November 10, 2025
Being a teacher has many rewards. None is as great as bumping into one of your students years later and feeling humbled that they recognized you, even though 25 years have passed.
This is what happened to my husband, Tim Franke, this past summer, when he was on the same flight as one of our former students from Mounds Park Academy (MPA).
My name is Karen Franke, and Tim and I had the pleasure of teaching at MPA from 1993 to 1999. It was a unique experience for us as we not only could work in the same school but also within the same grade level, sharing the same students (I taught fifth-grade social studies and language arts, and Tim taught fifth and seventh-grade science). Although this part of our life was a long time ago, we had very fond memories of our time at MPA. So much so that we have reconnected with many of our students on social media over the years. And what we have discovered about those fun, intelligent, well-read, and inquisitive students did not surprise us in the least. Their bright futures were evident to us way back then, given the dedication of the MPA community to ensure that every student reached their full potential. We both smile, thinking, “We knew them when!”
Although we were honored to be members of the MPA staff, we left the teaching profession by 1999 to expand our European importing furniture business. Expanding the business was not the only change we made. Shortly after building a retail store, we welcomed the birth of our triplet boys in the summer of 2002. Along with our oldest son, who was eight at the time, the Franke family was complete. We were living in the Elk River area, busy changing diapers, making bottles, and running the oldest to hockey and baseball each day. Things were hectic but going along well until, like many others, we experienced the fallout of the economic crash in 2005.
Long story short, in 2008, I went back to school to get my master’s degree in special education and have been working with children who have emotional/behavioral disorders in a public school near our home in Zimmerman ever since. Tim has been working as a national sales manager for Williams AV. They are a manufacturer of assistive listening devices for people who are hearing impaired. Our oldest son attended St. John’s University and got married this summer, and the triplets all graduated from the University of Minnesota. We are all happy, healthy, and thankful for our family, and for the connections we continue to make with our past students via social media….as well as the occasional “bump into” at the airport!
Tim and I are honored that we were asked to share an update on our lives post-MPA with the staff, families, and, most of all, the alumni. Thank you for all of the memories, and we send well wishes to all!
