When Jill Plattner moved to Bend in 2000 to teach math at Mountain View High School, she unwittingly started on a path that would lead to becoming the matriarch of a family deeply involved in the Bend-La Pine school district.

Plattner’s daughter, Amber Linn, followed in her mother’s footsteps, becoming a teacher at Pine Ridge Elementary. Her husband, Gabe Linn, is also a teacher at Westside Village Magnet School. And nine of Plattner’s grandchildren attend Bend schools and represent a wide swath of the age spectrum — each year except fourth, fifth, seventh and eighth grades.

“It’s awesome,” Jill Plattner said. “I feel like I’m in grandma heaven.”

Plattner said she spent one year at Mountain View before moving on to become the district’s math curriculum specialist for seven years. She retired after that.

Before arriving in Central Oregon, she taught at Portland Community College, and said she applied for the Mountain View position after deciding she wanted to live in Bend.

Although her husband had a full-time job as a bus driver for the Mt. Bachelor ski area, he served as a long-term substitute German teacher for a semester at Mountain View, Plattner said.

After Plattner settled in Bend, her three daughters eventually followed with their families in tow.

Linn, who is teaching first grade at Pine Ridge after spending a decade teaching fourth grade for the school, moved to Bend from Boise, Idaho, and said she’s enjoyed working for Bend-La Pine Schools.

“Anyone who moves here, I’m like, ‘You’ll be so stoked on the public school system here,’” she said. “It’s an awesome place to work and live. I feel really lucky to have a job here.”

Linn has two students at Pine Ridge: Gabby and Henry Linn , a kindergartner and second-grader, respectively.

Plattner also has two grandchildren at Buckingham Elementary (first-grader Jacob Tranby and third-grader Jayden Tranby), one at Pilot Butte Middle School (sixth-grader Olivia Tranby), two at Mountain View (Hannah and Joel Tranby, in ninth and 11th grades, respectively) and two at Summit High School (Brady and Leah Pfeiffer, a sophomore and senior, respectively).

There’s a tenth grandchild, but he doesn’t attend a Bend-La Pine school — he’s a fifth-grader at a charter school.

Leah Pfeiffer, a pole vaulter for the Storm track team, said having a family deeply connected to her school district has been convenient.

“It’s kind of been helpful,” she said. “Grandma helps me with math. When I was in fourth grade, (April Linn) knew what we were learning.”

Plattner said her extended family has kept her connected to her former district.

“I get to spend a lot of time with (my family),” she said. “I go on field trips with the kids, I’ve helped Amber in her math classes.”

For Leah Pfeiffer, the situation is normal.

“I haven’t really thought of it any other way,” she said.

— Reporter: 541-617-7854;jhogan@bendbulletin.com