Keeping teaching in the family

Kimberly Matchen is one of the faces that students at Vestavia Hills Elementary Central see in the front office every day. When they head to Pizitz Middle for sixth grade, those students get to meet another member of the Matchen family in their gym: Katie Matchen, Kimberly’s daughter.

Katie is finishing up her first year at Pizitz, where she teaches physical education and coaches girls’ volleyball, softball and basketball. Last year, she worked at Liberty Park Middle for her first year with the Vestavia Hills school system. Kimberly is in her 16th year in the Central front office. Both mother and daughter agree that they’re excited to come to work each day. 

“I think the easier question would be what I don’t like because there’s nothing I don’t like,” Katie said.

The Matchens are former Vestavia Hills residents, and Katie attended the city’s schools through her 2008 high school graduation. Kimberly began working at Central when her daughter was in fifth grade there. Katie was too shy to talk to her during the day, but Kimberly said she still enjoyed seeing her children throughout their day.

“[Katie] was totally opposite of her brother. Her brother would love to come in and say “Hey,” Kimberly said. “She was incognito.”

Even after her kids left Central and graduated from high school, Kimberly stayed because she enjoyed her job more than the “other world” she left, as a State Farm administrative secretary.

“There’s just something different about this. Your heart is in it, the kids are just so wonderful,” Kimberly said.

Besides Kimberly, Katie’s grandmother and two of her aunts are in education and one of her uncles is a coach. Katie said her family was not what influenced her to be a teacher — she originally wanted to be an athletic trainer — but she felt the same calling.

“I just felt the need for it, and I’ve always felt a passion to coach kids and give back to the sport [softball] that gave me so much,” Katie said.

Having already been a Vestavia student, Katie knew that was where she wanted to work. She said she feels like all the teachers at Pizitz are working toward a common goal, and she enjoys the kids she teaches. A corkboard in her office is dotted with notes, cards and drawings from students expressing their appreciation for her. Each day, she sees 541 kids and has “541 favorites.”

“It’s been wonderful to our family,” Kimberly said.

Being at different schools, the Matchens don’t see each other much from day to day. However, they attend school system events together, and Katie said it’s great to have her mother’s years of experience working at Vestavia Hills when she has a question or encounters something new. At the end of the day, they also almost exactly understand each other’s stresses.

“You don’t have to say much. It’s an understood thing,” Katie said.

Both Kimberly and Katie described their schools and the Vestavia school system as a family. For them, it’s just a bit more literal than for most.

“It’s cool in the sense of along with that family atmosphere, I really do have a family member working in the system,” Katie said.