Little did Brian Brillhart know that when he attended Liberty Middle School in the late 1990s, he would be coming back.

But the Hutchinson native has returned and now feels he’s able to make a difference in the lives of eighth graders at Hutchinson Middle School – 8. Brillhart serves as a TACS educational aide at the school.

Brillhart is the 2012 Classified Employee of the Year for Hutchinson Public Schools.

Other nominees for the honor were Silvana Albert, aide at the Hutcherson Center; Lynn Booth, activities and athletics treasurer at Hutchinson High School; Mary Kay Dechant, speech language consultant at Hutchinson Magnet School at Allen; Stacey McAllister-Franklin, custodian at Avenue A Elementary School; Rhonda Philbrick, resource room para at HHS; Laurie Powell, media services/PDC specialist at the Administration Center; Chris Smith, custodian at Hutchinson Middle School — 7; Diana Wendell, developmentally delayed/kindergarten consultant at Faris Elementary School; and Juanita Williams, head main dish cook at Lincoln Elementary School.

The educational aide has his bachelor’s degree in English literature from Kansas State University. He spent two years at Hutchinson Community College after graduating from Hutchinson High School in 2003. In addition to Liberty, which was the name of the school when it housed both seventh and eighth grade students, Brillhart attended Morgan Elementary School from kindergarten through sixth grade.

Brillhart actually started out on a path toward secondary education at K-State. About the time when he had to make the choice of committing to the education track, it struck him that teaching was something foreign to his personality – he was shy and had a quiet childhood.

Ironically, he now feels that he could have taken the different path. Also while at K-State, a friend introduced him to a deeper Christian faith, which brought him out of his shell.

“I noticed almost immediately, my ability to talk with people,” Brillhart said.

The educator joined USD 308 in February 2008 as an English as a second language aide in multiple buildings. More recently, he transferred to HMS-8 as a TACS educational aide. As a TACS aide, his typical day starts with making sure the shelves are stocked with the foods the students need for cooking during the day.

The rest of his day is spent helping students on various TACS projects.

“I get to spent much of the day guiding students through computer work,” he said. “My leave favorite part – but important – is discipline. When there are 40 students in a class, you must set boundaries.

“But I do get to wander around and talk with them about what is going on. You can’t do that with direct instruction classes.”

Married, Brillhart and his wife of two years, Jenn, had their first child in April – a boy named Bethel. Both Brillhart and his wife have deep roots in Hutchinson.

As Brillhart walks the halls of HMS-8, he sees many people who invested in him more than a decade ago – people like Angie Engel, Tony Santangelo, Chanin Aumiller, Rochelle Berkley-Calhoun and Mark Thomas. He enjoys working with his former educators as a peer.

“It’s been really cool to do that reinvestment in something that has invested in me,” Brillhart said.