Recently, the Hillsborough County School Board had selected new principals for 34 schools and programs, including Bloomingdale High School. With Principal Sue Burkett leaving the position, Marcos Rodriguez is taking on the mantle as its principal.
Burkett, who grew up in the Bronx and has two children, had been the principal of Bloomingdale since 2013, and now she is moving on to become a regional superintendent for middle schools. She is excited for the opportunity to impact more schools and support principals, but she’ll miss being Bloomingdale’s principal.
“I’m gonna miss the kids and the community terribly. I’ve been in this community in Valrico for 15 years,” said Burkett. “That’s a long time to be with families and be in a community, so I am gonna miss the day-to-day interactions of the school.”
As she takes on her new position and passes the torch to Rodriguez, Burkett knows the school is in capable hands.
“I don’t have one concern about him,” she said, “and to bring him back into this community with such a strong music program and his music background, his knowledge of the community and to have a Hispanic leader in our population, where 30 percent of our student body is Hispanic, is huge.”
Born in Cuba and having moved to Miami and then Broward County until high school, Rodriguez went to USF for his bachelor’s degree in music performance and later received a master’s degree in education leadership.
He was an assistant director—later a director—at the Pepin Academies, and afterwards took the position of assistant principal of student affairs at Lennard High School. While there, he started his doctorate program, which he finished in April 2018.
He moved to Sickles High School as the assistant principal of administration for a year and a half and transferred to Bloomingdale with the same position until the end of 2019.
Rodriguez is looking forward to a lot of things, like continuing the tradition of academic excellence and strong community support that’s already there, as well as working with the staff students.
“I’m definitely looking forward to being here and helping to continue moving the school in the right direction,” said Rodriguez.
For more information about Bloomingdale High School, visit bloomingdale.mysdhc.org.
