MOUNT VERNON – Dr. Timm Mackley, superintendent of the Knox Educational Service Center, linked the future to the past this week by reminding teachers and classroom aides that their impact on children will endure.

“Your students will remember you,” he told employees of the ESC’s Knox Learning Center and Knox ESC Preschool who gathered for Monday’s start-of-the-school year breakfast at Mount Vernon Nazarene University.

Mackley emphasized the positive influence teachers had on him while he was growing up in Massillion.

“I remember each of my elementary teachers, although I think it was about the fourth grade before I realized they had personal lives outside of school,” he said, drawing laughter from the audience of more than 100.

Mackley, a 1969 graduate of Jackson High School in Massillion, used a large screen to display black-and-white yearbook photos of the high school teachers who influenced his life. Among them was history teacher Mel Herncane, who attended Monday’s breakfast at Mackley’s invitation.

It was band director Charles Temple who had the greatest impact on Mackley’s career, prompting the young trombonist to earn a degree in education while a member of Ohio State University’s marching band. Mackley went on to a public school career as a band director, principal and superintendent before taking the reins of the ESC in 2010.

“Mr. Temple, Mr. Herncane and other teachers had a direct impact on my life,” Mackley told ESC staff members. “Always remember the influence you can have on your students.”

Among Monday’s audience were 18 new employees of the two programs the ESC operates: Knox Learning Center, a K-12 alternative school in the former Mount Vernon West elementary building, and Knox Preschool at the New Hope Early Childhood Education Center, Centerburg, East Knox and Fredericktown.

New Learning Center staff include:

– Makenzie Arnold, middle school ED teacher

– Katie Ball, educational aide

– Sara Carnes, educational aide

– Robert Foreman, high school ED teacher

– Kim Hood, Transition U teacher

– Carolyn O’Brien, grades 4-5 ED teacher

– Cindy Pilotti, educational aide

– Matthew Visconti, high school ED teacher

– Devon Wippel, middle school ED teacher

– Payton Woodruff, middle/high school ED teacher

– Maddie Shuman, educational aide

New staff at Knox Preschool include:

– Heather Flanagan, educational aide, Centerburg

– Meghan Hall, teacher, Centerburg

– Lauren Heffelfinger, itinerant teacher

– Sharon Miller, teacher, New Hope

– Lydia Neighbarger, educational aide, New Hope

– Jennifer Rita, teacher, New Hope

– Georgia Stiltner, bus aide, New Hope

New related service staff are:

– Paige Oswalt, occupational therapy assistant, New Hope

– Crystal Bischoff, occupational therapy assistant, Danville

– Natalie Maxwell, speech therapist

– Natalie Trick, occupational therapy

Knox ESC also provides support services for its client districts: Centerburg, Clear Fork, Danville, East Knox, Fredericktown and Mount Vernon, as well as the Knox County Career Center.