Mike Wolanin | The Republic Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. Superintendent Jim Roberts talks about his time leading the school corporation during an interview in his office the BCSC Administration Building in Columbus on Thursday. Roberts announced he is retiring at the end of the school year. He has been named the new vice president of the Community Education Coalition.
Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. Superintendent Jim Roberts describes his decision to retire from BCSC and move to a new role as vice president of the Community Education Coalition as “very bittersweet.”
BCSC and the CEC jointly announced Roberts’ new job on Thursday, which will begin in July after the end of this school year.
The bittersweet feeling comes from leaving a team at BCSC that he has built for eight years, and also finding a way to say farewell to administrators, teachers and staff members he credits with the school corporation’s success.
In a note to staff shortly after the announcement, Roberts wrote, “To me, you are all bigger than the Beatles but you still let me sing. Thanks.”
Roberts is known throughout the community for his love of music, posting wildly popular videos at the beginning of each school year, starting with “Should We Close or Should We Go?” and eventually leading to “Old Town Pool,” and this fall’s “All The School Things,” taking on a cover of pop-punk Blink-182.
And he’s been known to bring his Elvis impersonation on stage much to the delight of Columbus audiences who appreciate his skilled renditions.
While he may not be able to do the videos in his upcoming job, there will be another Crooners for CASA performance this year, with Roberts planning on taking on the legendary Johnny Cash in a tribute to the solar eclipse coming to southern Indiana this year. Never shy, Johnny and The Total Eclipse (otherwise known as the BCSC administrative cabinet), will be performing a cover of Cash’s 1963 release “Ring of Fire.”
“We’re looking forward to it,” he said.
New opportunities
Roberts was intrigued by the CEC opening when it was posted, adding that he has always had a personal goal to retire before he turned 60, which would put him in a place as healthy and young enough to pursue other things.
And in this instance, it also is a continuation of Roberts’ 37 years in education, starting as a math and computer science teacher at Hauser Junior-Senior High School in Hope and eventually leading to superintendent roles at Batesville and then BCSC.
“The job description (at CEC) resonated with me — I have worked with CEC board members all the time,” Roberts said.
Roberts said he had planned to retire as BCSC superintendent in 2025, but when the coalition posted the coalition vice president role, “I decided to apply because it was more than a role to me; it’s being deeply rooted in our community and making a difference beyond my time as superintendent. I have admired the work of the CEC from the time I was in Batesville and its use of the CivicLab stakeholder engagement process. I wanted to incorporate this approach into my work as superintendent at BCSC, and we have made great strides in service to students using this way of thinking.”
When Roberts was Batesville superintendent, he invited the CEC’s John Burnett and Jack Hess to the school corporation to work on initiatives.
The new job will allow him to nurture initiatives for students from early childhood education, K-12, and post-secondary education, the entire spectrum available to Indiana students.
The CEC says Roberts will focus on enhancing equitable access, attainment and success across all levels of the education continuum from early learning to adult education, creating seamless pathways to regional career opportunities, retaining talent in the region by encouraging young people to stay and work locally after graduation in well-paying careers and attracting more companies to grow and establish themselves in the region.
Also in the job description is a role in “forging robust partnerships and advancing the growth of the AirPark Columbus College Campus,” applying CivicLab’s stakeholder engagement model in his work.
CivicLab is a nonprofit institute dedicated to advancing the practice of civic collaboration by learning what makes community collaboration work, documenting the results and teaching and sharing the practices with others. Founded in 2012, CivicLab has partnered with and served 375 communities and trained thousands of leaders and community stakeholders in the process.
Looking back
When Roberts is asked to recount his administration’s achievements over the past eight years, he mentioned a list of initiatives, each time acknowledging the BCSC staff members who worked on each of the projects.
First to mind was the Legado Spanish Immersion Academy, which will be in its sixth year next year. The pre-K students who started in the program are nearly to sixth grade.
Nearly 60 pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students enrolled in the program in 2018 at Clifty Creek Elementary School, allowing students to study Spanish and English together.
Roberts also mentioned the Columbus Virtual Pathway program, which was developed before the COVID-19 pandemic but became a lifeline when the pandemic caused the need for e-learning at home. Even as the pandemic has waned, students continue to use the virtual option depending on their family’s and students’ needs, with some opting for a partial day participation, or a way to get ahead or catch up on needed credits.
The school corporation has embarked on a $306 million building project that includes adding a new west-side elementary school, the culmination of a multi-year planning process. Funding will not impact the school’s tax rate due to the amount of debt being paid off at the same time. The new plan comes at the pending completion of several other school renovation projects in the district as the school corporation updates its facilities to a more 21st century learning environment.
Roberts was particularly complimentary of the entire BCSC staff for its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and efforts by the school corporation’s tech team to help students and parents connect and learn remotely.
And efforts to increase school security have included reinvigorated school safety teams, with Roberts noting BCSC already had teams in place before the state legislature mandated them.
Roberts also mentioned implementation of the teams structure at BCSC’s two high schools, which has evolved into a sort of case management-type system in which a team of teachers and administrators connect students with needed services and resources and help students and families navigate a successful path to graduation and beyond.
Roberts is also proud of the efforts of BCSC to increase compensation for teachers and staff members, which resulted in the school corporation being basically fully-staffed at the start of this school year.
Still on the to-do list
Roberts acknowledges there will still be projects on the table as he leaves, but he says he will be leaving a “deep bench” in place.
While the teams approach at the high schools is in place, he said it is in its first year and there will need to be tweaks to the model going forward. The $306 million building project is one that is still in process, and that will continue without him.
And he mentioned graduation rates for the school corporation, which have shown some improvement, but not to the level that had been hoped for, and the team approach at the high schools will be evaluated for its effect on rates going forward. Efforts established to help students’ mental health needs, including the Counseling Counts program that increased mental health counselors from eight to 35, and the Mental Health Matters efforts after COVID-19 are also programs that will continue to evolve under new guidance.
The school corporation is working toward establishing two new student health clinics, one in a school building, and one mobile, to help those who need care.
And Roberts is hopeful that equity access for all students for programming and extracurriculars will continue to be a focus, allowing every student an opportunity despite limitations with transportation or funds.
Who will lead next?
Roberts will finish out the school year in the hopes the BCSC board will find a successor quickly, and while acknowledging it is their choice, he said the current administrative team has several professionals with superintendent licenses and requisite experience.
The job opening comes at a time when several well-respected central Indiana school corporations are also looking for new superintendents, including Hamilton Southeastern, Brownsburg, Center Grove and now BCSC.
Roberts said the only advice he could give to the superintendent coming after him, the ninth superintendent in BCSC’s history, would be to “embrace the honor to lead an organization like this one — it’s truly an honor — to get to be at BCSC. That’s a big deal,” he said.
The new superintendent should also “take time to understand all the facets of the corporation,” even as the school corporation is heading in a good direction and is on solid financial footing going forward.
“Take it slow to go fast,” he said.
And once the new superintendent finds his or her niche, Roberts’ only other advice was to make a difference for kids first and then for the community.
For BCSC students, Roberts said he hoped they will relish their time in school, for someday they might look back to these years as some of the best of their lives.
Roberts reflected back to his graduation speech for the Class of 2023, again turning to his love of music and Tim McGraw’s hit song, “Humble and Kind,” saying sometimes, he does live his life in lyrics.
Borrowing a bit from McGraw, he said, “Everything I have is from my mom and my dad, and they were kind people and they modeled that for me,” he said. “We can always be humble and kind.”
