MATTHEW BURNETTE

Staff Writer

While apples are often a symbolic gift for educators, a pair of mother-daughter duos in the Manchester City School System are also proving that they don’t fall far from the tree.

The 2026-2027 school year marks Macy Brown’s second year as a teacher at Westwood Elementary. She picked Westwood due to its large Hispanic student population and a desire to teach at a diverse school.

Originally, though, Brown says she had other plans for her career path.

“I did not want to be a teacher, and then I was a substitute, and I was working at an afterschool program for two or three years,” she recalled. “I looked around one day, and I said, ‘This is what I want to do.’ I wanted to be the change.”

Brown’s mother, Meagan Shores, is also a teacher at Westwood. In fact, the two have classrooms that are next door to each other.

“She steals my supplies,” she joked.

Shores taught at Hillsboro Elementary for nearly two decades before making the switch over to the City School System and Westwood after some convincing from her daughter.

“She kept coming home and telling me how wonderful her administration is and how happy everyone was and that the students were learning so much and everybody could have a good time but still learn at the same time, and I was like ‘Let me in!’”

Just as Brown followed in her footsteps toward the education field, Shores followed in her mother’s as well.

“My mom drove our church bus and taught Sunday School and children’s church, and it was always really important to her to make sure that the kids always had what they needed and that they were supported,” she explained. “I always helped her, and I just learned to love the little babies.”

Shores says that she feels proud of her daughter and looks forward to watching her interact with her students.

“She builds their confidence and lets them know that she loves them, and so I think she makes a happy place for them,” she explained. “I’m excited to watch her teach and be the adult. I know she’s going to love her babies, and I just get to watch that and have all those memories.”

“It is neat,” added Brown. “We’ll get to make memories together with students, and I think that’ll be pretty special that we can be right next door and love on the same kids. It’s also incredibly helpful, and I’m excited for the helpfulness of it.”

Similar to Brown, Westwood teacher Avery Whitsett, who is starting her first year teaching, had different career plans starting out.

“I was originally in school to be a nurse, and I got into my nursing program and lasted about two and a half months,” she said. “I came home crying every day, and I was like ‘I can’t do this anymore,’ so I started subbing and working in the afterschool program. I told my mom ‘I think I want to teach.’”

Whitsett, who attended the same pre-K class with Brown at Westwood, funnily enough, says she wanted to teach at Westwood due to its familiarity.

“I worked here before in the afterschool Journeys program, and I went to school here as a kid, so it just feels like home to me,” she explained. “This is where I’ve wanted to be since I decided I wanted to be a teacher. This was pretty much my dream job.”

“I’m just looking forward to getting started,” she added. “This is all I’ve look forward to since I went back to school to be a teacher, and I’m just excited to meet my little babies and love them.”

In addition to those similarities, Whitsett’s mother, Amy Whitsett, also teaches in the Manchester City School System as a speech language pathologist.

Much like her daughter and Brown, she took some time to decide what she wanted to pursue while in college.

“I changed my major about three times when I was in college, and finally, I went to my adviser, and I said print me off a sheet of things I can be that require the least amount of math classes,” she remembered. “This was on the list and Friday nights I worked at a little jewelry store in McMinnville with a retired librarian, and I said “Mrs. Betty, pick what I should be.’ She went through the list and she said, ‘I think you’d make a great speech pathologist,’ and here I am.”

The older Whitsett has been in the city school system for 27 years, 21 at Westwood and now serves the entire district. She says teaching isn’t something she ever envisioned her daughter doing.

“I would have never chosen this profession if you had asked me to list the five things I thought Avery would be, but she did her student teaching here at Westwood and also at College Street, and just going through the halls last year and hearing people say ‘Avery’s doing such a great job’ and ‘She’s going to be a great teacher,’ I feel like this is where she’s supposed to be, and it does make me very proud,” she explained with a smile.

“I’m just excited,” she added. “I will probably have to come in here and do some observations for some of her kids that get referred, so I’m looking forward to being able to come in and watch her do her thing and influence these young children.”