91 years of memories: Saying good-bye to Monitor School

By Steve Ritchie

Peggy Glaede’s personal history is so intertwined with Monitor School that the school’s impending closure makes her feel like she is “losing a relative or close friend.”

Silver Falls School District will close Monitor School at the end of the school year. Next year its students will attend Scotts Mills or Butte Creek.

Glaede, who currently teaches 23 children in a combined K-2 class at the school, said her mother’s family homesteaded the land the school occupies. Her grandfather sold a parcel of land to the Monitor School District for $800, and the original building, which was later expanded, was constructed in 1919.

Glaede not only attended the school for grades six through eight, she also met her husband, Warren, at the school nearly 30 years ago when she worked there as an aide and he was a young teacher.

Warren Glaede is now in his 33rd year of teaching at Monitor. Peggy left the school to raise a family and to assume other teaching positions only to return to Monitor each time. Their life revolves around their family and their work, with Peggy noting that she is “the first one here in the morning and Warren is the last one to leave in the evening.”

As teachers of multi-grade classrooms, the Glaedes are well acquainted with both the social benefits and the academic challenges of teaching in a school of just 70 students.

“You have to juggle . . . when you think of (having) a kindergartner, just leaving his mother, and a second grader (together), they are just worlds apart,” Peggy Glaede said.

While she notes having a class of just second graders would be easier, Glaede sees value in getting her students to buy into the notion that they “are like one big family and we need to work together and help each other.

“I’m conflicted because I love this school. I know that I’m going to cry my eyes out when it closes. Three times I have come back to this school because I love it. I love the small school, the families and the students. I also love that it is a melting pot of Russian, Hispanic and Anglo kids. In my room, at times, we speak three languages and learn to count in three languages.”

Warren Glaede also has strong feelings about the school, likening it to living in a house for 30 years.

“There are a whole lot of memories here. You can walk around from room to room and remember this happened here and this happened there.”

To celebrate Monitor School’s 91-year history and to give folks a chance to share their memories, Principal Kevin Palmer and the staff thought something special needed to happen. They are busy planning a community celebration for Saturday, June 5, from noon to 3 p.m. at the school.

“We want this to be an event where Monitor students, staff, parents past and present can gather to see one another again, share stories, tour the school, celebrate their time here, and say goodbye to the school,” Palmer said.

“I think it’s important people have a chance to come out one final time, something that gives folks a sense of closure. We want this to be a positive event, and while I’m sure that many folks may feel sadness over the closure, our hope is that the event will be a positive, uplifting celebration as well.”

The Glaedes, with their long history at Monitor School, definitely feel sad about its closure, but they are also very upbeat about the future for their students and themselves.

Peggy will teach second grade at Eugene Field School next year, and says, “I’m looking forward to next year – I am sure I will like it. All the teachers I’ve met from that school are fantastic.”

Warren will move to Scotts Mills School, where he will teach a combined grade 6-7 class.  The K-4 students from Monitor School will also attend Scotts Mills School, while the students from grades 5-7 will head for Butte Creek School.

The Monitor School building itself will remain open for the immediate future.

“The Community Roots Charter School will continue to use the building next year,” Palmer said. “The Sowing Seeds Migrant Preschool, operated by the Willamette Education Service District, will also continue to be housed at Monitor.”

Palmer also noted “all teachers, assistants, and the custodian have been reassigned to other Silver Falls Schools, except Frieda Lanting, our 3-4-5 grade teacher, who is retiring after 22 years at Monitor.”