School History

  • School History

    When Rodgers Middle School opened for the 1998 - 1999 school year, Earl Lennard was Superintendent of the Hillsborough County School District.  Joe Perez was named Principal of the new school, with Assistant Principals Neil Tustison (6th grade), Clara Davis (7th grade), and Marc Hutek (8th grade).

    Even at that time, the Riverview area was growing.   Rodgers began with over 1,463 students in a facility designed for 968, and was soon forced to add portable classrooms.

    Now known as Rodgers Middle Magnet, the school was named for Marion Simmons Rodgers (1927-2010).  Mrs. Rodgers was a passionate advocate for children throughout her life and a member of the Hillsborough County School Board for 20 years.  Quoted in the Tampa Tribune, Mrs. Rodgers said, “I’m so grateful the school bears my name, but there is no life there until they [students] walk in.  That’s what makes a building a school and alive, no matter whose or what name is on it.”

    The school year 1998-99 saw a myriad of firsts at Rodgers Middle School. First games in football, soccer, and volleyball.  First field trips, clubs, and dances. There was also Rodgers’ very first Student Council - headed by 8th grader, Dakeyan Graham.  Twenty years later, that same student was Dr. Dakeyan Graham, music teacher at King High School and the 2020 Florida Teacher of the Year.

    (Sources – Tampa Tribune, 8/13/98, 8/26/98, 9/17/98)