Cedar High teacher reflects over the decades as 'last man standing' from class of '93

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Cedar High School teacher Cleve Weaver is retiring after 34 years of teaching.
• Weaver recalls a teaching evolution, from roll books to digital submissions via Canvas.
• Principal Sanders praises Weaver's dedication; he plans to continue announcing sports.

CEDAR CITY — Cedar High School teacher Cleve Weaver was recently in a room full of teachers reminiscing about where they were in the 1990s. This social media trend that took the digital world by storm had many of Weaver's colleagues posting pictures of themselves at ages that made a self-proclaimed "old man" feel even older.

"Most of the teachers had their elementary pictures; one put a picture of heaven because he wasn't born yet," Weaver said, laughing. "And then there were just a handful of us who had even taught or worked there in the 90s."

Weaver took the "Where were you in the 90s?" challenge in a different direction, reflecting on his life as a teacher at Cedar High. And as he did, he realized that he was the last man standing from the year he began teaching there in 1993. He also thought back to how things had changed.

"When I started here, we took roll in books that you could never lose," he told KSL. "Then we moved to bubble sheets that we turned in every day. We didn't have email addresses."

Weaver, who taught health, physical education, history, world geography and coached wrestling and football, will be retiring from teaching after 34 total years, with an additional four years added as a coach. Looking back on how things were in the 90s, he said he wishes some things had stayed the same, while acknowledging that change is necessary.

"I don't think kids get enough free time to figure things out on their own," he said. "If I was out riding my bike across town and blew a tire, I had to figure it out. I just don't think kids get that opportunity anymore.

"The biggest change I've seen is technology," he added. "I learned about search engines my fifth year teaching, and we worked our way through DVDs and now DVDs are antiquated. I love being able to cast things off my phone onto a screen so I can share things with my class. I also love that kids can turn in papers on Canvas. I used to have to keep stacks and stacks of papers and now I just don't. I just have it there on Canvas."

Change also came when the mascot was changed from the Redmen to the Reds, which is something Weaver had a hand in as a member of the committee that voted to change it.

He grew up in Cedar City, and attended East Elementary, Cedar Middle and high schools and even attended Southern Utah State College, graduating when it became Southern Utah University. Teaching in the town he grew up in was equally challenging and rewarding.

"Living in a small town, students knew where I lived," he said. "Students would drive by and wave. Past students would stop by and talk on my porch. I had eight of my nine kids graduate from Cedar High. In my class, at any given time, I'll have anywhere from four to 20 kids that I taught one or both of their parents. It's a weird situation because it's almost like I'm the uncle to the whole town because I spent a lot of time with multiple generations."

Keith Gilbert was one of his students from the 90s who had him as a teacher and a coach in both wrestling and football. He said Weaver may have come across as a big grizzly bear, but deep down, he was really a "giant teddy bear."

"Growing up the way I did, yelling didn't get me motivated, because I was used to yelling," Gilbert said. "Cleve was really nice and encouraging and was always pushing me to be better. As I've gotten older, I've seen him around town, and he always goes out of his way to say hi,. That's how I know he truly does care."

With all the changes over the years, he said the constant thing that he will take with him is his love for the students and faculty he has worked with, adding that he believes that teaching was the right path.

"There are two kinds of people in this world — people who get to be what they want to be and people who get what their world needs them to be," he said. "I've kind of come to the realization, as I've gotten older and done a lot of introspective thinking, I'm more of the latter."

Cedar High School Principal Terri Sanders was hired the year after Weaver was, and she said that over the years, she has loved experiencing his loyalty to the school and the people in it, adding that he is irreplaceable.

"I think of Cleve as a big brother, to be honest," Sanders told KSL. "Cleave is just a good man and he has dedicated his life to Cedar High and deserves a wonderful, happy retirement with all the fond memories.

"We will never be able to replace who he is and his dedication to students and Cedar High," she continued. "You don't replace people; you replace positions and we have a great new health teacher for next year."

Weaver had some advice for parents and noted a major thing he will miss as he enters retirement.

"If I could give parents advice, it would be to take the alerts off their phone from Canvas and PowerSchool because I think that causes high school kids as much or more anxiety than anything in their social life," he said. "Parents should check grades often, but not in real-time because real-time sometimes has a lag to it.

"I'll miss seeing my students around town," he added. "One of the funnest things is driving around town with my wife on dance nights and we'll see kids getting pictures. I'll miss being in their daily lives."

While Weaver may very well be the last man standing from the Cedar High School teaching class of 1993, he said he will hold on to one endeavor that is still very much a timeless pursuit —announcing sports on the local radio station.

"I became what I believe my family needed. I became what my co-workers needed. I became what my students needed. I'm more of what the world needed me to be, which is fine. I like how it turned out and I like who I am," he said.

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The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.

Related topics

Utah K-12 educationUpliftingUtahSouthern UtahEducation

Arianne Brown

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Arianne Brown is a reporter covering southern Utah communities, with a focus on heart-warming stories and local happenings. She has been a reporter for 14 years.