The West Bend Current

For West Bend math teacher Kayla Koenig, this year is a whole new equation.

After 13 years of teaching special education, including eight at Silverbrook Intermediate School, Koenig has taken on the responsibility of teaching Geometry and Algebra 2 at West Bend East High School for the 2025-2026 school year.

This new chapter for Koenig has been filled with many firsts. This will be her first time teaching high school students, and her first time being the sole teacher of a math class. This required working hard to secure a certification in math education.

“For the eight years I worked at Silverbrook, seven of those years I co-taught sixth grade math,” Koenig said. “So I learned I really love teaching math.”

One of the struggles Koenig faced with the new position was the time frame. The school board approved Koenig’s switch a little less than two weeks before school started, which caused some challenges on its own.

“I am a person who likes to be very organized and very planned, so that has been hard because I didn’t have a lot of time to process everything,” Koenig said.

Koenig also says that her independent personality posed a struggle for her. This new switch up has led Koenig to needing more help than she is used to.

“I feel like I am also somebody who’s not great at asking for help,” Koenig said.

Despite these challenges, Koenig has many things she enjoys about teaching high school.

“I think it’s really cool to see and have those conversations with kids who I knew five years ago,” Koenig said.

Miller Happel is a current East ninth grader who was part of the same Silverbrook house that Koenig taught. He says that it’s nice to see a familiar face from Silverbrook.

Teaching high school also has a nostalgia factor for Koenig. She grew up in the West Bend School District and now works in the same building she attended as a West High School student. She is also co-workers with teachers who taught her while she was a high schooler. Now that she’s back in it, she says the building looks physically the same.

“I feel like 20 years later I am reliving it,” Koenig said.

She was conflicted when accepting the high school job because she would no longer be a West Spartan. Taking the math job would mean she would become a teacher at East High School, and therefore become a Sun.

Koenig is embracing the changes, though, and is excited to create new memories that go hand in hand with the old ones.

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Photo by Khyana Jimmerson, Current Staff.