Southard Named “Teacher Of The Year”

It was honors time for the community.

During the Tuolumne County Chamber of Commerce annual Installation and Honors banquet last night, Sonora High Director of Student Activities Steve Southard was named “Teacher of the Year.”

Southard told the packed Sonora Elks Lodge crowd he could never think of doing anything else but teach. “And what’s interesting is how education has changed. And we have had to change with it,” Southard said.

Looking of the audience last night, Southard acknowledged the parents of children he has taught over the years.

“Some of (the kids) have been my greatest accomplishments, and I had nothing to do with it. It´s all about you and it´s all about this community,” he said.

Steve and wife Jill have been married since 1973. The couple met when Steve, then a P.E. teacher at Chico State, taught her how to do a dive off the one-meter high dive. Southard has been at Sonora High School since 1978.