By VERNON ROBISON
The Progress
A new principal has been selected for Ute Perkins Elementary School in Moapa.
Grant Bowler Elementary principal Kelby Robison will step into the role previously filled by MVHS principal Hal Mortensen who is retiring. The change will be effective on July 1.
Robison will serve as principal of both schools. Assistant principal Marianne Eckenstam will continue to serve as day-to-day administrator at Perkins. Robison will provide administrative support just as Mortensen has been doing for several years now.
“I’m excited!” Robison said in an interview last week. “I just love that little school. It is going to be good.”
Robison is no stranger to this slightly unorthodox administrative arrangement at Perkins. He actually served as the first assistant principal at the school under Mortensen’s direction between 2017 and 2021.
Robison understands full well the reasons for such an arrangement at Perkins.
“It gives the assistant principal at the school some experience in doing work as a principal,” Robison said. “And it offers some consistency to buffer the effects of the revolving door syndrome when administrators change and move around.”
Robison had very positive things to say about Eckenstam who has served as assistant principal at Perkins since he left in 2021 to begin his current role at Bowler.
“She is great,” he said of Eckenstam. “She is very knowledgable and intelligent and she is always well organized and on top of things.”
Robison said that he had no plans for any big changes at the school. “Things are operating just fine so I am not going to come in and make big changes,” he said. “Just always working on finding small ways to make things better over time, just like always.”
Robison grew up in the Moapa Valley community, graduating from MVHS in 1993. After completing college, he taught science in the CCSD for 13 years, eleven of those at MVHS.
He served in administration as the dean; and eventually assistant principal; at Hyde Park Middle School for three years before taking the job at Perkins Elementary in 2017.
