MOUNT VERNON – Gwen Smith routinely takes fingerprints of employment applicants in the office of the Knox Educational Service Center in downtown Mount Vernon.
Anyone hired by the ESC, including classroom aides who work in county schools, must pass a background check by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification (BCI) and the FBI
Last week Smith, the ESC’s administrative secretary, took her WebCheck internet-based equipment to the Knox Technical Center (KTC) on Yauger Road to fingerprint 13 licensed practical nurses (LPNs) who are in the transition program to become registered nurses (RNs).
Background checks are one of the steps required before they can take the state’s RN licensing exam.
The WebCheck machine scans fingerprints and sends them directly to BCI and the FBI.
“We provide fingerprinting service for the Knox Technical Center as well as our affiliated school districts in the county,” Smith said. “It just made more sense for me to go to Yauger Road to do the fingerprinting, rather than have the 13 nurses come to our office in the Woodward Opera House Annex. I was glad to do it.”
Cheryl Lies, administrative assistant in the nursing program, said the RN candidates are completing a year of the LPN to RN transition program that has included 900 hours of classroom and laboratory curriculum and clinical experience.
The students spent three days a week at the Yauger Road training facility.
“These women are LPNs employed at various facilities and several of them have families,” Lies said. “Completing the study and hands-on instruction to take the RN exam has put major demands on their time. We are proud of their hard work and preparation to take the state exam.”
Kimberly Brown was second in line to have her fingerprints taken Tuesday afternoon.
“I work at Majora Lane, a senior living facility in Millersburg,” she said. “And I have two children, a 4-year-old and a 2-year-old, so managing my time has been important while I completed the study to transition to an RN.”
Brown, a resident of Glenmont in Holmes County, said she hopes to work in a hospital setting after passing the RN licensing exam.
The KTC says that in July 2025 the state’s Ohio Means Jobs website listed 4,120 positions for a registered nurse within 75 miles of Mount Vernon.
Other nursing students preparing to take the RN exam, as listed by the KTC, are Brittany Baker, Ana Lalaine Deskins, Margaret Jamine, Candice Kaser, April Mauler, Angelica Meade, Danielle Meek, Sarah Nkrumah, Sandra Norris, Mckinsey Payne, Hali Smithhisler and Prince Ubah.
The Knox ESC hires nearly 200 classroom aides and provides other services for the Centerburg, Danville, East Knox, Fredericktown, Mount Vernon and Knox County Career Center school districts.
It also operates two programs – preschools in Mount Vernon, Centerburg, Fredericktown and East Knox, and the Knox Learning Center, a K-12 alternative school in Mount Vernon.