It is a typical day at Miramonte High School when Jilliane Smith, chemistry teacher at Miramonte, leaves her classroom at lunch to find Jamie Mather, history and leadership teacher at Miramonte. As the two dine together, many people comment and even question their status: Are they related? Do they like each other?

Over labor day weekend, these two lovebirds journeyed down to Paso Robles to celebrate their marriage with family and friends. Ms. Smith and Mr. Mather are just married!

This is Mather’s third year of teaching freshman World History and the leadership class for the school. As a child, Mather grew up in Morro Bay and attended California Polytechnic State University. Mather originally taught at Freedom High School in Oakley for two years before coming to Miramonte. This is Smith’s second year teaching chemistry at Miramonte in addition to also teaching Special Education one year prior to teaching chemistry. She grew up in Orange County and also attended Cal Poly for college.The two met at college and began dating their first year there.

“We met on the first day of college,” Smith shared, “he asked me to go to the beach and get burritos, I couldn’t say no of course! The beach and burritos are my two favorite things!” Smith said. Through college Smith explained, they became a serious couple and eventually got engaged. “Working with Jamie on campus is fun and there is always a lot to talk about,” Smith said. Carpooling to and from school and sharing common ground is Smith’s favorite part of being on the same campus as Mather. “I love running into her in the halls and teachers’ room and just catching up for a few minutes before returning to work, it is super convenient,” Mather said. “Returning home at the same time and talking about our day is easy and fun because we know the same people and students which makes it easy to relate.” Aki Neugebauer, like many other students at Miramonte, had both Smith and Mather as teachers. “I didn’t realize they were engaged until I overheard someone mention it a couple months into our school year. There are times when she will stop by our classroom and say hi, and other times I will see them walking to the teachers room for lunch, I think it is so cute,” Neugebauer said.

This year the two are both planning on teaching their same classes in addition to returning as newlyweds. “I love coming home and sharing our days with each other and being able to communicate easily because we are familiar with students and teachers on campus,” Smith said.