Starting in January for the new semester, Dr. Rako Morrissey has taken the position of Roswell’s new principal following the resignation of the previous principal, Ms. Latoya Miley who served as the principal for a little over two years. Morrissey has been a part of the Roswell community for 11 years as the Principal at Crabapple Middle School, one of Roswell’s two feeder schools.
The process of picking a new principal involved interviews with the RHS School Governance Council, and the zone super attendant, Ms. Angela Parham.
Morrissey began her career as a math teacher which lasted for 10 years before becoming an instructional coach in Cobb County.
After the instructional coach’s position elimination, she moved into administration and first worked as an assistant administrator. Then she became an assistant principal.
Sophomore Sydney Varghese said, “I like the new principal, so far she has been good about communicating and she has a good structure for our school.”
Coming into 2025, Morrisey has some goals and aspirations for the school starting with more feedback. She is interested to hear feedback from not only administration but also school staff, parents, and students.
When asked why she is looking for feedback from students Morrisey said, “Because you are the ones who live here every day four hours also and we need to make it a place where not only are you challenged academically but you can have some fun and good times also.”
Some of the new goals being set in to school this year from Morrisey include the tardy policy.
This policy enforces punishment for every time a student has more than five tardies in one week. Examples of these punishments include detention, in-school suspensions, and out of school suspensions.
Another goal for the school year she is implementing is the bathroom policy.
The bathroom policy is demonstrated by students retrieving their computers from their backpacks. They will pull up a screen asking for the teacher’s permission and if granted a 5-minute timer will pop up. If the student is not back in time before the timer runs out, they will receive a teacher consequence.
Administration and Morrissey have established these policies with the hope of reducing classroom distractions for teachers.
When asked about the purpose of the new policies being implemented, Morrissey said that part of Roswell’s job is to prepare students for life after school, so these policies are implemented to prepare students for that.
Morrissey said, “I think we as people do well under some sort of structure. I think when we are about clear what our boundaries are, clear about what expectations are then it is easy to meet those.”
