Rita Vasquez: Deeply appreciated and irreplaceable

 

GOLIATH J. DAVIS, III, Ph.D. | Interim President, COQEBS

 

PINELLAS COUNTY — March 27, 2026, will long be remembered as a sad day for Concerned Organizations for the Quality Education of Black Students (COQEBS) and Pinellas County Schools. Rita Vasquez’s job as Executive Director of High School Education was posted. Rita is retiring.

 

Her departure will leave a tremendous void. Superintendent Kevin Hendrick will surely select a replacement to assume the position, but in my opinion, and in the opinion of others, he will not be able to find another individual with Rita’s passion for scholars, teachers, principals, instructional coaches, and others involved in educating Pinellas County students and closing the Achievement Gap.

In all my years working with the district, I always found Rita to be a genuine, loving individual guided by a deep, abiding faith and a “scholars first” orientation. She is technically competent, and her subject matter expertise is unquestionable. I always found her to be open, honest, trustworthy, and professional. Rita operates on the principle of “what’s good for kids.” Her style has always been to ensure everything possible was done to afford every scholar the best opportunity to gain the knowledge and skills needed for some degree of success in the real world. She pushed her coaches and principals to attend to their students’ individual needs, recognizing that not all of them began their educational pursuits on equal footing.

 

I have never been, nor will I ever be a proponent of concordance diplomas for the simple fact they have been institutionalized and gives the system permission to give up on struggling kids rather than adapt and reform the system so that scholars are not lost in middle school, thereby making the jobs of high school principals and educators unnecessarily difficult, if not impossible in some cases.

 

COQEBS, district administrators, and other subject-matter experts spent the 2025-26 school year examining education in Pinellas County at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. I think we all concluded that the district does its best work at the elementary level, but the gains made are lost in middle school, leaving high school educators with challenges that could be avoided if we reform the middle school experience. Rita earned my respect for the tireless way she works with high school educators to provide scholars who would otherwise be total failures with options to secure some degree of success and opportunities to eke out a living.

 

Rita is not an elitist. She never looks down on scholars and refuses to believe they cannot be successful. She is humble and compassionate, never seeks recognition or the limelight, and has worked for 33 years, 19 in the executive director’s position, for the betterment of Pinellas County scholars regardless of race, ethnicity, or economic status.

 

I thank God for Rita Vasquez, and I wish her the very best in retirement. COQEBS will miss her, the district will miss her, and the scholars she leaves behind will surely miss her. Rita’s replacement has big shoes to fill. I hope the individual is up to the task. If I were in charge, I would respect Rita’s right to retire and make every effort possible to place her on a contractual retainer. She has a wealth of institutional knowledge and experience, and it would be prudent to retain some access to Rita’s talents.

 

Rita, COQEBS appreciates your service, commends you on a job well done, and extends our sincerest gratitude for your dedication and devotion to Pinellas County scholars and the Bridging the Gap Plan.