Amanda Menihan: familiar teacher, new school

This year, in replacement of Jane Coppinger, Silver Creek High School gets a beloved math teacher from Altona Middle School, Amanda Menihan.

After teaching at Altona Middle School for 10 years, Amanda Menihan graduates to high school.

Over a phone call with a fellow math teacher and friend, Menihan found out about the vacancy in the math department.

“… [Ending up at Silver Creek] was kind of an accident…” Menihan said. “I love teaching algebra so I applied for it.”

Three years into working at Altona, Menihan moved with her then husband to Virginia, due to his job in the military, and taught at a tiny private school. She was the sole teacher, with students between grades fifth through eighth, all in one classroom. As the only teacher, she had to teach all the subjects: science, English, math, and social studies.

“It’s the hardest job I’ve ever had,” Menihan stated. “It was a really tough job trying to teach all those subjects.”

However Menihan worked there for 7 years and loved it.

“It was a great school,” she said. “It was very nurturing for the kids. I think [they] really enjoyed it.”

But now that she’s here she gets to reunite with former students from Altona.

“I love seeing old students, and I love having them,” she said. “I have 30% of them in my class right now, kids that I taught before, which is really fun.”

Menihan has two kids, a daughter that graduated and a sophomore son at Silver Creek.

Menihan is always trying to learn new things, in her personal life as well.

Currently she’s taking guitar lessons with Jason Olson and has been for six years on top of trying to learn Spanish.

She has an old dog that wakes her up every morning, and three cats meowing forof breakfast.
Silver Creek welcomes Amanda Menihan with open arms, excited to spend the year with her.