By LINDA CHION KENNEY
The ribbon-cutting for the Hillsborough County school district’s largest school ever built took place last week in Wimauma. Family members showed up in force to pay tribute to the school’s namesake, Aquilla Jackson Morgan.
Center stage at the ceremony, along with family members, school officials, construction representatives and community players, were two women who share a special bond — Morgan’s granddaughter, Latoya Lovett, and Morgan’s charter principal, Brittney Wilhelm.
The weight room overlooks Morgan High’s two-story gymnasium in Wimauma.
A birds-eye view of the Morgan High gymnasium, replete with Jumbotron
On behalf of her large family, many in attendance at the July 30 ribbon-cutting, Lovett wrote a letter to Wilhelm, reprinted in the celebratory program. The family also presented a school donation for $10,000, which they raised from family and church connections.
“Mrs. Wilhelm, lead knowing you are not alone,” reads Lovett’s letter, which refers to Morgan’s familial nicknames. “Our beloved ‘Mama’ and ‘Big Mama’ took great pride in knowing what it meant to be a part of big changes. Now, her work and worth are honored, and the torch has been passed to you to continue leading.”
A lifelong educator, Morgan was the first African-American teacher hired at Wimauma Elementary School after the Civil Rights Act passed in 1964. During her 40-year educator career, Morgan taught Head Start, kindergarten, second grade and fifth grade. She died on Sept. 21, 2022, at age 80, remembered also as a community “servant leader” who embraced the needs of all. Indeed, school board member Henry “Shake” Washington, in voting for the Morgan school name, called the namesake, the “Queen of Wimauma.”
Principal Brittney Wilhelm, right, holds hands with Latoya Lovett, granddaughter of Aquilla J. Morgan, the namesake for the newly opened high school in Wimauma. With them is a small group of the many Morgan family members in attendance at the school’s July 30 ribbon-cutting.
Wilhelm, an East Bay High graduate who hailed from Wimauma, started her education career in 2006, as a secretary at Beth Shields Middle School in Ruskin, which feeds into Morgan and Lennard high schools. With a bachelor’s degree from the University of Florida, Wilhelm became a teacher at Shields in 2011. She also was assistant principal at Lennard (2016) and Middleton High (2020), and most recently left the principalship at Jefferson (2022).
In an interview after the ribbon-cutting, Wilhelm took note of Morgan High’s special features, which include a two-story gymnasium, the first of its kind in the school district, replete with a Jumbotron, large-scale video display. Displayed in supersized lettering on the bleachers, A.M.H.S. depicts the initials for Hillsborough’s 29th district-operated high school.
The Jumbotron, along with the school’s unique gaming classroom, “hits that future vision piece,” Wilhelm said, noting as well the school’s many other advanced safety features. “Teachers and administrators have key cards, the school can be locked down quickly with a touch of a button on many devices and hard corners are built into all classrooms, without the need for blue-line tape markings,” Wilhelm said. “All furniture is on wheels, so the pieces can be moved quickly in case of an emergency.”
A view of the Morgan High School media center
Wilhelm said she is excited to greet the students, who for the first year, as is district policy, will not include a senior class. School colors are orange, navy, black and white, and the Mustang is the school mascot. She stresses the importance of building community and traditions, and gave special attention to the school’s location, at 1712 West Lake Drive. Built on an 87-acre tract, plans call for adjacent middle and elementary schools.
Linda Chion Kenney photos
A cameraman gives perspective to the grand scale of Morgan High, a three-story high school campus in Wimauma.
“The bigger piece for me is where they picked the site and location for Morgan High,” said Wilhelm, who with her military family spent a good part of her childhood in Wimauma. Then a sleepy rural community, Wimauma today is one of the fastest-growing communities in Central Florida, with massive development plans underway and in the works.
“The school sits on Wimauma Lake, which has always been kind of the home out here, if you will, for the community,” Wilhelm said. “The lake is central to the community, so building a school on this property feels very fitting.”
In addition to the ribbon-cutting and an open house event days later, Morgan High was set for the back-to-school press conference scheduled for Monday, Aug. 4. The new school year for students starts Aug. 11.
“Get excited,” Wilhelm said, in addressing her message to students. “There’s a lot to learn and a lot of traditions to create. You can create this school around anything that is exciting to you.”