Principal Selected For Torrey Pines High School Is 1986 Grad

Carmel Valley, CA — A 1986 graduate of Torrey Pines High School is returning to serve as its principal after a one-year absence from the campus.

The San Dieguito Union High School District Board of Trustees and Superintendent Rick Schmitt announced in a news release Thursday that former Assistant Principal Rob Coppo is returning to SDUHSD to serve in the role, effective Friday.

Coppo takes over for David Jaffe, who was recently selected to lead the Rancho Santa Fe School District as superintendent.

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Coppo is in his 18th year in education. He held the assistant principal role at TPHS from 2008 to 2015. For the last year, he has served as assistant director of Career Technical Education for the Grossmont Union High School District.

Prior to that, he was a high school English and video production teacher, a WASC site coordinator, a soccer coach, a technology mentor, and was selected as Teacher of the Year in the Escondido Union High School District.

Coppo and his family have long been a part of the community. Not only did he work at TPHS for seven years, he is also a graduate of the school. As a member of the class of 1986, he will be attending his 30th high school reunion in August. His sister and father still live in the area. Two of his nieces graduated from TPHS, and one more will graduate from the school in 2019.

"I feel honored to be chosen to lead a school that means so much to me and my family," Coppo said. "I am looking forward to reuniting with the best staff I have ever worked with, as well as the incredible students and families that make Torrey Pines a very special place."

Coppo currently lives in La Mesa, where his son will be a junior at Grossmont High School, and his daughter will be an eighth-grader at La Mesa Arts Academy.

"I have enjoyed working in the Grossmont District and having the opportunity to lead important work around pathways and whole school improvement," Coppo said. "It is difficult to leave such a great position, and I will miss the students and staff I was lucky enough to work with over the last year."

Coppo said as much as he has enjoyed his current position, the opportunity to return to SDUHSD to lead his alma mater was "too great to pass up."

"I'm very familiar with the history and culture of TPHS, having worked with principals Jaffe and Killeen over a span of seven years," Coppo said. "Even during my year away, I've been following the successes and changes at TPHS, and I am looking forward to helping guide the school into a new era. It’s a school full of hard working, spirited, intelligent and creative people. I feel truly honored and incredibly lucky to lead such an amazing school in an incredible district."

He said is happy to be back in a position where he can work directly with students, staff and families to achieve their goals.

"Being a site principal is something I enjoy very much, and it is something I take very seriously," Coppo said. "It is my hope, my goal, and my driving desire to positively impact students the way a TPHS teacher did for me when I was a student there. I have always been a Falcon, and I will always be a Falcon, and I can’t wait to be back."