Charles City names new Spanish, English teachers for 2021-22

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

At Monday’s meeting of the Charles City School District Board of Directors, the board approved two new teachers who will start at the beginning of the 2021-22 school year.

The board officially approved the appointment of Molly Staudt, Charles City High School Spanish teacher and Carly Marten, Charles City Middle School language arts teacher, at a salaries yet to be determined, effective Aug. 12.

Staudt will be teaching high school students Spanish as a world language. She grew up in Forest City, and the Buena Vista graduate has taught in the Des Moines Public Schools for three years. At Buena Vista, Staudt earned a BA in K-12 Spanish Education.

She said she was impressed with the high-quality Spanish educational curriculum Charles City offers to students.

Staudt is fully bilingual in Spanish and is also endorsed to teach English as a second language. She said she is excited to be in a smaller community and looks forward to feeling connected with the community where she lives and works.

Staudt already has several family connections in the community. Her husband, Jake, will start a medical school clinical rotation at Mercy Hospital in Mason City. She has a one-month-old son, Colson.

Marten will come to Charles City with experience teaching in both urban and rural schools. She taught in Jacksonville, North Carolina, and is currently teaching in Winterset.

A graduate of West Marshall High School, Marten continued her education at Iowa State University, graduating with a BA in English Education. She is currently earning her Master’s in Education Administration from the University of Northern Iowa.

Marten will be joining the 8th-grade team at the CCMS, teaching English/Language Arts, and said she wants to impact the lives of her students in the same positive way the “great educators she grew up with” did.

“Many places have chosen us over the years. Charles City is where we are choosing to settle our family,” Marten said. “We’ve been looking forward to this for a long time, and it’s finally coming together.”

Marten and her husband, Evan, are expecting their first child this summer. Evan will begin as the new Charles City Community Schools Finance Director in April, and Marten said that “Charles City’s positive family atmosphere” is where they want to raise their children.

She said that Northeast Iowa is a huge draw for her family, and she appreciates how Charles City embraces the landscape of diversity.