Our principal, Ricardo Rosales, has won an award titled “Secondary Administrator of the Year” due to the extraordinary job he is doing taking care of North Hollywood High School.

Ricardo Rosales has been the principal here for ten years. He has made a lasting impact on the school through continuous efforts for improvement and community engagement.

Mr. Rosales attended and played football at LAVC and later transferred to Utah State University through a football scholarship and got his bachelor’s degree there. Rosales got a master’s degree in teaching English to speakers of other languages. He also attended New Mexico University where he got his administrative degree as well as attending many other universities to get different credentials.

Rosales worked as an educator at various schools for twelve years and an assistant principal for twelve years at San Fernando High School, Van Nuys High School, and Van Nuys Middle School, before finally landing his first principal job here at NHHS.

With early ambitions to become a commercial artist and work in advertising changed after Rosales began to volunteer at a high school. “I liked working with students that had difficulty that maybe could have gone the right path or the wrong path but needed some mentoring so I wanted to be a teacher kinda relating to students that sometimes maybe aren’t heard or seen,” stated Rosales.

Mr. Rosales feels, “In the role that I have as a principal I’m able to help all students and everyone has different needs and needs different supports and I think I make decisions and I work with other adults to try and help out every student.”

“We try to acknowledge all students and try to help out everyone,” Rosales explained.

Rosales has worked hard to ensure improvements for the school and because of his dedication and attention to detail, his peers nominated him for administrator of the year.

The California Association of Secondary Administrators is a statewide organization Mr. Rosales is a part of. Someone in our region, the 16th, nominated Mr. Rosales for [High School] Secondary Administrator of the year.

There the nominee’s success with working with students, acknowledging them, working with academic achievements, and trying to help out everyone is used to determine who would be awarded the title of “Secondary Administrator of the Year”.

Rosales stated, “When they were looking and the person recommended me they talked about all the wonderful things that the students had been doing, the teachers the staff and that a reflection of me and that’s a reflection of the team that works with our students”

Rosales felt awkward about winning the award, “I come to work to work. I come every day to try to make things better. I don’t expect to have any acknowledgment…My mom’s happy people I work with around me are happy for me. I like to see them happy. I like to see joy in others.”

“It is nice because really when I win an award, North Hollywood High School wins an award because all that committee looked at was all the good things, all the positive things that the students and the staff do at our school.” continued Rosales.

Outside of work, Mr. Rosales has a variety of hobbies that he enjoys. Mr Rosales stated, “I like to go fishing, I like saltwater fish because fish are bigger in the ocean.”

“I enjoy gardening. I learned a lot from the agriculture teachers and students, FFA, I think I’m an honorary member because I do spend a lot of time trying to learn from my students and from Mr. Lepore and Mrs. Benitez… I do enjoy working with soil and worms and trying to get things to grow and I look forward to growing some tomatoes and peppers this summer [to] see if I improve” Mr. Rosales added.

“I do play the accordion and that’s something I picked up over the years. I’m not great. That’s another thing you just gotta practice right, practice every day to try to get better… and I do like Tex-Mex, conjunto, norteño music. When I was younger I couldn’t understand too much when I heard it but now I’m fascinated and I love playing my accordion. It’s very therapeutic,’ recalled Rosales.

With so many hobbies and a fulfilling job, Mr. Rosales feels, “Life can be frustrating right? But you just keep working hard and you can work through all of these things, really you can and good things will happen in the end as long as you give it that effort.”