If you listen to the afternoon announcements, then you’ve heard his distinct voice calling out, “Seniors, seniors, seniors” before. In the hall and on stairs, he is also known to ask kids “Why aren’t you safe Croc-ing?” He is 9^th grade assistant principal Mr. Zabala, who can also be seen all over campus in his pursuit to plant 1,000 orchids at Miami High.

A teacher first, then an adminstrator

All assistant principals were once teachers, and Mr. Zabala taught ESOL English for 9 years, beginning at Arvida Middle and Kinloch Middle, and then moving over to Braddock High, where he taught for 7 years. His favorite part about teaching was working with students.

Mr. Zabala started working as an assistant principal at Ferguson in 2008, and then he came to Miami High in 2012. The hardest part about his job, he said, is “dealing with parents that don’t have realistic expectations of their children.”

As an assistant principal Mr. Zabala said that there is no one task takes up more time than others. “I try to keep myself occupied all the time,” he said.

Just like when he was a teacher, the best part of his job is working with kids and having summers off. Although busy at school, he does wish that he had more time to go to the beach.

Orchid Project

Mr. Zabala is also known around Miami High for his efforts to beautify the campus with orchids. The idea for the Orchid Project came as he was driving to his son’s baseball game in Coral Gables.

“After Miami High’s construction, with all the beauty and trees that had been added, I knew that after seeing the orchids around Coral Gables, I could do this to our school,” he said. The project started in December, 2013, and since the first day of planting on February 18, 2014 he has planted a total of 665 orchids around the school.

Personal Life

Mr. Zabala was born January 9, 1964, in Havana, Cuba. At six months, his parents moved to Spain, stayed there for one year, then moved to Puerto Rico. He came to Miami in 1967 and attended Kensington Park Elementary, Citrus Grove, and Kinloch Middle Schools. The family moved back to Puerto Rico for a couple years when he attended a military academy for junior high, but then they came back to Miami where he graduated from Coral Park High School.

He attended Miami Dade College, FIU, and UM. He began majoring in Engineering but later switched to English. He currently has a Bachelors in English, Master of Science in English Education, and a Certificate in Educational Leadership.

Mr. Zabala has been married for 30 years, and he has two kids. When he’s not at work, he enjoys metal detecting at the beach, camping, and doing handy work around the house.

The Hiker

He also likes to hike. After reading The Pilgrimage by Paulo Coelho, Mr. Zabala learned about El Camino de Santiago, which are routes across Spain and Europe, all leading to the pilgrimage site of Santiago de Compostela where the apostle St. James is believed to be buried. People have traveled these routes since the Middle Ages.

“I was going through a tough time in my life, and I decided that this was something that I wanted to do,” he said. Mr. Zabala has walked the Camino three times, in 2012, 2015 and 2017, and he plans to go again, but taking a different route.

The trips took him about 30 days to complete. Mr. Zabala said that the journey is remarkable, but that the feeling is hard to explain. “You won’t understand the significance unless you actually do the walk,” he said.