{"id":143563,"date":"2025-08-13T23:06:19","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T23:06:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/143563\/"},"modified":"2025-08-13T23:06:19","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T23:06:19","slug":"arlington-isd-opens-62m-joey-rodriguez-junior-high-for-its-first-day-of-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/143563\/","title":{"rendered":"Arlington ISD opens $62M Joey Rodriguez Junior High for its first day of school"},"content":{"rendered":"

The beginning of school has been on 12-year-old Alexia Mu\u2019s mind for the entire month. The rising seventh grader was nervous about making the jump to junior high.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Alexia joined hundreds flooding through the doors of the new Joey Rodriguez Junior High for the first day of school Aug. 13. She knew she had plenty to learn.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI still don\u2019t understand much about junior high, all these periods and stuff,\u201d Alexia said as she walked to her first period class. \u201cIt just blows my mind, like I\u2019m already in seventh grade.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mother Funmilayo Rollins said her daughter, Ayomilde Dada, couldn\u2019t wait for the big day.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cShe woke up at 5 a.m., getting ready for school,\u201d Rollins said. \u201cShe had already packed her stuff last night. She\u2019s excited for meeting new teachers, the new environment and everything.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The first day meant new beginnings for students, parents and teachers. For others, it meant more.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2019, voters approved a nearly $1 billion bond that funded construction of the 155,000-square-foot school. Five years later, the Arlington ISD school board named the school<\/a> after a former soccer coach.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Joey Rodriguez was the head coach of the Sam Houston High School soccer team for 12 years, leading the team to state twice. In 2021, he died from COVID-19 complications.\u00a0<\/p>\n

His wife, Lena Rodriguez, and their three children, Mila, Lola and Ezra, stood outside the lunch room as students received their class schedules.\u00a0<\/p>\n

All four watched students walk by a mural depicting Joey Rodriguez\u2019s soccer team lifting him into the air after securing a state tournament berth in 2017.<\/p>\n

\"\"Students rush to first period Aug. 13, 2025, at Joey Rodriguez Junior High in Arlington. (Mary Abby Goss | Fort Worth Report)<\/p>\n

Lena Rodriguez, who teaches art in Grand Prairie ISD, said that seeing the mural was beautiful.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just captured the excitement of that moment,\u201d Lena Rodriguez said.<\/p>\n

The new building replaced Carter Junior High, which opened in 1958. Many of the staff from that school made the switch to the new school.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Football helmets from Carter Junior High sit outside Aug. 13, 2025, at Joey Rodriguez Junior High in Arlington. (Mary Abby Goss | Fort Worth Report)<\/p>\n

Principal Elena Lopez said she loved the new space and location.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe school is the heartbeat of a community, so I\u2019m feeling very empowered with this new campus and the things that we can bring in for our students and community,\u201d Lopez said. \u201cWe\u2019re now right in the center of where our students live. We\u2019re not on the outskirts.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Superintendent Matt Smith said seeing the project come to fruition in just under two years was special.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we get to open the doors to Rodriguez Junior High and see smiles on junior high students\u2019 faces, it\u2019s pretty spectacular,\u201d Smith said. \u201cWe\u2019re excited to welcome kids into our hallways again this year and get rolling.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The opening wasn\u2019t just a first day of school for Lena Rodriguez. It was a step in keeping her husband\u2019s legacy alive.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI truly feel like this is going to be a catalyst for so many students to see they deserve great things and help them turn around, come back, give back to the community and make it full circle,\u201d she said. \u201cThat way, his legacy never dies, and through his legacy, all of these other little baby legacies are being born and come to fruition, to greatness.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Chris Moss is a reporting fellow for the Arlington Report. Contact him at chris.moss@fortworthreport.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At the Arlington Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated\n<\/p>\n

Fort Worth Report is certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative<\/a> for adhering to standards for ethical journalism.<\/p>\n

Republish This Story<\/p>\n

\"Creative<\/a><\/p>\n

Republishing is free for noncommercial entities. Commercial entities are prohibited without a licensing agreement. Contact us for details. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The beginning of school has been on 12-year-old Alexia Mu\u2019s mind for the entire month. The rising seventh…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":143564,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5138],"tags":[11765,5229,7948,7371,7372,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-143563","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-arlingtonreport","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-arlington","11":"tag-fort-worth","12":"tag-fortworth","13":"tag-texas","14":"tag-tx","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115023969696955518","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}