Cross Country Coach Matt Nienhaus is the 2023-2024 Teacher of the Year.
Administrators and those close to Nienhaus surprised him during Mod 1 of Ac Lab on Tuesday, Feb. 20. Nienhaus was given a math-themed tie and balloons by Associate Principal Dr. Michael Wegener.
Nienhaus comes from a family of teachers. Both his mother and father were math teachers in the Ladue School District.
Nienhaus’s mom Joan Nienhaus was in attendance during his recognition. She said she believes her son picked up teaching from both his parents.
“My husband just loved teaching mathematics, as did I. But I also had to raise a family at one point,” Joan said.
Joan said she tortured her son with math while he was growing up, showcasing math to her son at a young age.
Nienhaus started teaching 30 years ago, after graduating from Mizzou. He has taught at MHS every year the school has existed except for the 93-94 inaugural school year.
He also drives a bus for track and field, teaches the math ACT prep class and is a custodian after school.
Despite being highly involved at MHS, he is not a big fan of the attention.
“I just kind of do my job and hopefully, it’s good enough,” he said.
Vismaya Vinod, junior, was in Nienhaus’s Ac Lab when the administration surprised Nienhaus as Teacher of the Year.
“I think he’s very well deserving of the Teacher of the Year award,” Vinod said.
Vinod had Nienhaus for the ACT prep class and said he always made an effort to help the students when they didn’t understand the concepts of the test.
There are multiple steps to naming the Teacher of the Year. First, students and staff nominate teachers through a Google form. Then, staff narrows the nominations down, this year to 29 teachers. Finally, a top 5 is created through another round of staff voting.
Principal Dr. Tracy Waeckerle said Nienhaus is a deserving candidate.
“He’s worked really hard in and out of the classroom to make Marquette a better place and we’re very proud of him,” Dr. Waeckerle said.
