Posted: 5/7/03

Robertson will leave FLHS

Cliff Buchan
News Editor

Mark Robertson will leave Forest Lake High School at the end of this school year. Where Robertson is going is a question the high school principal will likely answer this week.

Robertson, 50, has been offered the superintendency of the St. Francis and Fridley public schools.

ìI have two job offers,î Robertson said on Tuesday, confirming reports that the six-year high school principal here will be moving on to a new career challenge.

As of Tuesday, Robertson said he was undecided as to which job offer he would accept.

He has been in the running for the St. Francis position for the past several weeks during a period when he has also interviewed at Fridley. On Saturday, Fridley school officials said they wanted Robertson to lead their district.

The Forest Lake principal made a site visit to Fridley last Saturday and spent Monday in the St. Francis district.

ìI can tell you honestly we havenít made a decision,î Robertson said.

In the two job offers, Robertson must decide between districts with distinct contrasts.

St. Francis is a more rural district with 5800 students while Fridley is a metro suburb with 2600 students.

ìThey both have some wonderful strengths but have some big issues coming up,î Robertson said.

Fridley is a land-locked community with flat enrollment and a 20 percent student mobility rate each year based on students coming and going from the district, he said.

St. Francis is a sprawling district covering 160 square miles that serves a number of communities. While the district has no statutory debt, it is facing the need to raise local operating levy dollars, a task that has not been successful in recent attempts at the ballot box.

ìThey (St. Francis) need a levy clearly at some point,î Robertson said.

Robertson, now in his 27th year of education, said his decision may come down to what is the best family fit. The family has moved to Forest Lake and a relocation may now be necessary.

Robertson and his wife Kathy have one son, Nathan, a ninth-grader, still at home.

Robertson said he will leave the district with bittersweet feelings, but believes it is time for him to move and that change will be good for the high school here.

ìI came in at the right time here,î he said. ìWe got a lot of things done. There are strong emotional ties to this school.î

After health problems in 2002, Robertson says he is now cancer-free. He was diagnosed with lymphoma and also had successful cancer kidney surgery late last year.

ìI feel blessed for that,î Robertson said.

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