The one and only Mr. Valdes, Miami Senior High’s beloved principal, is known for always being a helping hand and a friendly face. You can often catch him roaming around this amazing school!

Life as a Principal

Mr. Valdes makes running a school look so easy, even though being a principal comes with many responsibilities. As a principal, Mr. Valdes makes sure students are safe, they get a good education, and their teachers prepare them for the future.

“Nothing is easy about being a principal,” he said. “It’s a great responsibility.” The hardest thing is the pressure that is put on him to make sure all students are successful. He has been a principal at Miami High for 9 years now, but before becoming a principal, Mr. Valdes had other jobs including park counselor, school security, and teacher.

MHS Alumni

Not only is Mr. Valdes the principal of Miami High, but he is also a Miami high alumnus from the class of 1989. When he was attending school, there was less pressure on the students such as taking many tests as they do now, but he believes that students back then still did have to work as hard.

He found his high school experience to be great playing basketball here and getting a lot of support from others. His favorite part of being here was being able to play in front of thousands of people.

Mr. Valdes was not very involved in many school activities because he was only interested in being on the basketball team. While attending Miami High, Mr. Valdes’s favorite class was P.E.

Former Athlete

Not only did he play for Miami high, he also went to college to play basketball. His position in basketball was guard. While playing, he only got minor injuries that were never serious.

Looking back on his athletic career, Mr. Valdes would have not changed a thing. “We won a lot of games and learned from losses, and had lots of fun while playing,” he said.

Life Outside of School

Born in Miami in 1972, Mr. Valdes is 45 years old. He is happily married and has two daughters. In his free time, Mr. Valdes  tries to go fishing any chance he gets, which is usually on weekends. He likes to fish in the deep sea, and the largest fish he ever caught was a young bullshark.