Mark Kershner graduated from Sahuaro High School in 1976, where he played football, went to Boys State and was a candidate for Homecoming King. He went on to the University of Arizona where graduated in 1986. He did post graduate studies at Texas A&M and received his Masters in Educational Administration.
Mark has spent the last 19 years in education, teaching biology and coaching for eight years. He was varsity assistant in football and defensive coordinator and he also coached boys soccer. He was a high school assistant principal for nine years. Mark is currently in his second year as Principal of Santa Rita High School.
Mark states: “In the past year we have raised our academic standing at Santa Rita from a Performing School to a Performing Plus School. We received a Small Learning Community Grant (approximately one million dollars) to help in our quest of becoming an Excelling School. All of our math and English classrooms have been equipped with SmartBoards to help drive rigor and relevance to student learning. We are in the process this year of implementing SmartBoards in all Science classes. We earned the distinction of gaining the most improvement in the AIMS scores of all the TUSD high schools last year. We are a ‘school on the move’.”
Mark lists his interests as spending time with his family, reading, hiking, hunting, swimming, watching the “Cats” and the “Spurs”, and hanging out on the beach. Mark and his wife, Karen, have four children: Katelyn, Olivia, Kyle and Samuel.
Nominated by Bob Vielledent (Hall of Fame 2003)