Following every morning’s school announcements, 11 words echoed throughout Southside Elementary School as former Principal Joel Metzler’s voice rang out over the intercom: “Make it a great day or not, the choice is yours.”
For 14 years, people listened — students, teachers, support staff — as Metzler, 71, set the tone for each school day. He believes it’s that 11-word expression that earned him a spot in the Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. Hall of Fame.
The corporation honored Metzler at Monday’s school board meeting with the 2019 Hall of Fame award.
“I must have done something right,” said Metzler, who retired as principal of Southside in June 2013 after 41 years of service in Bartholomew County.
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A 1969 graduate of Bethel College, Metzler moved to Columbus in 1972 seeking new career opportunities. He started his Bartholomew County career as a sixth grade teacher, first at Clifty Creek Elementary School, then at Fodrea and Parkside elementary schools.
After about 13 years as a teacher, Metzler served as the administrative assistant to the assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction before quickly recognizing he belonged in a school. He became principal at Lincoln Elementary in 1985 where he worked for 14 years. In 1999, Metzler left the district’s smallest elementary school for the district’s largest, Southside — which enrolled as many at 980 students at one time.
But no matter what school Metzler called home, he always made his relationships a top priority.
“It’s about connections with kids, connections with people — teachers, parents, the community,” Metzler said. “In our lives, we’re touched by those who teach us that we’re important, that we have meaning and that we can succeed. That was my goal as a teacher, and it just carried over to what I did as a principal.”
Janice Montgomery, who is also in the BCSC Hall of Fame, served as an assistant principal with Metzler at Southside for four years. Montgomery is one of six assistant principals Metzler mentored at Southside, each of whom Metzler said he taught a great deal to and learned a great deal from.
“It’s a challenge to make everyone feel a part of a large building,” Montgomery said. “But he did it, and he did whatever it took to engage students.”
The impact didn’t stop at his colleagues, though. Metzler also made sure students’ families were involved in the school’s operations.
Kathy Dayhoff-Dwyer is the mother of former Southside students James, 19, and Elizabeth, 18. When her kids first started kindergarten at Southside, she met with Metzler to talk about her expectations.
“What a teacher teaches and what a child receives sometimes are two different things because sometimes you have to use visual, verbal, tactile styles,” Dayhoff-Dwyer said. “James was sometimes a more visual person by demonstration, but sometimes verbal. James wouldn’t be where he is without Joel’s support.”
Dayhoff-Dwyer met frequently with Metzler to talk about her students’ needs, but also worked together to make BCSC better about embracing students with special needs and making schools more accepting. When her children were in fifth grade, Dayhoff-Dwyer said she knew Metzler was approaching retirement, but asked him to stay until James and Elizabeth had graduated from sixth grade.
“I told him, ‘You can’t leave us yet. You’ve got one more year,’” Dayhoff-Dwyer said. Though one of Metzler’s granddaughters was in the same class as James and Elizabeth, she jokingly tells herself he was waiting on her kids.
Several years later, Metzler’s impact still lingers.
Jeff Backmeyer, who replaced Metzler as Southside principal in 2013, ends his own morning announcements with Metzler’s famous 11 words. Backmeyer served as assistant principal with Metzler for three years before becoming principal at Mt. Healthy Elementary School.
“Being back in Southside, sitting in the same office he sat in, I hear his voice saying that phrase,” Backmeyer said. “It rings so true. It is your choice as to how the day goes. One of the things that became popular for a while was the ‘WWJD?’ bracelets. Well, I have my own: What would Joel do?”
So why did Metzler begin each day with those 11 words?
“It’s simple,” Metzler said. “At both Lincoln and Southside, we didn’t talk about a discipline plan. What we talked about were expectations that we had for students. At the end of the day, you want kids to feel like they know what’s expected of them.”
They also listened.
Metzler said students were no longer being sent to the office from recess or the classroom or the cafeteria. Students rose up to the expectations set by Metzler and his administrators.
As Metzler was recently checking out at a local grocery store, he recognized a former student working there.
“I called him by name — he had his name-tag on — and said, ‘Hey, it’s good to see you,’” Metzler said.
“We started talking, and within two minutes, the student said, ‘Make it a great day or not,’ and I finished with, ‘The choice is yours.’ He said he thinks about that every single day. That’s when I knew.”
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”About Joel Metzler” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
Age: 71
Residence: Columbus
Education: Undergraduate degree from Bethel College in Mishawaka; master’s degree from Indiana University in Bloomington
Employment: Principal from 1999 to 2013 at Southside Elementary School, 1300 W. County Road 200 S.; Principal for 14 years at Lincoln Elementary School, 750 Fifth St.
Family: Wife, Marilyn; sons, Zach, Ben and Josh; 10 grandchildren.
Hobbies:
- Spending time with family and friends
- Walking
- Biking
- Fishing
- Boating
- Watching sports
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