Agness School teacher Helaine Truthstone addresses the entire student body, four children from two local families. Truthstone and aide Clare Bowen make up the teaching staff for the one-room schoolhouse up the Rogue River from Gold Beach. World Photo by Lou Sennick

AGNESS - The girl with dark brown hair sighed in frustration as she looked at the piece of paper in front of her.

She glanced around the room, noting her fellow classmates' heads were bent over papers as they worked on their writing assignment.

"I don't know how to spell 'toward,'" Kelsey said, as she looked at the boy next to her.

With a chuckle, the boy said he did. Then he continued writing.

"Just tell me!" Kelsey demanded.

"T-o-w-a-r-d," spelled Quinn, a boy with light brown hair and a smattering of freckles across the bridge of his nose.

The room grew quiet again as the students went back to work. Teacher Helaine Truthstone and her aide, Clare Bowen, walked between the desks, stopping periodically to offer encouragement and answer questions.

"Wow, that's a good start!" Truthstone said as she walked by a student.

Scenes such as this are common in the elementary classrooms that span the South Coast from Florence to Brookings.

What makes Truthstone's slightly different than others is her class size at Agness School. She has just four students.

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Small evergreen trees line the dirt road that leads to a wooden "Agness School" sign on the chain-link fence. The isolated two-room building sits on a parcel of land that used to be part of the original Lucas Pioneer Lodge. Green grass marks an emergency airstrip a few hundred feet away from the school. Gold Beach, the closest community, is more than an hour away along a winding, pot-hole-filled asphalt road.

Most Agness children usually attend the small community school through the fifth grade, unless they can ride with an older sibiling who already makes the daily journey to Gold Beach's K-8 Riley Creek School.

But Agness School has its own pull, Truthstone said. For her, teaching at the school was a chance to be more involved with her students and their families.

"The school's more intensive and allows you to intimately get to know the students and their parents," she said. "It takes a special person to teach here."

Agness' main classroom is unremarkable in its likeness to classrooms found in any other school. There are a few blackboards in the front of the room and cheerful posters and bright artwork line the walls. Two large bookshelves on one side are filled almost to overflowing with textbooks, workbooks, teaching aides and more.

This year, the school has been home since kindergarten to the children of two local families - 10-year-old Kelsey Carl and her younger brother, Derek, 6; and identical 9-year-old twins Quinn and Kyle Johnston. Kelsey is in fourth grade, the twins are in third and Derek is a first-grader.

Each school day begins the same. At 9 a.m., the Agness bus driver drops off the students. After backpacks are hung on pegs and homework turned in, students do stretches and sing a few songs.

Then it is on to the day's lessons. Math is up first; followed by reading and language arts.

On a recent spring morning, Kelsey read a book quietly at her desk while in the next seat over, Derek was writing out the week's spelling words.

Quinn and Kyle sat at a table in the back of the room, taking turns reading aloud to Truthstone. Quinn, the more outgoing of the two, sounded out the words as he followed along in his book, resting his head in his hands. When it is Kyle's turn, the young boy used his finger and a piece of paper to keep track of his place. Periodically, Truthstone asked questions about the story the boys were reading, trying to make sure they understood what they read.

A little while later, it was time for the morning snack. The four pupils washed their hands in the classroom sink, grabbed their insulated lunch boxes and headed for the back table.

While they ate some applesauce and fruit, the twins told Truthstone and Bowen about a recent trip to Reno for a wrestling tournament. The conversation quickly involved Kelsey and Derek, who also wrestle, and several questions from their teacher and aide.

Once the snacks were gone, the students headed outside for recess. Playground entertainments vary from playing on the swings or slide to a game of basketball. On this day, the four chose to jump rope in the gravel road next to the slightly overgrown grass.

"I like going to school here," Quinn said. "It's kind of peaceful here. And I'm used to it. I like not having a lot of kids around. I don't get in trouble for tackling anyone. I don't get in trouble as much."

Kyle said his favorite subject is art.

"It's way fun to do and I get to paint," he added.

About 10 minutes later, Truthstone rang an old hand bell - and it's back to work for the students.

Afternoon lessons vary, Truthstone said, depending on the day. She also likes to find time for students to work on the computer and incorporate music and art concepts into the day.

Students recently worked on weaving projects using straws and yarn. Truthstone said past projects have included pastels, paints and other mixed media.

"I try and sneak in art concepts," said Truthstone, who has taught at Agness for the past four years. "If they can do it their way, then they can appreciate the experience of it."

One thing missing from the classroom is the constant buzz created by a large number of students in one place. Often the only sound to be heard is the loud tick from a wooden clock on the wall.

"I love it here," said Bowen. "It is such a happy place to come to every day."

Bowen, who has lived in Agness for more than two decades, became the aide at the school about six years ago. She said she finally got her two children's blessing to pursue the job once they had finished attending Agness.

"I had always wanted to work in this school," Bowen added.

Photographs of previous Agness classes hang on one wall. Bowen said this year's class is small, but it's not the smallest the school has ever had. One year, the school had one student, she said, and the largest class had 15 students.

"It kind of ebbs and flows," Bowen said. "We're ebbing right now."

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The Agness Elementary School started around the turn of the 20th century, when the local residents created the school for their children. Agness merged with the Central Curry School District in 1996 when the state mandated K-12 school districts.

Superintendent Bob Snyder said attending school there is really "like stepping back in time" to what schools were like almost 100 years ago when students of all grades were in one- or two-room buildings. Once a quarter, he said he makes the drive to visit the school and its students.

"It's such a wonderful little school," Snyder said. "It's too bad we can't capture some of its attributes and put them to work in the bigger schools."

The superintendent said the small school is important because it provides the district with an education option for young children in the isolated area. He said the district doesn't like busing small children for 90 minutes to and from school each day.

"It's inappropriate to transport a kindergartner three hours a day on a school bus," Snyder said.

But maintaining Agness School is expensive. Central Curry has been able to keep the school open because it receives extra state funding for the small school.

"We would lose money by cutting (Agness School) besides having to deal with the other issues," Snyder said. "There isn't a budget savings by cutting it. The only way we would lose money on it is if we lost the small school funding. And that's not a legitimate concern because there are so many of them in Oregon."

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While the others worked on math problems, Kelsey finished her spelling words and pulled out the book she was creating about a recent hike. As she finished coloring in the mountains of her picture, the fourth-grader said she likes going to school in Agness.

After all, she said, being the oldest student in the school is just fine by her - not that she lords it over the others. She doesn't even seem to mind having her younger brother as a classmate.

"Everyone here is friends," she said.

Her favorite subject is science. She said she likes working on experiments and projects.

But like other fourth-graders, her favorite subject of all is recess.

"We get to play and we don't have to do any work. I don't like school - it's boring. I'd rather be playing," Kelsey said with a big smile.

For Derek, going to school is the best part of the day.

"School is fun," said the first-grader with a smile, displaying a gap in his grin from a missing front tooth. "I get to do a lot of stuff. I love art. It's my favorite."

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To Truthstone, Agness School is a true reflection of the community. Most of the local residents turn out for the school's Christmas play and annual potluck. They also have local Native Americans come to the school to teach children about their history and culture. People have taught the students about square- and line-dancing as well.

"These kids are the crown jewels of this community," she said.

Bowen said having four students to work with is often a blessing.

"We know where their weak - and strong - points are," she said. "If we need to spend some extra time on reading, then we can do that."

Truthstone said she feels lucky that she has been able to develop a relationship with each of her students. She said she not only knows their likes and dislikes, but what kind of person each student is.

"I wish that every child could have this level of attention and support," she said. "I can give so much more attention to each student and get them the help they need. If someone has a problem area, I can focus on it.

"How can a teacher do that when they have 25 other squeaky wheels that need attention?" she asked.