Mike Wolanin | The Republic Retired teacher Sandy Watts will be inducted into the Bartholomew Consolidated School Corporation Hall of Fame. She is pictured at her home in Columbus, Ind., Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2024.
If you spend a few minutes in casual conversation with BCSC Education Hall of Fame inductee Sandy Watts, she’s bound to mention “her kids.”
“Any student I have are my kids the rest of their life, and they know that,” she said.
Her kids include Michael and Jennifer, her biological children, but also the hundreds of students she taught in more than 35 years as a teacher. She reflects fondly on times when her third graders slipped and called her “mommy.”
“That was a compliment,” she said.
The Education Hall of Fame Award is given to teachers, former teachers or administrators who have made “a noteworthy and extraordinary employment contribution to the Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. which merits recognition for excellence.”
“I felt really humble, I know the other ones that have preceded me,” Watts said of finding out about the honor.
After she graduated in 1980, she started off teaching one semester at Smith Elementary on a temporary contract subbing for a teacher on maternity leave. Watts then interviewed for a position teaching fourth grade at CSA Fodrea.
“I thought it was going great and then he asked, anything else to share? And I said, I’m four months pregnant. And that’s our Jennifer, our oldest child. But he hired me anyway.”
Watts reflected on how unusual it was back then for pregnant women to be hired, a sign of the times.
“You have teachers that would tell you when they started, they didn’t get hired because if they were newly married, they’d find out and go well, we aren’t interested because, you know, you’ll be quitting to start a family.”
That was never going to be a concern for Watts, because the classroom was an extension of her family. Her husband Dave and her children were always fixtures. When she wanted a garden for the school, Dave was out there rototilling. If she was working on Saturday night, Dave and the kids were working on Saturday night.
“I guess that was our family activity, was my classroom,” Watts laughed.
She spent four years at Fodrea before teaching third grade at Taylorsville Elementary for 18 years and then 13 years teaching third grade at Parkside.
Education runs in Watts’ blood — originally from Seymour, her father was a principal for three decades and her uncle a superintendent.
Third grade was always her favorite because they can read and “they still love their teacher.”
In her experience, Watts found the best teachers don’t just go through the material but “meet the individual needs of the students.”
“They don’t see them just as a student, they see everything that encompasses that student,” Watts said. “The family, their health, the trials and tribulations they’re going through.”
When she retired from BCSC, Watts wasn’t done giving back. She remained active as a volunteer as a schoolmarm at the Simmons Schoolhouse, judging senior projects at North, and collecting recyclable caps for furniture. In less than six months, she collected more than 1,500 pounds of caps.
“Like (Dave) said, I’ve resigned from all the paying jobs. Now I just do the ones that don’t pay.”
Watts has also remained active at her church, First United Methodist, and as a part of the Be Smart Initiative, which promotes responsible gun ownership in order to reduce child gun deaths.
When she’s inducted to the hall of fame on Feb. 5, it’s likely to be an emotional night, Watts said, but with her children and former students in attendance, it’ll feel more like a joyful reunion.
“I didn’t grow up here, but Columbus has been a gift to us,” she said.
