Community school coordinator Tommy Rodriguez joined the staff of Santa Fe High School in 2019, and he has brought light to the campus ever since. 

Being around young people has always been a passion for Mr. Rodriguez. He earned his degree in criminal justice from New Mexico State University and then worked in juvenile probation and parole for over 20 years. “They taught me a lot,” Mr. Rodriguez says with a smile. “We learned together.” 

It seems that Mr. Rodriguez ’s passion is getting troubled youths to move forward. “It feels good to be a positive force in people’s lives,” he said, “or their parents’.”

Mr. Rodriguez said that after he retired from juvenile justice, where he worked for 25 years as an employee of CYFD and juvenile probation, he wanted to continue being around young people whom he could help out. He didn’t want to stay home, and after SFPS offered him the position of community school coordinator, Mr. Rodriguez was instantly interested. He expressed how happy and proud he is to be a part of a group that helps students graduate as well as his contentment with the people he works with. “I try to be of service to the school and the students, families and teachers,” he said.

Mr. Rodriguez’s job entails administrating the Community School grant to support students and families at Santa Fe High. Some of the services the program has brought into the school in the past year are a food distribution program that partners with the Santa Fe Food Depot. The students’ hard work in this food program was recognized by Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona last spring.

CS has introduced a wilderness program that partners with the Santa Fe Mountain Center, and has worked with several teachers to start a family home gardening program where families grew vegetables at home during the summer. Several dance programs have been started with different teachers to include ballroom dancing and baile folklorico, and CS supports after-school tutoring and E2020 credit recovery. 

Mr. Rodriguez gives the credit to the ‘“amazing” site based leadership team at SFHS that guides and helps direct the CS program. This team includes teachers, administrators, parents and support staff. Mr. Rodriguez said that CS “would be lost without these amazing people.”

Outside of school, Mr. Rodriguez enjoys reading and watching sports, and he cherishes time with his family. He shared that his two kids graduated from Santa Fe High School, in 2015 and 2019, and expressed his gratitude toward the school. “They have a lot to offer here,” he said, adding that his children were “totally prepared academically” when they left SFHS, and he will “always be grateful for the amazing staff at Santa Fe High School.”