Countless pieces of colored paper lined the wall across from the Arroyo Seco band room, with each one bearing a heartfelt message.

“Thank you for showing me how to play drums.”

“We love you and we all wish that you were here with us right now.”

“We will miss you very much. I hope you are playing the drums and listening to your favorite music up in heaven”

There were hundreds of notes left by students at Arroyo Seco Junior High School in the wake of the death of beloved math and band teacher, Rod Bennett, who was killed in a fatal hit-and-run collision Wednesday.

Rhondi Durand, the principal at Arroyo Seco, remembers her own daily experience with Bennett.

“Every morning, in my office, when he came to sign in, (I’d hear) ‘Hey, how’s it going? How are you doing? Have a great day,’” she recalled  Always positive, upbeat, encouraging, smiling. He was a fantastic person.”

Bennett had been teaching at the school for 16 years, educating thousands of students in math and music.

“He just had a huge impact on so many kids’ lives. People have asked if they had children of their own. I tell them that they didn’t have children of their own, but thousands. He had thousands of children that he has impacted over the years.”

Durand recounted the story of a student who moved into the Santa Clarita area in the middle of her seventh-grade year. Bennett took the student under his wing, allowing her to be in student service and helping accommodate her in an eighth-grade algebra class. When the student moved on to geometry, which the school does not offer, Bennett worked to get certification so that the student could take geometry as a one-on-one independent study course with him.

“It was a calling for him,” said Durand. “He just made personal, wonderful relationships with the kids and families.”

Bennett started his career as part of a band on a cruise line, where he met his wife, Valerie Pryor. After leaving the ocean, he pursued teaching, guiding more than a generation of young learners.

“He was such a serious math teacher and then just became a giddy, full of life and enthusiastic band teacher,” Durand said.

After 15 years of teaching math, Bennett received an offer for his dream job, teaching music to the student as a band instructor.

When they heard the news, “the band room just kept filling up with kids,” Durand said. “And many of them didn’t leave. I know they felt that was their place with him, and they needed to be in there. It was a gathering place.”

She added that although the students and staff at the school are starting to return to their routine, Bennett will not be forgotten.

“We’re broken-hearted,” said Durand. “The loss — it feels immense.”