Hillsborough County School Board picks name for new high school

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — The Hillsborough County School Board decided Thursday on the name for a new high school that is expected to open in 2025 in Wimauma.

The school will be called Aquilla J. Morgan High School, named after Morgan, who spent more than 40 years teaching in the district.

Morgan taught Head Start, Kindergarten, 2nd and 5th grade, according to the district. She was the first Black teacher to be hired at Wimauma Elementary School.

The district said Morgan was a “pillar of the community” and changed the lives of many students.

“What an extraordinary school named after an extraordinary woman,” Sheila Helms, Morgan’s daughter, said in a statement. “This honor means everything to me and my family. My mother believed you could be whatever you wanted to be, and this is just the most wonderful way to honor her.”

The school will sit on an 87-acre site on West Lake Drive and can accommodate 3,500 students. An elementary school and middle school will be built on the property in the future, the district said.

“This new high school will serve as the heartbeat of the Wimauma community and meet the evolving needs of our students,” Superintendent Van Ayers said in a statement.

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