Mr. Steve Stephenson began teaching at Southwestern in 1972.  He has announced his retirement at the end of the 2006-07 year. 

At left , Mr. Stephenson stands in front of his classroom in 2005.  After a long time of renovation to building two, new restrooms had been added between building two and the media center.  Here he unofficially opens the sidewalk path.

He has offered some recollections about his first year here.   In case you forgot, there have been some new buildings since then.  His current room in building 2 was next to the media center (where we now have 4 classrooms) and across the hall was the main office (where we now have 4 classrooms.)

1972

• There was no air conditioning.  When we turned on the fans, papers blew everywhere.
• We did not use calculators and there were no computers.
• School was out at 1:45 and I could be home by 2:00.
• Yearbooks had no color pictures and cost $3.00.
• Kids would get paddled and hard.
• There were less than 400 students and everyone had a locker.
• The top 4 songs in 1972 were by Stevie Wonder, Lou Reed, The Temptations, and David Bowie.
• There was no rap music.
• A new corvette was under $6,000.
• Houses could be bought for under $15,000.
• The muscle car era was (unfortunately he says) ending.
• Teachers were paid once a month and annual salary for a new teacher was $6,600.