Meet Miramar High’s new principal, who is returning to where her career started
Shenee Rowe started as an environmental science teacher at Miramar High School after earning her biomedical science degree from Florida Atlantic University.
Now, she’s Miramar High’s new principal after being approved by the School Board of Broward County on Tuesday, June 23.
“I’m truly excited to be part of the work that’s happening there,” Rowe told the Miramar News, noting how special it is to return to where her career started.
Rowe has had many jobs since she started as a teacher at Miramar High, working in Broward County Public Schools most recently as an assistant principal at Blanche Ely High School.
The Miramar High principal job opened when Winfred Porter announced in April that he accepted an out-of-state opportunity. The South Florida Sun Sentinel reported that he took an executive director position in Fort Worth, Texas.
Rowe’s first assistant principal job was at Attucks Middle, and she said the comment she received the most was, “You’re not new.”
“I was very prepared. The experiences really shaped me,” Rowe said.
She had gone from Miramar High teacher to Plantation High teacher to Coconut Creek High department chair to magnet coordinator at William Dandy Middle School.
“That’s where I felt like I truly had ownership over ... [student] success. And after two years there, I received my first assistant principal position at Attucks Middle School.”
That’s when the big picture started to come into play and Rowe saw her impact across students and staff.
“I was very big on treating them in the same way I would want an administrator to treat my child,” she said.
The next big challenge was at Blanche Ely, a challenge she welcomed.
“I think that’s how you learn. That’s how you grow,” she said.
It was a transition not just for her, but also the departments, as she oversaw math and English, a large percentage of what’s factored into the school’s annual grade.
In the three years that Rowe was at Blanche Ely, it went from a D school to an A.
Now that she’s back in Miramar, she’s ready to get to work.
As principal, she wants the students to feel loved and inspired to learn whenever they enter the school.
“My grad goal is always 100%. ... When I say every, I mean every student,” she said.
She wants to focus on serving children within the school’s subgroups, including English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) or Exceptional Student Education (ESE) for students with disabilities, making sure they have high-quality instruction and positive relationships with staff.
Miramar High has about 2,000 students and Rowe is focused on all of them.
“I actually already looked at the data 10 years back ... because that’s going to drive the needs. It’s also going to drive the theme and it will drive the vision and the mission,” she said.
Rowe is excited to take on the role and is humbled by her new role.
“The best feeling is when you see a child graduate, the child who thinks they can’t, the ones who people think they won’t and the ones who don’t have that support system,” she said.
