just kind of how it evolved.”

“I”m very excited,” McCumber said. “I already know a lot of the staff up there, and I have worked with a several of them in the past. I have a lot of respect for (Superintendent Casey) Hallgarth and a lot of the programs they’ve got going up there that I think are really forward-thinking, and I really looking forward to that.”

Transitioning to Prairie City doesn’t come without some sadness, however. McCumber said she will miss all the friends and connections she’s made over the course of her time in Grant School District. “I’ve made really, really close friendships in the last 25 years at the John Day district, so that’s difficult as well.”

McCumber says the principal’s job is a little daunting, but she’s confident she’ll have strong support.

“There is a lot I don’t know, so there will be a lot of learning,” she said. “That doesn’t scare me at all. I feel like I pick things up relatively quickly and I’m willing to ask questions. I also feel very strongly that I’ll be very well supported by the staff in Prairie, and as I’m asking questions, they’ll be willing to help me every step of the way.”

One of the reasons McCumber chose Prairie City as her next destination is that it reminds her of her childhood in Mt. Vernon.

“I was born and raised in Grant County,” she said. “I attended Mt. Vernon Schools from K-12, and we were a very small K-12 school that was the heart of the community — and that’s what I see in Prairie City now. In 1991 our school consolidated with the John Day School District, and the community in Mt. Vernon just isn’t the same after that.”

Newly hired second grade teacher Heather Mosley was a teacher’s assistant at Humbolt Elementary in high school and student-taught at Prairie City Elementary last year as part of her master’s program. The 23-year-old is in her first teaching post following her college studies.

Mosley said retiring second grade teacher Sue Thompson suggested she should apply for the position at the beginning of the school year.

“I’d been kind of thinking about it all year. After being at the school and seeing all the teachers … there is so much support there, and the parents are very supportive, too. I decided to put in for the job after all that,” Mosley said.

“A lot of people around here know me,” she added.

Mosley grew up in Grant County and has old connections to current administrators in Prairie City. Hallgarth was one her basketball coaches in high school, and McCumber was her volleyball coach.

Mosley said her goal is to have her students enjoy learning and provide a hands-on teaching strategy that makes her students excited to go to school every day.

Loud could not be reached for comment.