Wharton Turns To A Familiar Face By Hiring New Principal Mike Rowan

A change in leadership at New Tampa’s Wharton High is bringing in a familiar face back to the school.

Mike Rowan (photo), who currently is the principal at King High on N. 56th St., will take over as principal at Wharton on July 1.
While he’ll have some headaches to deal with, as he tries to repair Wharton’s reputation in the community, one thing will be much easier for him — the commute.
Rowan lives in Pebble Creek, just across Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. from the school. His daughter, Delaney, graduates from Wharton this spring.

Not only is Rowan a community member and parent, he also is a former teacher and administrator at Wharton. He was a social studies teacher and soccer coach when the school opened in 1997. Then, in 2006, he was named assistant principal for administration (APA) at Wharton. He served in that capacity for five years before being named the principal at King.

“I’m excited,” says Rowan, who acknowledges he will be facing some challenges at the school, including a negative perception about Wharton. However, he says, “there are a lot of community members — parents, kids and faculty — who want to get rid of that perception. The biggest asset that Wharton has going for it is that all of the people involved – parents, kids, teachers and the community — want (the school) to be successful.”

He says he is looking forward to using his experiences as a Wharton parent, community member, teacher and administrator to make sure, “we are all on the same page, going in the same direction.”

Rowan replaces current Wharton principal Brad Woods, who has been in that role since 2008. Woods announced his resignation to school families on April 12, effective at the end of the current school year. He will move to a position in the human resources department at Hillsborough County Public Schools, as the manager of services and support.

The appointments were made official at the Hillsborough Public Schools School Board meeting on May 1.

Congratulations Go Out To Wharton High’s Top Students Of 2018! 

Wharton High salutatorian Sonile Peck (left) and valedictorian Anthonia Elensi (center, as well as top left on this page), who together founded the school’s Black Student Union earlier this year, with sponsor Rachel Shellman, who also is the school’s media specialist.

Wharton High Class of 2018 valedictorian Anthonia Elensi and salutatorian Sonile Peck have a lot in common.

Both went to Turner Elementary and Bartels Middle School before the schools were combined to become Turner-Bartels K-8 School.

They are both the youngest siblings in families with high achievers who previously graduated from Wharton in the top five percent of their respective classes.

Neither set out to have the highest Grade Point Average (GPA) in their graduating class, but once they realized they were on track, they kept doing what they were doing to stay at the top.

Both are getting ready to attend college and both plan to become doctors.

Anthonia and Sonile are both are widely respected for what may be the jewel in the crown of their high school careers — founding a Black Student Union at Wharton, which has become one of the school’s most popular clubs this year.

“We wanted to create a platform for black students to feel comfortable and have a community to be empowered,” Anthonia says.

They approached school librarian Rachel Shellman last year and asked her to sponsor the club.

Now, Shellman has nothing but praise for the pair. “They are phenomenal,” she says. “They have very strong leadership skills. They are both well spoken and they had a great year.”

She says the pair’s biggest success was planning the school’s first Black History Month celebration. They planned a school-wide event that Shellman says was very well received. “Students and teachers were very complimentary,” Shellman says. “No one knew what to expect for a first-time event, but they got a lot of positive feedback.”

Nearly 90 students joined the club, which Sonile and Anthonia say is a large one for Wharton, especially for one in its first year.

“Both young ladies are tremendous students – obviously, since they are valedictorian and salutatorian,” says principal Brad Woods. “But the way they were able to create the Black Student Union and grow its membership this year is also tremendous.”

Magda Rodriguez, the school’s college career counselor, who has been there since Wharton opened in 1997, says the pair are the first black, female valedictorian and salutatorian at the school.

“I don’t want my skin color to matter
,” begins Sonile. Anthonia finishes her sentence, “But it does matter.”

Last year’s Honor Court, which includes the Top 10 students in the school academically, had no black students. Anthonia and Sonile say the Black Student Union is a platform to help students do what they want to do, both academically and culturally.

As they graduate from Wharton, they are passing the torch to new leadership. Both hope that eventually, the club will include mentorship opportunities for its members. “If you can do something that can empower people of your skin color, you should,” says Anthonia.

In addition to the Black Student Union, both girls participated in clubs such as the National Honor Society and the Science National Honor Society at Wharton.

Sonile also participated in HOSA, the club for students who intend to be future health professionals that was previously called “Health Occupations Students of America.” Through this program, Sonile says she has prepared to take an exam in May to become a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA). She says she thinks being a CNA will be a great job for her while she is attending college.

Anthonia and Sonile took a combination of high school classes, advanced placement (AP) classes and dual enrollment classes. Anthonia’s weighted GPA of 7.81 just edged out Sonile’s weighted GPA of 7.77. They both expect to have more than 60 college credit hours when they start their college careers this fall.

As for her Wharton experience, Anthonia says she’ll take with her a lot of memorable lessons, such as perseverance.

“At times where I felt like I was doing a lot both academically and with clubs,” she says, “I learned it’s important to finish what you start – and finish strong.”

Sonile was accepted to prestigious Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD, the school of her dreams that she says motivated her to do her best throughout high school.

She is now looking at scholarships, which she says is the “harder part.” She also has been accepted at University of Florida in Gainesville, and will go there if it doesn’t work out for her to go to Johns Hopkins. Sonile hopes to one day be an oncologist.

If she does end up at UF, she’ll be there with Anthonia, who will attend the school to study health sciences, with the goal of becoming a doctor, although she’s not sure what field she wants to go into yet.

Sonile has some advice for younger students.

“Focus on the day to day,” she says. “Senior year is fun and exciting and eventful, but make sure you’re doing what you need to do right now.”

Congratulations to all of our graduating New Tampa high school students, whether at Wharton, Freedom or other public and private high schools. We will feature Freedom High’s Valedictorian Catherine Wang in our May 18 edition of New Tampa Neighborhood News.

2018 Wharton Top 10

1. Anthonia Elensi

2. Sonile Peck

3. Gregory Harvey

4. Stephen Maldonado

5. Yasmine Gillespie

6. Cameron Newborn

7. Alice Cheng

8. Rachel Hineline

9. Ashley Zack

10. Mackenzie Willman

Wharton’s Flag Football Team Faces A Tough Road To Make It To States

Top left: Flag football is not exactly no-contact, as Wharton’s Lauryn Thompson gets face-palmed after coming down with a catch. (Photos by Andy Warrener)

When Tina and Mike Roberts took over the Wharton High flag football team six years ago, they had just 22 girls try out, and very few fans attended their games.

“In years past, no one came to the games, not even the home games,” Mike Roberts says.

Fast forward to the 2018 preseason, and the Wildcats had 50 girls try out for this year’s team. Wharton maintains a 16-girl varsity squad and a 19-player JV team, and while currently unranked has spent most of the season ranked in the Class 2A Top 20 poll, according to FloridaHighSchoolFootball.com.

At last week’s game at Leto, the Wildcats showed off their firepower by throttling the Falcons 46-0. They also brought about two dozen fans along to stock the visitor stands, outnumbering those on the home side.

The victory improved Wharton’s record to 7-3 at the time, with the Class 2A District 7 playoffs looming. But getting out of districts is no easy task, as Plant showed Wharton two days after the Leto win.

Top Right: Wharton’s Parker Onderko leaps and makes the catch in the victory over Leto.

The Panthers, the defending Class 2A State champions, beat Wharton 26-0.

Currently ranked No. 3 in the state, Plant isn’t even ranked as the best team in the district — Alonso is ranked No. 1 in the state.

“If you can get through this district, you have a good chance to go far,” Mike Roberts said.

The Wildcats will need some upsets to get out of districts and into the State playoffs. Last year, they shocked Alonso in the District quarterfinals, before falling the following game to Plant in quadruple overtime.

The Roberts family has grown into coaching the sport of flag football. Tina says she came by it by pure accident. She was assigned the sport from the school administration seven years ago when it began. A year later, her husband Mike came on board. A year after that, their son Travis (23) also joined the coaching staff.

“Tina asked me to come on and help after an assistant left that first year and I fell in love with it,” Mike says.

Flag football runs the same way regular football’s 7-on-7 exercises do. Seven players line up in a passing formation. One defensive player is allowed to rush the quarterback and offenses can either pass or run with the ball. The offensive team must gain 20 yards to earn a first down.

There is no kicking in the game, so after each touchdown, the team has the option of running or passing for a one- or two-point conversion.

Girls flag football has grown from niche sport to one of the most popular offerings for female athletes. It only became an official Florida High School Athletic Association sport in 2003, but has more than doubled its participation numbers to more than 250 teams and 6,000 players competing since then.

“I loved just being a part of the team and having the opportunity to play and have fun,” says quarterback Marinique Reddin, one of the team’s top players.

Starting this school year, middle schools in Hillsborough County — including Benito, Turner-Bartels and Liberty — offer girls flag football. This is expected to help the high school game, which until now has basically had to rely on players competing in flag football for the first time. Tina says for years, most of her players had to be taught the game from scratch, which was a major disadvantage compared to other high school sports.

The Wharton High girls flag football team is 7-4 this season, and hopes to pull off a few upsets at the District tournament in a bid for the state playoffs.

“It’s going to make the sport that much better,” Mike Roberts says. “Next year, we’ll have eighth graders coming in that know the sport and you’ll see the payoffs.”

The Roberts’ dedication to the sport has helped build Wharton into one of the area’s better programs.

Reddin is tall and athletic and has the skill set to either pass the ball or tuck it and run, and scored four touchdowns in the win over Leto. Lauryn Thompson is another tall player with enough speed to score a touchdown any time she touches the football, which she did twice against Leto while adding an interception.

Both players are just juniors who have found their calling in the still relatively new sport.

“I love how competitive the game is and how the team has become so close, like one big family,” says Thompson. “If one of us needs help, we help each other out without downing each other. I look forward to practice every day.”

On defense, Ja’Nessa Ellis, Sade Seraaj and Mecca Bythewood had interceptions against Leto. Bythewood and Seraaj ran theirs back for touchdowns. Junior   Williams rushes the quarterback.

“It’s great to see what these girls can do with the football,” Mike Roberts said. “We put in plays and they execute them.” Look for updates at NTNeighborhoodNews.com.

Safety & Fighting The Primary Topics At Five Local Wharton Meetings

(L.-r.) Wharton High principal Brad Woods talks to a few parents at Heritage Elementary as Area 3 leadership coach Kristin Tonelli & athletic director Eddie Henderson look on.

In response to community concerns about violence and increased law enforcement at Wharton High earlier this year, school administration and district officials held a series of five meetings — at Turner Bartels K-8 school, Hunter’s Green (HGE) and Heritage elementary schools and Van Buren and Benito middle schools — between April 4 and April 11.

Designed to be smaller, more intimate gatherings where parents could ask questions freely, the meetings were attended by what could hardly be called “crowd” — in fact, a fraction of the hundreds of parents who showed up back in February for a larger meeting held on campus at Wharton were at the five meetings combined.

The meetings were led by principal Brad Woods, who, in a strange twist, announced his resignation from Wharton after 10 years at the school the morning after the final meeting at Benito.

In addition to Woods, the school’s six assistant principals and district staff — including Area 3 superintendent Dr. Anna Brown, who oversees Wharton and all of the New Tampa-area Hillsborough County public schools, and former HGE principal Kristin Tonelli, who is now the Area 3 leadership coach — attended all five. New Tampa-area Hillsborough District 3 School Board member Cindy Stuart attended all but one.

At the New Tampa-area meetings, attendance varied.

Administrators outnumbered parents 7-4 at the Heritage meeting, by far the least attended. The meetings at Hunter’s Green and Benito had about 30 parents each; roughly 20 were at Turner Bartels.

Some parents in attendance did express concern about the low turnout.

“I’d love to see more parents here,” said Jennifer Brooks, a Wharton parent.

But, administrators say their goal was to connect with the parents who did show up, no matter how many there were.

“It didn’t matter if the turnout was large or small,” Tonelli said after the last meeting. “We knew the community had questions and we wanted to provide answers.”

Woods stressed at each meeting that school officials had heard from parents on issues like better communication and student support, and improving school pride, which could include things like beautification.

A request has been made to have Wharton painted, but the cost could be $225,000 and the School Board would have to approve funding for that project. A campus clean-up and beautification day will be held on Saturday, April 28.

Parents and community members are invited to attend, although details on time and exactly what improvements will be made were not available at our press time.

Woods explained at the first meeting that new soap dispensers were being ordered that could not be as easily removed from the walls. Apparently, some students would empty the dispensers so that it was difficult to keep them filled. At the last meeting at Benito, Woods announced that the new dispensers had been installed.

He also addressed the issue of the smell of marijuana coming from the 100 Hall bathrooms at two of the meetings. Woods reported that a teacher reported the smell to the office earlier last week, and when no one was found in the restroom at the time, administrators reviewed security video and searched students seen going into or coming out of the bathroom during that time.

One student who was found with marijuana was suspended and arrested.

While administrators insist problems at the school stem from both local students who attend Wharton from New Tampa’s 33647 zip code and those who are bused in from outside of it, Woods reported that one parent has met with School Board member Cindy Stuart to propose new boundaries for Wharton, beginning a long process that could potentially end in rezoning at some point in the future.

Parents seemed to be reassured that the violence that was prevalent on campus a few months ago had calmed down. So, questions turned to issues of safety.

“We have your prized possessions here,” Woods said, adding that at Wharton, the perimeter of the school is being examined, and changes have been made to keep the students safer, such as opening and closing gates as needed, rather than leaving a gate open all day.

“It’s comforting to hear they’re managing the fighting situation and bringing it down to a normal level,” said Dale Miller, whose two children attend Wharton.

Following the final meeting at Benito on April 11, Brooks echoed the sentiments of several parents who attended the meeting. “I think they’re moving in the right direction,” she says. “I don’t expect everything to be fixed overnight, but I want to be kept in the loop.”

She says her 10th-grade daughter loves Wharton and she has no hesitations about her eighth-grade daughter attending the school next year.

“My two questions for any school are always, will you be safe, and will you be challenged?,” said Brooks. “The answer at Wharton is yes (to both).”

Brooks’ friend Christine Bonatakis has a daughter in eighth grade who will attend Wharton next year. “We have lots of friends and neighbors who attend Wharton and they’re happy,” Bonatakis said. “I feel very comfortable with my decision.”

Wharton High Community Trying To Clean Up The School’s Image

A slew of negative press — following reports of rampant fighting that has led to 67 arrests at New Tampa’s Wharton High this school year — has Hillsborough School District officials and Wharton’s staff, as well as parents, fighting back.

Wharton held a meeting in the school’s auditorium on February 19, drawing hundreds of concerned parents and local residents. A team of experts from the district is trying to determine the root causes of the problems – and find solutions.

The school’s image has taken a hit.

“It’s frustrating,” admits principal Brad Woods, who has led the school since 2008, “because it’s not an accurate picture of what Wharton is. It skews the general perception that things are out of control here on campus, and that’s not the case. We’ve got kids in class, kids learning, kids doing great things.”

Wharton’s proverbial black eye comes from widespread media reports of fights, some fueled by an Instagram account called “Wharton Fights,” which has since been taken down.

On February 8, a phone call from Woods to parents indicated the fights were the result of “a small number of students causing a disruption” and “neighborhood issues or posts on social media.”

While a large number of fights broke out on the campus in early February, it has been relatively calm the last few weeks. Since the community meeting on Feb. 19, Woods says, “We’ve had three (minor) altercations.”

He says all of the incidents were isolated and often happened because “kids are impulsive.” Describing the most recent incident at the school, he explains, “Two girls had a three-second conversation, one girl tried to walk away and the other grabbed her. It happened about 15 feet from [Wharton’s school resource officer] Deputy Williams. It’s not a lack of supervision.”

While Woods believes that media reports make Wharton look worse than it is, he is quick to ask, “Are there things we need to do better and improve?,” and just as quick to answer, “Yes.”

Making Changes

“We as a district are there, in full force,” says Dr. Anna Brown, Area 3 superintendent, who oversees Wharton and all of the New Tampa-area public schools.

Over the last several weeks, she and a team of district employees have been listening to students, parents and teachers to get to the root of the problem.

While she won’t name the experts, she says they are all district employees — including principals of other schools — who are investing in Wharton in addition to their regular day jobs. Each team member focuses on a certain aspect — including student safety, stakeholder engagement, student relationships and data monitoring, teacher leaders/professional development and administrative leadership. “These are people I have asked to join me (so we can) ‘turn the ship’ at Wharton,” she says. “They are doing double duty, (some) principals spending time away from their (own) schools and district employees finishing their jobs at night at home.”

She says the team members are seeing common trends and are implementing short-term solutions, such as facility maintenance and beautification, overall communication, restroom availability and cleanliness, scheduling adjustments (such as at lunch), increased adult/student interaction, and ensuring parking lot gates are closed and locked.

According to Brown, these and other short-term fixes set the groundwork for more long-term solutions, such as improving the school culture, engaging every student, providing rigorous content, and continuing to discuss zoning and boundaries.

“When I’m at Wharton, and I walk the campus and sit with kids at lunch, I don’t see a chaotic environment or horrific behaviors,” Brown says. “What I see are things that need to be fixed, such as overall school pride. I also see a supportive student body who want students who care about the school to stay focused and others to be dealt with by administrators.”

She also points her finger at another cause: “Kids got caught up in social media.”

Social media, however, is one way some parents have tried to combat some of the negativity surrounding the school.

Kristie Scism, whose son and daughter attend Wharton, says that when news of the arrests began to spread among parents, many other parents reached out to her with their questions. She thought an easy way to communicate with the group of parents would be through Facebook, so she started a group through the website.

“People invited people who invited more people,” she says, “and it quickly grew to more than 400 members. I thought about deleting the group, but instead I’ve been trying to think about how to keep the momentum rolling. I learn so much from this page.”

Over the past few weeks, the Facebook group, now called “Wharton High School Betterment,” has been used to spread the word about positive things happening at the school, such as members of the wrestling team qualifying for the State tournament, students on the speech and debate team qualifying for a national competition and the school’s LSA Theatre Troupe qualifying for the State level competition.

“Wharton Betterment” also been used for requesting volunteers from the community for help with the school’s beautification club, and showed off some before-and-after photos from the beautification club’s efforts.

This may support one area Woods hopes to improve — for more Wharton students to feel ownership and connection to the school.

“We have students from all parts of our attendance boundaries that don’t feel a sense of connection,” Woods says. “There are kids who live here in New Tampa and kids who live in the Busch Gardens area who have great relationships with teachers, and others who struggle to connect.”

Woods says a primary goal is to ensure all students feel safe on campus.

“There are things we need to do better to create a better sense of community in our school for kids to know this is a safe place for them,” he says, “and that violence/physical altercation is not the solution.”

This includes an effort to be sure students know about peer mediation and who to go to if they have a problem.

Many Wharton parents hope these efforts will lead to lasting change. “In my years, I’ve seen that there are seasons where there are a bunch of fights, then they get a handle on it and it’s quiet,” says Scism. “In terms of the fights, there’s kind of a crescendo. I don’t think we’ll see a lot of fights for the rest of the year because it reached its eruption phase.”

Scism is disheartened that it feels like her kids and other students are desensitized to the fighting, but says her children have never felt targeted or afraid. “Right now neither of my kids are affected by it,” she says, “but if we continue to have major fights every year, someone eventually is going to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Holly Garemore is another mom who says she stays on top of what’s happening at Wharton by participating in the school’s Parent Teacher Student Association (PTSA), and that, “my kids both feel safe there, and say it’s completely blown out of proportion, so I listen to them, too.”

Her younger son, Max, a freshman, was involved in an altercation this school year that she says was unprovoked, “and I was impressed with how the administration handled it. The student who hit him was arrested, even though it was her first time being in trouble at the school.”

Same Fights But More Arrests?

Some say that might be the cause of the high number of arrests.

“I don’t know what other schools do,” says Woods, “but a few years ago, we made a decision that a five-day suspension is not a strong enough consequence for fighting.” He explains that there is some leeway between schools and law enforcement to decide when to arrest students. At Wharton, he says, when students break the law, they will be arrested.

Brown agrees. “I do believe that the larger number of arrests at this school are related to a desire to squelch anything that’s going on,” she says. “There have been things that students have been arrested for, that kids are not arrested for at another site.”

She says that of the 67 arrests, 15 students were arrested at one fight. All 67 students have been recommended for a change in placement, so that they do not return to Wharton for at least one semester or one year. Many times, she explains, if students successfully complete the process, they return to a public school other than the one they left.

Although 67 is a concerning number, both Brown and Woods emphasize it’s just a small portion of a school that has more than 2,400 students. “We’re way too focused on a small population when there’s a large population that is having amazing high school careers,” says Brown.