01/06/2025
"Music's always been a big part of my life," said Jill Weaver.
She instilled that in her students' lives during her more than 40 years of teaching, with the majority spent at Rochester Community Schools.
Weaver, who lives outside Rochester, retired on Friday, December 20, as the Columbia and Riddle Elementary School music teacher.
Both education and music became part of her life at an early age, she said. When she was growing up, her older sister played piano. Weaver noted when her sister went off to school, "I'd go and play her songs on the piano." She also sang a lot in different functions growing up and played saxophone and oboe at Woodlan High School in Allen County. Later on while attending Ball State University, she sang and played the oboe and piano.
Weaver said one of her teaching influences was her great-aunt, Florence Kurtz. "Basically she taught me how to teach because... we played school together," she said. Weaver said her high school choir director, Marlene Everson, also inspired her career.
Weaver got her bachelor's degrees in elementary education and music at Ball State. She later earned a master's degree from there. After graduation, she taught for a year in the DeKalb Eastern School District. However, Weaver was laid off due to the corporation's reduction in force. She was then informed of an opening at Rochester Community Schools. After applying for that, she was told Rochester would hire her, with DeKalb Eastern also having a position for her. Weaver asked her father what she should do. "He said, 'I think your choice is obvious,'" she said of him advising her to take the RCS job. "It was kind of almost a God thing," Weaver said of being hired at Rochester.
She first taught remedial reading and math at Riddle and Columbia before getting to teach music.
During periods when she taught other classes at RCS, Weaver said she was involved with music elsewhere. "I've done a lot of Christmas shows with church kids or church choirs, even done a little bit with adult choirs and such too," she said. "I've given piano lessons over the years." Weaver noted she opted to teach for so long as she tries "to lead (her) life following the direction that God gives (her)." She said her life path was always focused on or refocused on education.
"I feel like I've never lost my joy," she said. "Overall I still love what I do."
One of her favorite memories from teaching is of a little boy who didn't really speak at all. The boy ended up playing a drum in a school performance "flawlessly," said Weaver. She noted all his classmates stated the boy playing was their favorite part of the concert. "As that kid walked out of the classroom, he looked at me, and he said, 'Thank you for letting me drum,' and they were the first words I ever heard from him," said Weaver. "Those are the kind of things that make a difference," she said.
Weaver said she'll miss her students and colleagues after leaving the classroom, though she won't miss having to constantly focus on new educational guidelines.
Her retirement plans include reading, traveling, and learning to play a few new instruments. She also wants to spend more time with her family. Weaver has been married to Tom Weaver for more than 40 years. They have two sons, two daughters and six grandchildren, plus former foreign exchange students from Ukraine that they consider to be family.
"My kids have had musical training too," noted Weaver. She mentioned one of her sons performs with an orchestra in Paris, France.
Weaver encourages other to go into education because "It's the only way that we're going to build our future."
:Every doctor, every lawyer, every military member, every waitress, every custodian... everyone had started their life, their education in a school, and if we want to impact the future for the positive, it starts right here with teachers," she said.
Text and photo by Staff Writer, Leah Sander.
