Rio Rancho schools plan tribute concert honoring Dr. Sue Cleveland

Five student music groups will fill the Cleveland High School Concert Hall at 7 p.m. April 23 in a districtwide tribute to Dr. Sue Cleveland, the founding superintendent whose retirement closed a 32-year chapter in Rio Rancho Public Schools. The concert will draw ensembles from Rio Rancho Middle School, Rio Rancho High School, Cleveland High School and elementary schools, turning the sendoff into a public measure of how deeply her leadership shaped the district.

RRPS hired Cleveland in February 1994, months before the district officially began July 1, 1994. She was the only superintendent most of Rio Rancho Public Schools had ever known until this spring, when her retirement became official after a phased transition that also marked her last day in office. Cleveland said she stepped away because of a new grandson and health concerns, describing it simply as “the time to do it.”

The concert arrives after a series of other tributes, including resolutions of appreciation from the school board and the Rio Rancho Governing Body and a tree planted outside the district office. School Board President Amanda Galbraith and incoming Superintendent Dr. Robert “Robby” Dodd joined Cleveland at that planting, a small ceremony that underscored how much of RRPS history is tied to one person.

That history began with very little. District leaders have said RRPS started in a condemned building with loaned equipment and a broken file cabinet, operating first as a K-8 system before high schools were added. Cleveland has long described those early days as starting with “absolutely nothing,” and the numbers since then show how much changed under her watch: the district grew from about 5,900 students in seven schools to more than 16,000 students across 21 schools, with more recent materials putting enrollment above 17,000. RRPS has also said the district has graduated more than 10,000 students.

Growth brought major physical changes that still shape daily life for families. Rio Rancho High School was built after an industrial revenue bond tied to Intel helped alter the district’s trajectory, and Cleveland High School opened in 2009 because Rio Rancho High School had become overcrowded. Those decisions pushed RRPS from a small, newly formed system into one of Sandoval County’s largest public institutions, but they also left the district with the continuing challenge of managing size, attendance patterns and school boundaries across a fast-growing city.

Incoming Superintendent Dodd began duties March 1 and spent a month shadowing Cleveland before taking over in April. His 100-day entry plan runs through June 9 and is framed around “Honoring the Past, Building the Present, Inventing the Future.” For RRPS, the tribute concert is both a farewell and a warning label: the founder era is over, but the system Cleveland built still defines the choices her successor must make.