“We came in blind when we moved down to central Ohio,” Jim Schafer says. “I’m from Cleveland, she’s from McComb. We got married one week after we graduated … and just walked in and started subbing in Dublin.”
Jim took a job exploration test in college that led him and his wife, Jen, to Franklin County.
“Coming to the Columbus area, we knew there were going to be a lot of opportunities at whatever Outerbelt school we could find,” Jen says, “and we got lucky.”
The luck of the Irish didn’t run out there, as Jim and Jen both had jobs in the district within about three years of landing in Dublin.
When their younger son Justin moved back to Dublin last year, he joined Jim, Jen, and his older brother Jacob, as the fourth Schafer actively employed by Dublin City Schools (DCS).
End of the rainbow
Jim and Jen met at Bowling Green State University.
“It was a very typical college party situation,” Jim says. “And I was wearing an argyle sweater. I mean, what’s not to like about a guy in an argyle sweater?”
schafer football
After getting married, it was time to find a new home in central Ohio. For Jim, Dublin was love at first sight as he dreamed of coaching in its impressive football stadium.
As they got to know the district, they were encouraged by the community’s commitment to people and education.
“We started subbing in Dublin, started to meet people and make connections,” Jim says. “You could just feel it in Dublin that… education, the kids, everyone valued it. And not just the going to school part. It was the athletics, the theater, or the band, or anything. Everything was done well.”
Jim and Jen raised their sons in Dublin, making very deliberate choices to live close to the schools and in the heart of the community. Jim has taught social studies at Scioto High School since 2001 and is an eighth-grade assistant football coach. Jen is Eversole Run Middle School’s librarian and an advisor for the school’s creative writing club, Power of the Pen.
“I think about all the opportunities that the school gives kids in the classroom, with all these choices of classes, and then after school there’s every sports team that you could really want,” says Jacob, the older of the Schafer boys. “They have so many opportunities, clubs, everything like that. Being at the middle school level for athletics for ten years, I see other places around us offering similar ideas, but not the same level of getting so many kids involved.”
The boys are back in town
Jacob and Justin both teach and coach at Davis Middle School, with Jacob teaching social studies and Justin in the science department. Jacob coaches eighth-grade baseball and football, and Justin coaches seventh-grade boys’ basketball and baseball.
schafer boys
Jacob is in his fifth year at DCS and says he loves teaching at his former middle school.
“For the first couple years, it was a little weird, but you kind of transition when you start calling (former teachers) by their first names,” Jacob says. “I feel very comfortable… It’s very cool because you can talk about things you used to do and the school used to do. And it’s also cool to share and grow your relationship with them as colleagues instead of just student-teacher things.”
Jacob’s wife is a teacher as well, and she too comes from a family of educators.
Justin moved to Virginia after graduating from The Ohio State University, where he lived for three years before returning and starting his tenure in DCS in 2023.
“I really enjoyed my time (in Virginia), but I definitely saw myself coming back after I was there a little bit,” Justin says. “I always felt really connected to the school growing up because our parents taught there. … It’s a really good environment to go in every day and be able to see people that I genuinely feel connected with. It’s just fun to do it together.”
Jim and Jen are thrilled to stay connected with their sons, and joke that they always have friends who can keep an eye on their boys, just like they did when they were kids.
Connecting with people is a consistent theme with the Schafers, and is at the heart of everything they do.
“The teachers that went to Dublin and want to come back to Dublin want to be there because they really care about the schools,” Justin says. “Almost every teacher I’ve met had a great experience at Dublin Schools because of the teachers they had and they want to provide that for other people.”
Jacob says it helps him connect with students when they know he came from the same school system they do.
“It’s always important for kids to see themselves being successful,” Jacob says. “If they can connect to us and know that we were in the same building and classrooms as they were, they can see themselves being successful in whatever way they want.”
Not going anywhere
Photos courtesy of the Schafer Family
sCHAFER Family
Even after living and breathing DCS for more than thirty years, Jim and Jen love Dublin more each day. The whole family shares infectious positive attitudes, which the parents instilled in their sons at a young age.
“You make a choice to be happy, and you make a choice to enjoy what you’re doing,” Jen says. “And we’re teaching with our friends and we see students that we enjoy and coach and are involved with activities we enjoy.”
“Every stage was special when these kids were little,” Jim says. “When they were in elementary school, it was awesome, when they were ball boys, when they played youth sports, it was awesome. When they were playing football on a team I coached, it was awesome. When they went to college, we got to experience that with them. It’s all been great. There’s nothing that has been more rewarding than seeing what you boys have done.”
Tyler Kirkendall is an editor at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at tkirkendall@cityscenemediagroup.com.
Dubliners the world over
The Schafers always see former students, players and their families around town, but local grocery stores aren’t the only place the family is recognized.
“We were traveling up the trolley in Heidelberg, Germany and there’s some kids we had in class (saying) ‘We know you from church Mr. Schafer!’” Jim says. “And that’s not the first time that’s happened to me. … It’s just really cool.”
