Special to the Times
Union County High School’s Teacher of the Year spent 18 years teaching at Lake Butler Elementary before transferring to the high school.
Mark Harrison is now in his third year at UCHS, instructing seniors he taught 10 years ago when they were eight years old.
The government and economics teacher is a living reminder that education is a long game built on relationships, patience, and a lot of heart.
Harrison’s journey began in 2004, when he graduated from the University of Florida with a history degree and began substitute teaching.
“I started subbing and then got hired at Lake Butler Elementary,” he recalled.
For the next 18 years, Harrison taught third grade at the primary school campus, shaping the young minds of the very students he now teaches again—this time as teenagers ready to take on the world.
“That’s really the biggest thing for me,” Harrison said. “Understanding that even though some of these kids are 18 and some of them are taller than me, they’re the same person inside that I knew when they were eight.”
This full-circle experience is not lost on Harrison, who marvels at the rare opportunity to watch his former elementary students grow into adults.
“Senior year is a celebration, and I love being a part of that,” he said. “And that was the thing about being in third grade—you never get to see how the end works out. It’s such a gift to be able to come up here to the high school and see how their journey ends and be a part of it.”
Stepped up to drive a school bus
That connection—between beginning and end, teacher and student—is what drives Harrison every day. Whether he’s helping a senior grasp the intricacies of federalism or cheering them on at graduation, Harrison’s aim is simple: make people feel important.
“I try to make everybody feel valued, all the way from the kids to the faculty and everybody in between,” he said. “And I think that’s important because when you get something like this, people appreciate what you’re doing.”
It’s not just his classroom that benefits from that mindset. With a county-wide bus driver shortage, Harrison stepped up to drive a school bus, ensuring students could get to and from school safely. And outside of school hours, he and his wife teach an adult Sunday School class at their church.
“I try to show Christ in everything I do,” Harrison said.
It’s that same servant-hearted approach that earned him his first Teacher of the Year award in 2015 while still at Lake Butler Elementary. Now, a decade later, the honor comes again, this time from the high school he’s quickly made his home.
Ask anyone around Union County schools, and they’ll tell you—Harrison is a people person through and through. He loves people of all ages, and it shows in the way he speaks to students, collaborates with colleagues, and jumps into whatever needs doing.
“It’s a blessing to work in this school system,” he said. “We have a great school. It’s a great little community here.”
Grandmother taught for 50 years
The teaching legacy runs deep in Harrison’s family. His grandmother was a teacher for 50 years, retiring in 1990 with a personal letter of congratulations from President George H.W. Bush. It’s a legacy that clearly continues in Harrison, whose commitment to education is as much about compassion as it is curriculum.
At home, Harrison is a family man. He and his wife have three children, and when he’s not teaching, driving a bus, or volunteering at church, he enjoys reading, playing video games, and sports—a well-rounded hobby list that makes him all the more relatable to his students.
His students, by the way, have seen him in every phase—from their early days with spelling tests and multiplication tables to today’s deep dives into supply and demand and constitutional law. And they remember. They remember the warmth, the encouragement, and the way Mr. Harrison always made them feel seen.
For many teachers, education is a career. For Mark Harrison, it’s a mission. A way to pour into people, to walk with them through the early years and cheer them across the finish line. He’s not just preparing students for tests—he’s helping them prepare for life.
