Jeannine Miller, one of Tualatin’s art teachers for the past 19 years, is retiring. 

Miller started teaching at TuHS in 2001. She spent the 2012-13 school year teaching at Twality Middle School, and after that year she came back to Tualatin, where she has continued to inspire the talented artists of TuHS over the years. 

Miller was not always planning to be a teacher. She worked for the U.S. Forest Service as a Civil Engineer for many years, spending time working on the Oregon Coast and in Ketchikan, Alaska. Miller was originally going to go back to school to get her environmental engineering degree, but she changed her mind after she had her twin boys. Instead, she decided to earn her teaching credentials in art (and math!), which led her to becoming one of Tualatin’s beloved art teachers. 

Over the course of her career teaching art, Miller and her students have had many great accomplishments. She volunteered much of her time to working on the Student Visual Chronicle with the City of Tualatin. She was very involved in the arts and community work, and she earned a Tualatin City Enhancement Award for all of her work in 2014. Also, in 2016, she had the honor of being named the Oregon Art Educator of the Year. Additionally, in 2018, senior Jake Dering won a national award in the Scholastic Art and Writing Competition, which is a Tualatin art accomplishment that Miller is very proud of. 

Along with all of her highlights, Miller has many great memories from working as an art teacher. During her year at Twality Middle School, her students made batik quilts that were sent to the “Healing Newtown” effort in response to the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting that occurred on Dec. 12, 2012. 

“We made two quilts for the Sandy Hook Elementary gallery, and our quilts were picked to go to the national show,” Miller said of the Twality art students’ touching project. Miller also loved teaching art seminar classes. She had an especially great time teaching the junior art seminar class last school year. 

“We had a great group of artists,” she said of the class. Overall, Miller says her favorite part of teaching art at Tualatin was “developing relationships with [her] students and seeing [her] students work hard. There are so many talented artists at TuHS.”

In her retirement, Mrs. Miller hopes to continue doing the things she loves. 

“I want to continue showing horses in the oregon quarter horse shows, and I want to do a lot of painting. I’m interested in teaching private classes and painting commission pieces, and I’m excited to set up my studio. Along with continuing working with watercolors, I would love to dive into oil paints,” Miller said. 

Sadly, Mrs. Miller’s time at Tualatin High School was cut short, just like her fellow retirees and the class of 2020. 

“It was terrible for the year to end so abruptly, and I feel even worse for all of the seniors who lost the end of their last year of high school,” she said. 

Miller was loved by her students and will definitely be missed by the TuHS community. Two of Miller’s students who have taken classes from her throughout their time in high school expressed their appreciation for Miller. 

Senior Annie Pegis said, “Mrs. Miller has been one of my favorite teachers throughout high school. She is always willing to have a conversation; whether it’s about art, her horses or asking her students about their lives. She has made me feel valued and more like a friend rather than just a student. Her kindness and positivity radiates wherever she goes and I’m so lucky to have had her as a teacher.”

Additionally, senior Kira Shetler shared why she appreciates Miller.

“I have had Mrs. Miller as a teacher since freshman year. Her personal skills as an artist have helped me to grow in my techniques and appreciation of art as a whole. She always implemented fun things to try in every class. She advocated to go on field trips in order for us to gain new perspectives—sometimes even three in a year! She always wanted to celebrate our accomplishments and make us feel known in her classroom. I will miss hearing updates about her horses!”

Pegis, Shetler and countless other Tualatin students have had the pleasure of learning from Miller and being inspired by her. Mrs. Miller will be missed in the years to come, but Tualatin is lucky to have had her as a teacher for so many years. Thank you, Mrs. Miller!