Mike Wolanin | The Republic Kathy Dell is being inducted in the Bartholomew Consolidated School Corporation Education Hall of Fame. She is pictured at Gramz Bakery and Cafe in Columbus, Ind., Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. Dell taught in the school corporation for 43 years.
The 45-minutes that a group of Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. students spent in Kathy Dell’s music class once a week was punctuated with the same refrain over the course of her 40-plus years of teaching in the district.
“Thank you for making music with me today,” she would tell students as they lined up at the door.
Dell, BCSC’s 2026 Education Hall of Fame recipient, meant it. Across her 43 years teaching music to BCSC students from kindergarten up to sixth grade, Dell hoped to instill an appreciation of the arts and their collaborative nature.
“I use that a lot, ‘making music with kids,’ because yes, you’re teaching them skills, but you’re also involved with them in the music making process,” Dell said. “I loved the energy of the kids, their creativity. I was actually making music with them. I always thought of myself as making music in an orchestral setting. I found out that very first year, you make music with the kids around you.”
The Education Hall of Fame Award, established in 1985, is given once every year to a teacher, former teacher or administrator who have made a extraordinary contribution to the district. Dell said she was overcome with emotion when she heard she was selected.
“It’s a great honor but there’s so many wonderful, capable teachers in this corporation,” Dell said. “This award isn’t about me. It’s about the people that I’ve worked with— administrators, the teachers, the students, the parents, the community.”
As a music education major at the University of Evansville, Dell initially thought she was going to make a career primarily on the stage playing the flute.
Her parents asked her to reconsider, knowing the difficulty of making a living as a performer only. When a person working in the placement office on campus asked her to think about a job as a music teacher in Hagerstown, Dell did just that.
“I just begrudgingly went to the interview and they offered me the job,” Dell said. “I thought, ‘Well, I’ll give it a try.’ And I soon found out I enjoyed it.”
“I stepped into a profession where it’s my responsibility to teach these young kids music— the skills of music, the appreciation of music like I had been taught,” Dell said. “I don’t think I ever thought of that when I wanted to go out on this path of performing. I didn’t realize how rewarding it could be to set that foundation.”
Dell taught at Nettle Creek School Corp. before meeting her husband Tom. She taught at Decatur County Community Schools for a short time before taking a job in BCSC at Jefferson School (now Busy Bee Academy). From there, Dell taught at Kent School (now ABC Stewart), Richards, CSA Lincoln, Southside and Parkside. She spent the bulk of her career at Parkside and mentioned the flood of memories that come upon her still whenever she drives by.
Dell also taught music appreciation classes at then-IUPUC to elementary education majors for 20 years, which she said helped refine her own teaching skills.
“I had the opportunity to really explore curriculum in the classroom beyond music and how you could tie music into all these areas,” Dell said. “Later in my career, it was really nice because some of my students that I taught at IUPUC became my colleagues.”
Over four decades teaching at BCSC, Dell said she was fortunate to be able to build real connections with students, some of which she had for seven years.
“I know their brothers and sisters, and then, because I taught so long, I taught their kids. Toward the end of my career, I even had some grandchildren of former students,” Dell said laughing with delight. “That was a wonderful thing to be able to see them not only grow as a musician, but also watch them grow personally too.”
Performing still remained an important component of her life and helped fuel her ability as a teacher, Dell said. In every district she taught in, there was still an opportunity to perform outside of class. Dell plays the piano and is self-taught on the guitar, but the flute is her instrument.
Dell spent over 30 years as principal flutist for the Columbus Indiana Philharmonic (CIP). She was involved during CIP’s inception, and while Dell isn’t quite as involved as she used to be, she remains a member of its board of directors and chair of its education committee.
“I still pick up my flute and play almost every day, but you just reach a point where you say: ‘You know what? It’s time for someone else,’ and I rather enjoy sitting in the audience listening.”
BCSC proudly proclaims itself to be the “STEM Capital of Indiana,” but Dell has always advocated to add an “A” for the arts in there to make it STEAM. While emphasizing STEM is certainly something worthy for schools to pursue, Dell doesn’t want the power and importance of the arts and what they provide to students to be overlooked.
Some students may struggle academically, but excel in creative pursuits like music, which can build confidence and result in improvements in other classes. Some students may not be involved in athletics, but with music, can involve themselves by singing the National Anthem before games.
“When I think back to some of my students that were rather shy and introverted, you give them a character to play on the stage, and their personality just grows and their confidence grows,” Dell said.
Dell’s advocacy for STEAM is also built in part on her experience as a child. She went to seven different schools when she was a kid, making music an important constant.
“Had I not had music to go to and be a part of, I would have just fallen through the cracks,” Dell said.
Dell will be honored before the next BCSC school board meeting on Feb. 2. She said one of her greatest pleasures in retirement is catching up with students she formerly taught. Sometimes they share stories about a song they remembered singing in the classroom, or a musical production, or about their time as a member of the elementary choir that Dell oversaw at each of her stops.
Even now, the recollections of students drive home for Dell the lasting impact of her classroom.
“Making music really does change kids’ lives.”
