As newlyweds in 1990, Scott and Cathy McKenzie started working for Park County School District No. 1. They’re now in their 30th school year in Powell.

Up until this year, they’ve always worked in different schools. But after undergoing various job changes, they’re working together at Powell High School.

With Scott as the new activities and athletic director and Cathy as a math teacher, they now see each other more often.

“I like having her here,” Scott said. “[We can have] lunch dates, see each other after school to get organized for the rest of the day. And before, she was at the elementary school, so we truly never saw each other. Now, we can hop in and see each other.”

Scott said they unofficially met on their first day at Northwest College in 1984.

“My room was right by the main entrance and these girls kept coming by every 20 minutes, all loud and boisterous. Being the cool guy I was, I told them to shut up,” he said.

Scott looks to his wife: “Am I accurate so far?”

Not really — he actually believes this because he’s told it so many times, Cathy said.

Officially, they met through a girl that Scott went to high school with, who was also friends with Cathy and introduced the two.

At the time, they didn’t think they’d both end up pursuing teaching.

“Cathy was very on the ball and she knew what she was going to do pretty much from the get-go,” Scott said. “But me, not so much.”

Scott was hoping to be a sports reporter for a newspaper.

“In those days, you put the paper together by cutting out the article, pasting it on, creating the borders [and] I just didn’t like that [being] up until 3 a.m. and the deadline, so I went to my adviser and said, ‘What can I do with all of this writing?’” said Scott.

His adviser mentioned teaching English, and with his athletic interest, he could also coach.

Later on, Scott and Cathy both went to Black Hills State University in Spearfish, South Dakota, to pursue a degree in education.

“On the fence about what major to declare, he kept taking classes and eventually went to school for five years, then six years and I told him to just pick a major,” Cathy said.

While Scott continued college, Cathy taught at a school for a year in Newcastle.

The couple moved to Powell in July of 1990 — a year after getting married. Cathy started teaching at Parkside Elementary School while Scott taught English at Powell High School. He later became the dean of students.

After former PHS principal Jim Kuhn retired, different positions opened up, where Scott added another title to his position: He is now the activities and athletics director along with the dean of students.

“I love the athletic director [position] because I’m such a sports guy and I had truly been to three swim meets in all 29 years, and I doubled that this year,” said Scott. “It’s wonderful to see the other coaches and how truly amazing our coaches in Powell are and I enjoy scheduling contests for the athletes. And I go to every single event now and I love it, so it’s been a nice fit for me.”

Meanwhile, with an increased number of incoming freshmen in the future, the high school had to bring in more teachers. Cathy decided to move from teaching fourth grade at Parkside to algebra 1 and geometry at PHS.

“[I] was just looking for change because I taught fourth grade already for 30 years and I just decided that [since] Scott got a new position and the girls had left for college, I thought that I would try something new,” Cathy said.

She added: “It’s different because I’m only teaching one subject and I see a lot more kids, but it’s really the same in a lot of ways. You still have the same problems and the same good things but it’s different just teaching math as opposed to everything and having 140 kids instead of 20.”

With 30 years under their belts, the McKenzies continue to feel blessed for the town they learned and grew in.

“We’ve only taught in Powell and we love Powell,” said Scott. “Powell has been very good to us and we’re blessed [for] the school, community, everything.”

Adds Cathy, “we started here and we’ll retire here” — while Scott knocks on a wooden table.