After teaching music for more than 25 years, South Salem High School’s choir director Carol Stenson is retiring. Her final concert will be 7 p.m. Thursday at the school’s Rose Auditorium.

Stenson couldn’t have ended on a higher note. Earlier this month, she lead the South Salem Symphonic Choir to a state championship, the second of her tenure.

“That was kind of the frosting on the cake,” she said. “We have a big senior class in symphonic choir. They’ve been working toward this championship for four years. I wanted it so badly for them.”

After the performance, her students expressed similar esteem for her.

“I’m just so glad we could do this for Mrs. Stenson because she’s retiring this year. I’m just so proud of all of our hard work. All of us, we had to work so hard to get here,” senior Isaiah Nixon said.

After graduating from Willamette University in December 1988, Stenson started her teaching career at Grant Elementary School. She then taught in Stayton for four years before returning to Salem, where she spent one year at Champan Hill Elementary and eight at Leslie Middle School.

“I always loved middle school students. It’s very rewarding to teach middle school,” she said.

When her current position opened, she wanted a new challenge. She has been at South for the past 12 years. In that time, the Saxons have always placed in the top five at the state championships. In 2011, Stenson received the Oregon Symphony Association Music Educator of the Year Award.

“There is something special about choir that I’m not sure happens in any other class,” Stenson said of teaching the same students throughout their high school careers.

“You really do get to know your students. It’s a very relational sort of environment. There’s no doubt that I’m really going to miss that interaction with teenagers,” she said.

“She just connects with kids instantly. We call those teachers ‘kid magnets,’ ” Paul Sell, assistant principal at South, said.

“The consistent level of outstanding quality that Carol has demonstrated during her career in Salem-Keizer would secure her a place in the Saelm-Keizer Music Teacher Hall of Fame if we had one,” Mary Lou Boderman, the district’s director of music and theater arts, said.

In retirement, Stenson plans to substitute teach and hopes to mentor young teachers.

The South Salem Music Boosters are hosting a retirement party for Stenson from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday at the Dye House at The Willamette Heritage Center at The Mill. All of her current and former students and their parents are invited. For more information, contact Christine Ertl at ertlwalton@comcast.net.

TRastrelli@Statesman

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