When business occasionally takes LaVar Sorensen to East or Highland high schools, students swarm around him as he walks down the halls.
"`Oh, Doc,"' he quotes one of them. "I wish I were back at South. I've made the adjustment. I'm here. But it certainly isn't South.' "Sorensen, who is affectionately referred as "Doc" by students, was principal at South High for 13 years. It was only one year ago that he presided over the school's demise. The final year's activities kept him busy and helped him develop personal relationships with many of the students. He is grateful for those associations, for during the debate over whether to close South, Sorensen's wife of 40 years, Mary, died of leukemia.
"You can do one of two things," he says. "You can continue to have a memorial service or you can get on with your life. I chose the latter."
But, despite the fond memories and attachments with South, Sorensen is too busy to dwell on the past much. "I didn't really retire, I just entered a new phase of my career."
The former principal is still working in education, but now as a consultant who travels the country. Sorensen and three well-known Utah educators have formed Wasatch Education Associates. The others are Donald Thomas, former Salt Lake superintendent; Sorensen's cousin, LaMar Sorensen, former East High principal; and Daryl McCarty, former Utah Education Association executive.
They go to school districts across the nation, in South Carolina, Texas, Virginia and to smaller school districts in rural Utah to help educators develop effective schools. They interview parents, teachers and administrators to get feedback and analyze test scores to find the weak spots.
In Brownsville, Texas, for example, they discovered an inadequate reading program. Students were scoring at only the 30th percentile. So the educational consultants worked with the school district on ways to help boost a child's reading ability - such as smaller classes, grouping and the use of aides and student tutors.
The consultants are also setting up the National Association of Effective School Leaders, which will hold six regional conferences and a national conference in Salt Lake City next year.
Sorensen acts as the associates' secretary, working on a computer in the den of his Salt Lake County home.
Also on the board of the Utah Association of Secondary Principals, Sorensen will also be involved soon in choosing the 1989 Utah Secondary Principal of the Year.
Despite a still-hectic schedule, Sorensen enjoys the freedom of setting his own hours and the ability to continue his lifelong work in education without being mired in the day-to-day problems. "I can make recommendations, smile and leave."
He can also take off for a vacation during the school year. He travels with a group of friends, neighbors who have been involved in a study group for years. "We have such a good time. We went on a Caribbean cruise, then we went to Hawaii for a couple of weeks. We even went and flew around in helicopters, if you can image us, a bunch of crazy old people."
June 7, however, won't be a day for trips or consulting. Sorensen has agreed to help send off some of his students, South kids who will graduate from East that evening.
"I have missed it," he admits. "I really enjoyed the students very much. I enjoyed being with the faculty. I don't miss the stress, meeting deadlines and the pressure created by closing the school."