Jim Bever has impacted the lives of thousands of Greenfield-Central students across four decades.
He will retire at the end of the 2024-2025 school year, leaving a legacy of dedication to three generations of local families.
“Looking back, I can think of nothing that I would have rather done,” Bever said.
This will actually be Bever’s second retirement. After working at G-C schools as a science teacher, athletic trainer, assistant principal, middle school principal and director of services, he retired from central office administration in 2021.
That retirement lasted a mere 36 days, when Greenfield Central Junior High School needed a leader once again and Bever followed his heart to return to the students.
While Bever enjoyed working in central administration, his passion is being with students every day. He’s enjoyed the last four years as principal of the junior high once again.
“The best thing ever was to come back. I wanted to end my career in a building with kids,” Bever said. “You can see the needle move a little bit each day here. That’s what makes it worthwhile. I’d do it another 10 years if I could, but I’m 64.”
And the 50-70 hour work weeks are becoming a bit much.
He’s eager to spend more time with his wife Teresa, a retired Eastern Hancock educator. He plans to travel, spend time with their two grown children and perhaps become a consultant in education.
Bever started his young adulthood thinking he wanted a career in medicine. But while working at a YMCA summer camp, he understood how much he loved working with youth.
“That decision established my path for the next 41 years,” he said.
His biology classes were transferred to a degree in science education, and his interest in medicine turned into athletic training.
“I knew I wanted to help mold the vast, untapped potential in each young soul. I’ve never looked back or regretted the decision.”
Just one year after Bever began teaching, he was offered a job with GC schools. He was a pioneer in GC’s new athletic training program back in the 1980s. He was also extremely tech-savvy as a classroom educator. Bever championed the middle school model in an era that primarily understood the junior high concept, said Superintendent Harold Olin.
“I have never met an educator who is more passionate about middle level education,” Olin said. “He truly enjoys being in the presence of adolescents. He accepts our students for who they are, through the good days and the bad days. He has an uncanny ability to be both direct and yet gracious, depending on what the student needs at any given time.”
Bever even served at the state level on the board of directors for school principals, and in 2004 was recognized as Indiana’s Middle-Level Principal of the Year.
Bever’s smile beams when asked what it’s like to see grandchildren of his first students enter the halls of GCJHS.
“It’s a little shocking and unexpected,” he said. “I’ll be working with a kid and all of the sudden I’ll be at an event where grandma and grandpa are. I may not recognize them, but they’ll inform me I was their science teacher.”
Looking back, Bever can reflect that in his early years as a teacher, he was like a big brother to students. Years went by, and he became a bit like a dad.
“Then there was some point where kids saw me as a grandfather,” Bever said.
It takes a very special person to be a middle school teacher or administrator, Bever added. He says they’re born, not made– with a plethora of patience, a good memory of what life was like at ages 12-13, an incredible sense of humor and a lot of forgiveness.
GCJHS is full of caring, compassionate individuals that fit that description, Bever says. He is confident he is leaving the building in good hands.
Bever thinks back to that first experience at the YMCA camp, and says youth today are the same ones he grew to love more than 40 years ago.
“These guys are just adult enough that you can truly begin to have a meaningful conversation with them,” Bever said.
They’re just starting to see themselves as adults, but many will go home after school and play with dolls or trucks still. At one point, young teens are incredibly dependent on adults. Another point, they’re asking to be left alone.
All of these aspects may scare off some people, but Bever says it’s what he loves most about young teens– that segue into adulthood.
When Bever returned as junior high principal in 2021, he noticed a change in students. They were more reactive, less focused, and faced many emotional issues. He realized the early, consistent and extended use of smartphones was leading to anxiety and lack of focus.
Bever’s passion project in recent years has been studying how smartphones are affecting today’s youth. Years ago, when a seventh grader came home from school they would have a break from the adversity of social pressure.
“Our kids that are on social media– and that’s most of them – they never leave the seventh grade. It’s with them 24/7, 365. They can’t get away from it.”
Bever says while there is no easy solution, there are ways that parents can help their children. He suggests children not get a smart phone until they’ve completed eighth grade, and not have social media until at least age 16. He also recommends the book “The Anxious Generation.”
In his retirement, Bever said he would love to continue the conversation about media or education in general.
“I always have hope for the future because I’ve worked with kids for 40 years and I’ve seen how resilient they can be,” he said. “I am optimistic that these kids can come up to the challenge.”
GC Assistant Superintendent Jason Cary said Bever has dedicated his life to making the school and community a better place.
“Jim has worn many hats over the course of 40 years, and GC is a better place because of it,” Cary said. “He has earned his retirement, and I can’t wait to see what he does next.”
Bever is thankful to his family for allowing him the time to pursue his passion. He’s also grateful to the Greenfield community for “putting up with” him for four decades.
“I have the honor of watching the miracle that occurs when a child begins to understand the developing adult inside, when they slowly begin to make sense of all that we have invested in them,” Bever said. “I love the light that occurs in everyone’s eyes when they learn something new and master it. I feel I’ve invested a tiny part of myself into every student I’ve had the pleasure of working with over the years. I take great pride in seeing my former students to grow and become successful adults with their own families.”
By Maribeth Vaughn
⬇️ G-CCSC Community Newsletter, Fall of 2000 ⬇️
