For senior prank day, the class of 2022 taped 2,022 photos
of McNeill all over the school.
He is affectionately and respectfully referred to as Reggie Mac.
One faculty member wrote a tribute to this principal, but was too choked up with emotion to read it out loud.After 25 years, Reginald McNeill is retiring as principal of Eleanor Roosevelt High School (ERHS).
“For 25 years, more than 18,000 students have come through Roosevelt,” lead Assistant Principal Avery Taylor wrote in a speech read by AP Capstone coordinator Troy Bradbury at graduation. “And I can honestly say that Mr. McNeill has come to work every single day with each of those 18,000 students’ best interests at heart.”
Full disclosure: Both of this reporter’s children attended ERHS, and I worked with McNeill while I was PTSA president. I couldn’t agree more with Taylor’s statement.
The first time I went into ERHS as part of the PTSA, I watched McNeill work in the hallways. He spoke with seemingly random students, calling them by name. He asked about their camping trips, their sports teams and their artwork. He knew their interests beyond classwork and he made sure they knew those interests mattered. This wasn’t a principal who stayed away from students. He got to know them and he showed them ERHS’ school creed known as the Roosevelt Way: Respect,
Responsibility, Integrity and Kindness.
Twenty-five years ago, more specifically on August 15, 1997, McNeill and Taylor started work at ERHS. Both men had a full head of hair, they said. And they both started as assistant principals. In 2007, McNeill was promoted to principal.
The school was big then. It is still big. With more than 2,100 students, ERHS consistently ranks as the best high school in the county and one of the best in the state. It is both the neighborhood school for Greenbelt (and a little bit of Lanham), and is home to a Science and Technology program that students test into.
Back at the beginning of McNeill’s tenure, ERHS not only had the Science and Tech program, but also several other career academies aimed at giving students the feeling of a smaller school, while getting the resources of a big one.
One such program was QUEST (Quality Education in Science and Technology). The goal, McNeill said, was to attract Black and Brown students to sciences and engineering. Students entered the program before ninth grade and dedicated summers to special classes. Their curriculum was mostly the same as the Science and Tech students, but they had additional QUEST classes as well. “I worked with a lot of parents, and a lot of students,” he said. He encouraged them. He nudged them. And when they got through ERHS, he celebrated.
McNeill’s son, Reginald McNeill II, went to ERHS, starting as a QUEST student. “I kept telling him he would be an engineer,” McNeill laughed. Apparently the young McNeill didn’t believe his father until he started robotics. Now Reginald McNeill II is a mechanical engineer at NASA Goddard.
And while McNeill is understandably proud of his own son, he said the pattern holds true for many students.
“The best part of the job,” he said, “is to see the students come in, struggle, and find their way.”
While ERHS still has the Science and Tech program, it no longer has many of the academies because state testing takes up more time. However, McNeill pointed out the school has AP Capstone, dual enrollment with Prince George’s Community College and AP classes available for all students as well as programs in music, arts, dance, language, sports and many clubs.
“Roosevelt is not a simple school,” he deadpanned.
When asked about advice for his successor, he suggested the new principal start by building connections with staff and faculty and figuring out what is working before changing anything. He mentioned that the school has had many dedicated and brilliant faculty and staff members, including Taylor, Eric Dent, Cynthia Cox, Yvette Goslee and Joseph Cook.
But it’s not only about the school, McNeill added. The new principal should build connections with the community as well.
“This community supports the schools,” he said while sitting in Roosevelt Center. “I went to a lot of Greenbelt awards for teachers and students.” He also mentioned attending sports, concerts, dance shows, drama and art shows in the community, activities that tied the town and school together beyond the academics.
He said he enjoyed these events, even as he is looking forward to leaving them behind.
For his near future, McNeill said he plans to play with his grandchildren, fish and swing a few golf clubs. “I want to just chill out for a few days.”
Which is fair enough. He’s been building communities for 25 years and every engineer knows that building takes energy. It is time for Reggie Mac to recharge.