Rosa's new job will be in familiar territory. He happens to be a 1992 Hanford High graduate, who after earning bachelor's and master's degrees from Chapman University, completed a long-term sub assignment with his former high school before accepting a full-time English job with Lemoore High School in 2002.
He taught English for six years at Lemoore High School before accepting a dean's job at Lemoore's new Middle College High School, a position he maintained for at least two years before the district transitioned him to the school's principal.
Rosa has spent most of his adult life in education, and along the way, Rosa managed to earn a doctorate in organizational leadership from the University of Laverne.
Rosa has been the district's assistant superintendent for the past five years, and when he begins his new job on July 1, he'll be replacing longtime superintendent William Fishbough, who is retiring after 13 years as the district superintendent and 35 years total in education. The district, during his term, built Sierra Pacific High School and a new ag farm.
Rosa has had an interesting life. While not a native of the Azores (he as actually born in Boston), the future educator spent many of his childhood years in the Azores. "All my family is from the Azores, but I was born in Boston, and we returned to the Azores to live," he said. "We went back and forth every summer."
Eventually, tiring of the Boston winters, Rosa's parents, Manuel and Rosalina, moved his brood of five children to Hanford where the weather somewhat resembled the Azores' climate. "They were just seeking a better life," he remembered. "They knew there were a lot of work opportunities, and they had five kids. They came to Boston never having seen snow. They realized Boston wasn't the best place for them and came to the Central Valley."
The family eventually got into the restaurant business. Mom and pop still own Selma's Rosa's Pizza while other family members own Boston's Pizza.
Young Victor had other ideas, but he had to get an education to achieve his far-off goals. For starters, when he started at Hanford's Lakeside School, he didn't speak but English, but he was a committed learner. "When I started here at Lakeside School, I had a little bit of English, but I was a second-language learner for sure."
But it turns out, he liked school, for a variety of reasons. "If I wasn't at school, I was home doing chores," he remembers.
He says he was fortunate. "When I started kindergarten, they had reading centers, but because I spoke Portuguese, there was a girl who spoke Portuguese, but she was in the advanced reading group. That put me on the path to becoming an advanced reader."
He said that in a couple of years, he was doing well. "I maintained in that advanced group all through high school, and I realized my passion was being able to help students acquire language as well."
He loves his current job and looks forward to starting work in Hanford. "I love being part of this support structure, and I love being that layer of support and just being able to help teachers who have a direct impact on students. To me, it's the collaborative part and just having an impact on students."
Rosa said that Hanford's got a lot going for it and has a multitude of opportunities for students. "I want to expand those opportunities for those kids and continue the great work they're doing in academics," he said. "They've also been doing great things in mathematics. I want to work hard on building their programs further and share some of the great things they're doing.
"I want to make sure everybody in the community know just what a great district it is."