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Milton Academy headmaster to resign
(Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff file photo)
Robin Robertson, shown on the far right last month, will leave Milton Academy at the end of the month.
By Maria Sacchetti, Globe Staff
Robin Robertson, the embattled head of Milton Academy and one of the highest-paid headmasters in the state, is stepping down after eight years, effective July 1, the president of the board of trustees announced today in an e-mail.
Robertson, who earned more than $370,000 a year, is leaving after a period of public turmoil at the K-12 school south of Boston, where tuition runs as high as $36,775 a year for boarding students. Some parents and other boosters were angry about reports that trustees were considering shutting down the Lower School and raised more than $7.2 million in just two weeks to preserve the lower grades.
Relations between parents and trustees had improved recently, when trustees released a proposal that would address the school’s financial concerns without shuttering the lower grades. But the proposal to close the lower school was not yet off the table.
The e-mail announcement did not give the reasons for Robertson's departure but praised her work and said she plans to return to the "interests in archaeology and anthropology that have fueled her distinguished academic career."
"Robin has devoted eight years of round-the-clock energy and vision to Milton Academy and we are grateful for her accomplishments; they are extraordinary in number, scope and importance to this School," Franklin Hobbs, president of the board of trustees, said in the e-mail. "Robin has measurably strengthened Milton’s facilities, administrative leadership, academic and extracurricular programs, and fund raising during her tenure."
The principal of the Upper School, Rick Hardy, will serve as interim headmaster while the school conducts a national search for Milton’s 12th head of school, Hobbs said.
