Photo from MHS Yearbook

Graduated 2000, Faculty from 2007-present

Mr. Michael Hanley was a Mariemont student from kindergarten in 1987 to his senior graduation in 2000.

Hanley has been a social studies teacher at Mariemont High School for 16 years. He currently teaches 5 classes—3 sections of junior CP US history, and 2 sections of sophomore AP European history. In his time at the high school, he has taught every combination of freshman, sophomore, and junior history classes.

As of the 2019-2020 school year, Hanley adopted the role of social studies department chair from Mrs. Amy Leatherwood. This means he spends many of his study halls and plan bells “making sure that [the social studies department is] on budget, making sure that teachers are given the resources that they need, and being the liaison between the social studies teachers and the administration.”

Dr. Renner—the current principal of Mariemont High School—was hired as Assistant Principal during Hanley’s junior year. Hanley explains that a notable similarity between his time as a student and his time now as faculty is the strong administrative leadership.

Other than that, Hanley explains that the students are still committed to academics. He suggests that the students “still push each other” and that he doesn’t think “there has been any drop off in terms of academic ability or potential.” He contributes much of that academic success to the surrounding communities’ continued investment in the district even when he was in school. 

As for the faculty, Hanley explains that they are younger now than many of his teachers were when he was in school. He described a large turnover of about 10 teachers who have retired in the last 15 years, making room for a new, younger generation of faculty at the high school.

When asked about a historical event that shaped Mariemont High School into what it is today, Hanley explained that schools and school security throughout the nation was altered after the Columbine High School massacre. Hanley was only a junior in high school in April 1999, when the first large scale school shooting was reported at Columbine High School in Colorado. Although it had no connection to Mariemont directly, Hanley reports that just “the realization that that could happen at a school was pretty eye opening.” After that story broke he remembers school security becoming more of a central concern. Even today students can see how this event, and others like it, have affected school security with the recent installation of AI weapon detectors at the entrances of Mariemont High School.

As for defining events during his time as faculty, Hanley explains that, although “cliche,” Covid has been the most historically significant event in recent years. He explains that it was significant in the way that it “stopped [traditional] instruction,” but it was more significant in the way that “the students and teachers got through it.” He said it demonstrated “how blessed [Mariemont was] that [they] were able to continue learning through zoom,” insinuating that continued instruction would not have been as successful during his time as a student without the technology available today. He continued by pointing out that this demonstrated how “everybody [in the Mariemont School district] was still committed to the educational process” even in desperate times.

The threat of Covid coincided with the building of the new Mariemont High School. In the old building, Hanley explains that he had a “tiny little corner-piece-of-the-pie funky room,” where “social distancing would not have worked.” Without the finalization of the new building, Hanley doesn’t believe Mariemont could have returned to normalcy as quickly as it did.

Hanley concludes by explaining that Mariemont is a “special place.” His wife, his children and him could have chosen to live anywhere, but they chose the Mariemont district because, in his own words, “It was such a positive experience for me and I want to recreate that and make it even better for my kids.”