The Haines school board hired Alexandria Tannehill as the new high school science teacher. Mark Fontenot is retiring at the end of the school year after 26 years of teaching.
Tannehill will begin teaching high school science next year, including earth science, biology, physical science, chemistry and physics.
Tannehill teaches grades 6-12 in Hoonah. She said she is sad to leave Hoonah, but looks forward to new opportunities in Haines, including raising her two children here.
“My mother is a kindergarten teacher and seeing her love her job every day encouraged me to seek a similar path in life,” Tannehill said in an interview this week.
Tannehill began student teaching during her senior year at Air Academy High School in Colorado Springs. She then attended the University of Colorado and graduated in 2014 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Biology and Secondary Science Education.
She began her teaching career in Metlakatla where she also coached the girls’ basketball team. While traveling as a coach, she became enamored of Haines.
“I have visited Haines on several occasions during my coaching experience,” Tannehill said. “I remember the kindness of the Haines community distinctly in my mind.”
Tannehill has also taught at Chatfield Senior High School in Denver, Colorado, where she also coached girls’ basketball.
Tannehill returned to Alaska and began teaching in Hoonah. “I am leaving with extremely bittersweet feelings,” she said. “I love this community and all the people I get to serve in it.”
Tannehill and her family are looking for housing in Haines, so she is unsure when they will move. She said she will be spending July in Colorado.