After 35 years teaching, ‘Netter’ keeps going strong as classroom aide

After Annette Neighbarger retired from Mount Vernon City Schools on May 31, 2015, she cried for a month.

“I wasn’t ready to retire,” said the 35-year physical education teacher, coach and athletic director, known throughout the community by the nickname Netter. “But I had been diagnosed with COPD and had both knees replaced the year before. I didn’t think I could contribute like I had. I couldn’t teach PE sitting down.”

In the midst of Netter’s despair, then-middle school Principal Gary Hankins offered an idea.

“He suggested that I apply through the Knox Educational Service Center to be an academic assistant and classroom aide,” she said.

The ESC screens and hires aides for the county’s public school districts. While they are ESC employees, their hourly rates are paid by the respective districts.

Netter took Hankins’ advice. Her hiring was a no-brainer. Within three months of her full-time retirement she was working again at the middle school. Last month she was among five classroom aides recognized by ESC Superintendent Dr. Timm Mackley for 10 years of service.

“When I retired in 2015 I figured that I had had about 12,000 students during my 35 years,” Netter said. “I am so thankful that I was able to come back and continue the work that I love.”

Netter begins her day at 6 a.m., completing paperwork and checking grades before she assists math teacher Don Marn during three periods of RTI (response to intervention) math for students who need additional help. She then returns to her own room to work with eighth-graders who require academic support.

She monitors the entire sixth-grade class – about 270 kids — during lunch then devotes afternoons to tutoring sixth- and seventh-graders in whatever academic areas they need assistance.

“I’m old school strict,” she admitted. “People who come by my room will say, ‘This room is so quiet.’ I tell them, ‘Yes. We’re working.’”

Netter has a soft side too. There are several boxes of small treats for students who complete their work, including special treats for those who are diabetic.

After graduating from Mount Vernon City Schools in 1975 and Ohio State University four years later, she began building a Yellow Jackets legacy that would span three and a half decades. While teaching physical education she started the middle school girls basketball program and served 20 years as high school volleyball coach and athletic director. For one season while at Mount Vernon she was Fredericktown’s girls varsity basketball coach.

Netter was the YMCA’s summer camp director for 20 years before leaving when she disagreed with how the camp’s structure was altered. Three years ago she was asked to resume her role as director.

Her longtime nickname originated when middle school basketball players began calling her Netter, a respectful deference to “Coach Neighbarger.”

“I told them that was OK but only on the basketball court,” she said. “But it wasn’t long before they would call me Netter in the hallways. Soon it spread throughout the school.”

Neighbarger, a resident of Apple Valley, is known simply as Netter throughout Knox County. Her car’s license plate bears the familiar moniker.

Sixteen of Netter’s former students are teachers or office staff at the middle school, including all three of the PE teachers.

How long does she expect to continue working? She chuckles as the pulls up an app on her phone that counts how many days remain until the start of the 2026-27 school year.

“I plan to be here. This is my 46th year. I still love it. I still get excited,” Netter said. “I love the kids. I’m still helping them and that’s what’s important.

“People ask me when I’m going to retire. I say I don’t know. I guess I’ll retire when I’m told that I’m no longer effective.”