Matuska’s career spans education, government

Mark Matuska was born in Olivia, Minn. during the huge March snowstorm of 1965. His father taught biology at Hector, Minn. and his mother stayed at home with his older sister. Both of Mark’s parents grew up in Jackson, Minn., and when his grandmother drove from Jackson to Olivia to visit him after his birth, Highway 71 only had one lane open due to the massive amount of snow.
She recalled honking her car horn to warn any car she might be meeting on snowdrift-covered areas of the highway because if they met, one of them would have to back up to the nearest intersection!
After a couple of years in Hector, his parents then moved to Heron Lake, Minn. as his dad landed his last job in 1969 to teach in Sheldon, Iowa, where Mark grew up.
Growing up in small Iowa town
Mark attended St. Patrick's Catholic School in Sheldon from first to seventh grade. He said he did keep the nuns extremely busy but didn’t have much difficulty with schoolwork. In fact, he said, most of the comments on his report card said he seemed to waste too much time in class.
At the end of one school year, he did get in some trouble during a class and the nun said, “if your dad finds out you might just miss out on your annual fishing trip.” In the end, his dad did find out about the issue. Mark said the consequences at home were always stiffer than those he received in school, yet he still got to go fishing!
He grew up with four siblings. All their names started with an M, in addition to his mother, Mona, but his dad's name is David. Today, an older sister, Mary, works at Oriental Trading in Omaha. Hi three younger brothers are Mike, a math teacher at Zumbrota-Mazeppa, Marshall, a salesman for Reliable Plus, in Spirit Lake, Iowa), and Matthew, in sales/management for Johnston Auto Parts, George, Iowa).
Mark attended the public school in Sheldon and was involved with football, basketball, baseball, and golf. He did set some records, he said, such as the school batting average and receiving yards, but his younger brothers ended up breaking all of them during their careers.
His dad was his 8th-grade basketball coach however Mark was not a starter then, but was the first guy off the bench during the game. Mark claimed he might have been the worst player that ever started on the varsity basketball team as he averaged more fouls than points throughout his career. He liked to be very physical, he said.
In football, he was a receiver and strong safety and weighed in at a "mean and lean" 135 pounds his senior year. He claims he has added just a few pounds since his high school playing days. 
Mark looked at different colleges and was offered a half scholarship ride to Mankato State University to play football. After seeing limited playing time his freshman year he decided, and his father strongly concurred, to concentrate on his academics instead.
From pre-med to education
He had considered pre-med at first, but after reflecting on the life he cherished with his father as a teacher, he decided on majoring in the biological sciences with an education degree.
In 1988 Mark accepted his first job offer in Algona, Iowa at the Bishop Garrigan Catholic school teaching high school biology and Advanced Biology.  He signed his first contract for $12,200 that included assistant football, assistant basketball, assistant baseball, and head girls golf coach. During the summers, he worked for Pioneer Hybrid in the fields managing seed cornfields and overseeing detasseling crews.
He said he was always busy, yet it was three of the most enjoyable and memorable years of his life.
A ‘significant’ birthday party
One “significant” day, he said, his varsity basketball coach, Tom Froehlich, who was a big Elvis fan, asked him to tag along to St. Benedict, Iowa for a 50th birthday party for some lady that Mark didn’t even know, but there would be an Elvis impersonator there. 
Mark said he wasn't that excited but said he would come along. That night, he met his future wife, Suzy, whose mother was the one who was actually celebrating her 50th birthday party!
Suzy grew up on a farm near St. Benedict and attended high school at Bishop Garrigan, but now worked in Chicago. Mark and Suzy were married nearly 20 months later in 1991 so they will be celebrating their 30th anniversary on August 16 this year.
After their wedding, Mark applied to earn his Masters in Educational Leadership at Mankato State while Suzy transferred from Xerox in Chicago to Bloomington. They lived in Lakeville so he would drive to night class in Mankato three to four nights a week and every weekend, while she commuted to her job in the cities.
Mark substitute taught during the day in Richfield, Burnsville, Lakeville, and Farmington that year and finished his Masters degree in 11 months.
In 1992 they moved to Pipestone, where he received his first principal position at the middle school at the age of 27. He still needed to obtain his 6th-year certificate that year so he needed to drive to Mankato during the evenings and weekends. Unfortunately, Suzy still had her job in the Cities so she would get up at 2 a.m. every Monday morning and drive the long 200 miles working a schedule of four 10-hour days, staying with friends during the week in St. Paul, and returning to their home in Pipestone Thursday evening.
What next? Mark and Suzy broke the great news to their families that they were expecting their first child the following summer.
In 1993 Mark was looking desperately for a principal position closer to the cities and missed out on one great possibility in Hutchinson, but had a good feeling when he applied at Watertown Mayer. He received the call from the superintendent on his return from the interview and held the middle school principal’s position from 1993 – 2001.
It was a great place to live and raise their family, he said, and they have made many good friends which they still enjoy getting together with as much as possible.
Government service calls
One day in January 2001 he received a call from the Chief of Staff, Pat Fiske, for newly elected Second District Congressman Mark Kennedy, asking if he would meet him for lunch. All of Kennedy’s children had attended the Watertown-Mayer Middle School while Mark was the principal and the two of them had attended church together in Watertown.  Fiske asked if he would consider being a district director, but Mark said he told him he didn't know too much about running a congressional office, he had three young kids, and that he really loved his job as a principal.
He said he let him know he was not really interested but would talk to his wife about it. Mark thought his wife would be a little skeptical, but instead, she told him to “go for it” and that if it didn’t work, he could always come back to his first love in education.
So he scheduled to meet the congressman at 5 a.m. the next morning. Kennedy let him know he could work a lot more hours and make a lot less money, but he would pick up a Masters Degree in what makes the world go around every three months. Mark said he likes to learn, thus he left his middle school position and ended up becoming the district director for the Second Congressional District.
Mark’s job was to represent the Congressman in the 28 counties of southwest Minnesota and fill in for him at meetings when Kennedy could not be there. He had a staff of eight people that dealt specifically with issues citizens in the district may have with any federal agency.
Mark was involved with the Transportation and Agriculture Committees and said he really learned a great deal about these topics to be able to talk to groups.
He also mentioned the irony that while in this position, the first $1 million earmark for the Highway 14 project from New Ulm to Mankato was provided by Kennedy, thus setting the tone for additional improvements all the way to Rochester.
During his first day in Washington DC, he attended a luncheon hosted by Gov. Jesse Ventura and the entire Minnesota delegation attended. Senators Dayton and Wellstone, Representatives Gutknecht, Peterson, McCollum, Sabo, Kline, Ramstad and Oberstar were all in attendance. Mark remembers it as a fabulous discussion about topics important to the State of Minnesota and what they could do collaboratively at the federal level to meet the needs of Minnesotans.
Mark said he would fly to Washington for meetings about every two months and would be there for four days each time. His role was to bring the needs of the folks in Minnesota to the legislative staff in DC, Mark said.
Another highlight in his first trip to Washington was that he was invited to the House Chambers in the Capitol for the first address President Bush gave to the nation in 2001.  Mark said security wasn’t very tight then and all he remembers showing the Capitol police was an ID and the invitation.
But things changed later that year. Mark remembers on Sept. 11, 2001, he was trying to get in contact with Kennedy after the twin towers were hit, but all of the phone lines were overwhelmed. When they did finally get connected he remembers distinctly the words that came from his boss's mouth. “I can see the plumes of smoke coming from the Pentagon.''
Also frightening at the time was that there were indications that there was another plane with the intent to hit the Capitol. That plane actually crashed in Pennsylvania.
Another vivid memory from that day was the gathering of representatives from both political parties on the Capitol steps singing patriotic hymns. He said he wishes that the same spirit of national unity could be present today.
Federal to State government
When Kennedy lost the Senate race against Amy Klobuchar he knew he would be out of a job so he started looking at new possibilities.
Tim Pawlenty was elected as the next Minnesota governor and Gene Merriam resigned his position as the Commissioner for the Department of Natural Resources. Mark Holsten became the newly appointed DNR Commissioner and Mark, who was always known as Matuska because he kept working for men named Mark, had known each other fairly well due to their meetings at the governor’s annual fishing opener and with other conservation groups over the past six years.  Mark gave Holsten a call in January 2007 and asked him if he had any openings for a former district director who had a background in conservation.
Holsten said “meet me in St Paul in the morning and we will talk.” Mark was interested in the deputy commissioner position, but Laurie Martinson had just been offered that position. Instead, he was offered an assistant commissioners position and was assigned to legislative duties in St. Paul. Not long after, he was named regional director of the Southern Region and would be headquartered in New Ulm. He would drive 67 miles to his New Ulm office from Waverly and said he would count pheasants and deer while on the trip but once a week he needed to drive to St Paul and all he could count were car bumpers.
Mark said he really enjoyed the job, especially when he got out in the field where he would work with staff who were on the ground. He provided oversight of 350 staff including people from fisheries, wildlife, trails, parks, conservation officers, and others. He said he really felt the DNR people in the field were passionate about their jobs in comparison to quite a few in St. Paul who were more or less planners rather than doers, in fact, the word bureaucracy was even mentioned a couple times.
When Mark Dayton was elected Minnesota governor, Mark knew he was again going to be out of a job with the change of political parties. He thought... is my next role going to be back in education or in another role. He thought back to his conversation with Suzy and returning to education seemed like the perfect way to end his career.
Back to Education
He contacted Mankato State University about getting into the Superintendent Certification program, but was denied by Candace Raskin because they were too full! Mark explained to her that he received his
bachelors, his master’s, and his 6th-year certificate from MSU and he needed to complete this to be employed next year. She informed him the class was full and again denied his request. He then contacted St. Cloud State and spoke to Kay Worner. She said the class is full but we understand your predicament and with your background, we want you in the program. Mark said he really has an appreciation for what she did for him and owes her greatly.
While he was in the program Mark looked at jobs and was down to the finalist in two schools, a school in Iowa City and a town in Southeast Minnesota.
When he visited the Kasson-Mantorville community, he stopped out at the motel along the highway and talked to ladies during their morning swimming exercise.
They all had great comments about the KM community and the school district. He then stopped at Daniels and the group of men gathered for coffee that morning also had very positive things to say. He then went to Erdmans and found the store felt like being back home.
The school board brought Mark and Suzy to the Hubbell House for dinner during the interviews and they were both overwhelmed with the courtesy of the staff and the great food.
When he was driving back home after the final interview, he received a phone call while crossing the railroad tracks north of Cannon Falls on Hwy 52, and he was offered the position. He said he remembers the excitement as if it happened just yesterday.
Coming to Kasson-Mantorville
They were now a family of four that needed to find a new home and move their children who were now a senior, a sophomore, an eighth grader and third grader.  Mark and Suzy wondered how they would accept the change of school but they adapted very well. The children were able to spend a day that spring with their future classmates at KM and it made all the difference in the world, Mark said. In fact, two of their children found their spouses from their time at KM Schools and he now has two grandchildren living in Mantorville Township and not too far in the future will be attending school at KM.
Mark said one of the best decisions he has ever made for his family is moving to the Kasson-Mantorville area. He said he feels the KM community gives overwhelming support to the school and really shows KoMet pride.
Between the constant (and significant) donations of individuals and businesses to school activities and athletics, in addition to all the KoMet T-shirts he sees people of all ages wearing, there is no better place to be the superintendent. He says people really support the Dollars for Scholars program as much as anywhere he can think of. Mark said he believes that students and their families are offered many great opportunities within the communities, in addition to a premier education in the school district. 
He is appreciative of the efforts of the staff at KM and believes they are truly committed to the kids they encounter, academically, emotionally and socially. The passionate pride in the schools is contagious, which is why more and more parents continue to support and choose Kasson and Mantorville as the place to raise their children, he said.
Mark said he genuinely enjoys talking with people and working with members of the community. He said he really loves to serve others and enjoys being a member of the KM Lions where “We Serve” is the motto of the organization. He is also a member of the Rochester and Kasson Chambers of Commerce, the 2021 chair of the Care and Share Committee, 2020-2021 chair of the Region I MASA Superintendents organization, 2020-2021 chair of the Greater Rochester Advocates for Universities and Colleges, in addition to participation in a number of other local and regional organizations.
Time to clear his mind
Mark said sometimes he just needs to clear his mind and starts thinking about what he would like to see accomplished at the school. Sitting on a five-gallon pail ice fishing, spending time in a duck blind, driving to a location when the others are sleeping in the car helps refresh his mind.
Nearly every year since 1996 he has gone with a group of guys to the Churchill River in Saskatchewan to fish for seven days. The camp was started by a group of farmers from Iowa and his father-in-law is part of the group.
There are no roads to the camp and rarely do they see any other people, which gives him a chance to recharge and reflect. The camp doesn’t have many of the modern conveniences, but they finally did get a shower installed using warmed lake water that made it better. But one thing is certain, he said, they catch a lot of big fish.
Unfortunately, COVID prevented them from going last year because the US/Canada border was closed. With the flights to Alaska dropping to nearly $200, he flew to Alaska with his son Drake and brother Mike and nephew Joel to fish out of Seward. 
They brought back 260 pounds of fish with his son catching a nearly 150 pound Halibut on a 16 ounce jig with a white twister tail. He said it was a trip of a lifetime.
Mark also likes to fish locally. He said he has not missed the Iowa fishing opener for 54 years and does catch walleyes (not bullheads) fishing off the dock in the Spirit Lake, Iowa area. They stay in a small boathouse that was built by his grandfather and dad (and he helped at age seven) and can squeeze in six people to sleep. Some of the best memories in his life, he said,  are linked to the times spent with family at the boathouse.   
Speaking of fish, even though Mark has Czech heritage, he and his parents have enjoyed eating Lutefisk at the annual local church Lutefisk supper!
He is also a member of the Jackson Gun Club that has 13 members and eight of them are Matuska family members, including one Berge! The Victor Pohlman family has provided them an opportunity to hunt on the leased land, which is a great wilderness area between North and South Heron Lake for over three-quarters of a century. 
Mark said he loves to be outdoors and is an avid “bird” hunter. When you name your son Drake, you know he is pretty serious about it.
Mark said he used to watch a lot of pro and college sports, but has lost interest over the years as the names on the Vikings and the Twins change too rapidly. He said he would rather listen to sports on the radio while hunting or fishing than watching them on TV.
He really prefers to watch high school sports, especially watching kids from school that are taking part in the game. With his youngest child, Olivia, graduating this year, he will get an opportunity to watch more of the sports that historically have been head to head with his kid’s sports.
One of the things his family has tried to do recently is to travel to various places as a family over the New Years' holiday. They have been to Austin, Tex., Miami, and North Carolina and hope to keep up the tradition to find the time to connect as a family and spend quality time together. 
Mark said he is grateful that it was also important to his grandparents and his parents and he wants to pass the importance of family time on to his children and grandchildren too.
Faith (his and his families) is also extremely important to Mark. Besides weekly Mass, he meets with a group of guys Friday mornings at a 6 a.m. breakfast for a book, Bible study, and conversation.
Meeting with Larry, Gaylord, Dave, Phil, Ron, David, Aaron, Chad, and Wayne helps keep him centered each week and he is fond of the relationships that have developed, he said.  Mark said he is pleased they allow “the token Catholic” to be part of the group!!
Mark is in his 10th year as the KM Superintendent. He feels it has been a fantastic experience and he truly enjoys the great things that have come to his family living in the Kasson-Mantorville community!