PHOTO VIA Lori Diekoff

Ross Fleming, one of Mounds View’s longest-serving teachers, has decided to retire at the end of this year. As Health and Phy. Ed. teacher, he hopes to leave his students and the community at MVHS with the many lessons he has imparted over the years.  

Fleming began teaching at Mounds View in 2003 but has been coaching the boys’ track and field team since 1986. Unlike many teachers who begin teaching fresh out of college, Fleming had an unconventional career path, landing his teaching position in his thirties. From wanting to major in history to working at a health club, he describes each of his prior experiences as failures that finally pushed him to the teaching and coaching positions he has now. 

While he started with uncertainty, 40 years later, Fleming says he is living out his dream life. “I get to be exactly where I want to be, doing exactly what I want to do, and that’s a huge blessing,” he said. “This is perfect. It’s a lot of work, [and] it’s really tiring, but it’s working.”

He is passionate about his job and the ways he gets to inspire and motivate students with his health lessons. “I’m able to convey [living a full life to my students], and the kids are buying it, and they’re talking to me about their lifestyle changes. Parents are emailing about the transformation that’s taking place with their kid at home, and they’re thanking me. They wanted this for their kid, but it took a different voice, and I was that voice, and so that was really gratifying,” said Fleming. 

Known for his strict teaching and coaching, Fleming has also helped instill good habits in his students, including grit, respect and hard work. He enjoys challenging his students, whether through insightful lessons or even his frequent bantering. “In class — I don’t know if many people like this — but I like how serious he was about it. He wouldn’t take any crap from anyone. He’d make sure that he stayed on topic and that you were a nice, respectful student,” said senior Samuel Geer. 

Throughout the years, Fleming’s role as both a teacher and coach allowed him to build deeper relationships with many students as well. “He taught me not to put so much pressure on myself to succeed. He taught me just to accept where I am and just be grateful for where I am. He’s like, ‘I trust you. You just got to trust yourself.’ So that helped me to have a great year last year with track,” Geer said. 

A decade ago, Fleming had said that what he most dreaded was retirement, and such sentiments were visible among his current students. “I was honestly surprised he’s retiring this early, since he seems so active that he wouldn’t retire,” senior Spencer Olson said. However, Fleming said that he wanted to retire on his own terms this year, allowing the school and students to remember him as the hard-hitting, full-of-energy teacher he is. 

Fleming has many plans for retirement, including reading up to 60 books per year and hoping to make it through the “well over 2,000 books” he has around his house. “There are documentaries that I’ve saved that I want to see. One of my hobbies is military history and autobiographical or biographical history. I want to read more of those,” he said.

No matter what Fleming gets up to in retirement, his students will miss him and his unique influence on Mounds View. “The school is definitely [going to] have a big gap to fill with another health teacher. If you look on his wall, he has like hundreds of grad cards there, so he’s obviously touched a lot of people. I think finding a teacher like him is gonna be pretty hard to fill,” said Olson.