Among Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp.’s 46 retiring faculty and staff members are a combined 1,200 years of service to local children and families.
They taught the parents, the children and the grandchildren. They drove millions of miles to pick up children and transport them to and from home safely. They sat in the stands to cheer on their students at basketball and soccer games.
And after this school year, these 46 retirees — including teachers, bus drivers, custodians and counselors — will write a new chapter in their books, one that only time can tell.
Two long-time BCSC employees, a former teacher-turned-counselor and a second-grade teacher, talk about what kept them going after a combined nearly 100 years of service.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery
Inspired by his heroes
Jim Darnell is the longest-serving BCSC employee who will retire when school ends this month. For 50 years, Darnell has served thousands of families as an educator inspired by his own heroes — his former teachers.
Darnell’s career took off half-a-century ago when he accepted his first position as a science teacher at the former Southside Junior High School. For 25 years, Darnell taught science classes at Southside and Central Middle School before deciding it was time to take on a new adventure.
“I loved teaching,” Darnell said. “After 25 years, I just wanted to take on new challenges. People were telling me I worked well with kids. That encouragement from others led me to pursue counseling.”
Darnell went back to school to earn a degree in counseling, and for the last 25 years, he has served Mt. Healthy and Rockcreek elementary schools as a school counselor.
“That encouragement really led me to a whole other career,” Darnell said.
As his final day approaches, Darnell said he’s reflecting on the things and people that helped him reach the point he’s at today.
He credits his success to the heroes of his life, the men and women who served him as teachers.
“I saw them as heroes,” Darnell said. “They are what led me into teaching.”
When he was deciding what subject to teach with interests in both science and music, Darnell said he was lucky that it didn’t matter what subject he taught.
Whatever the subject was, he said, the only requirement was really liking or loving to work with kids. That was the paramount, Darnell said.
In the classroom and in his counseling office, Darnell has tried to create an environment for students to be themselves.
“Even back when I was teaching in the classroom, I never talked down to the kids,” he said. “They liked me showing respect to them, that I talked to them as adults. Same goes as a counselor, talking to them, being honest with them, getting them to be honest with me.”
Fifty years of faces have come through Darnell’s classroom and office, but he said the memories remain. What scares him, though, is how fast 50 years have flown by.
“One year led to another,” he said. “It never seemed to hit me that I was willing to give it up. It never felt right that I was ready to walk away from it.”
Finding joy in the job
Teri Bord closes her eyes and attempts to think of just one reason for becoming a teacher, but all she sees are hundreds of little individual faces popping up in her head.
Those faces are the reasons Bord spent 42-and-a-half years in elementary classrooms as a teacher.
“There are so many things that are the best part,” Bord said. “I can think of individual children; fellow teachers I taught with; places; lessons. I think the idea is that it’s a profession where you can help students; you can help fellow teachers; you can help families. You can give back to all of them — not all professions allow you to do that.”
Bord came to Columbus in 1980 after completing her undergraduate studies in 1975 and earning a master’s from Indiana University in 1978.
Teaching runs in Bord’s blood. Bord’s father, sisters, niece, sister-in-law, daughter and cousin are all educators — one a superintendent, one a librarian, one a counselor and the others teachers.
Despite coming easy to her family members, Bord said teaching is no simple profession.
“There are many things that are difficult about it,” Bord said, especially when she brings the work home with her. Simply put, Bord said her students are still on her mind after they board the bus at the end of the day and she locks up her classroom.
“If you keep at the forefront the fact that you are doing good things for many people and helping these kids in unbelievable ways, you can understand the importance of the job,” she said.
Upon retirement, Bord said she plans on spending her days with those who prompted her to retire in the first place — her five grandchildren.
“I want to play. I want to be a grandma,” Bord said. “I’m looking forward to sitting in the morning and drinking an extra cup of coffee. It’s the little things in life. That’s it.”
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”About Jim Darnell” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
Hometown: Columbus
Occupation: School counselor at Rockcreek Elementary School
Years of service: 50
Family: wife, Norma; son, Brian; daughter, Sara; six grandchildren
Retirement plans: Hunting trips; traveling; spending time with grandchildren; performing in a band
[sc:pullout-text-end][sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”About Teri Bord” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
Hometown: Terre Haute
Occupation: Second-grade teacher at Taylorsville Elementary School
Years of service: 46
Family: husband, Dillon; son, Jason; daughter, Lindsey; six grandchildren
Retirement plans: Be a grandma
[sc:pullout-text-end][sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”BCSC retirement list” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
The following individuals are retiring from Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. effective this school year.
- Kathy Adams, Parkside
- Meg Baker, Columbus East
- Teri Bord, Taylorsville
- Loren Brummett, transportation
- Kathy Bush, administration
- Sheila Cowan, CSA Fodrea
- Jim Darnell, Rockcreek
- Ana Maria DeOliveira, Taylorsville
- Linda Denninger, administration
- Sherry Dettmer, Central
- Genevra Dewhirst, Columbus East
- Marlene Dow, Informational Services Center
- Roberta Edwards, Central
- Bryan Enkoff, Northside
- Cynthia Frost, Northside
- Barbara Glendenning, Schmitt
- Kay Gorday, Columbus East
- Anthony Harden, transportation
- Kris Harmon, Parkside
- Jan Hehman, McDowell
- Tim Hillenburg, Southside
- Michael Jemerson, Informational Services Center
- Pat Jones, Southside
- Jeri Kreps, Southside
- Vincent Laine, Schmitt
- Peggy Lawson, Taylorsville
- Tammy Litten, CSA-New Tech
- Arnold Madden, Taylorsville
- Nancy Mahoney, transporation
- Patricia McCormick, Schmitt
- A. Elaine Nidey, transportation
- Ron Novak, Columbus East
- Gail Nowels, CSA-New Tech
- Gary Owens, transportation
- Debbie Riga, Columbus North
- Kathy Runge, Columbus North
- Linda Schmidt, Northside
- Beth Scholtes, Parkside
- Terry Souders, transportation
- Karen Stephens, Columbus North
- William Stultz, Columbus North
- Lisa Webster, Schmitt
- Amy Weinheimer, Parkside
- Ginger Williams, Richards
- Marianne Wohlford, Columbus East
- Nancy Worland, Schmitt
[sc:pullout-text-end]
