Prior to coming to MCPS, Bradley Rohner grew up in Medford, New Jersey where he graduated from Shawnee High School. For his undergraduate degree, he attended Bloomsburg University and eventually transferred to The College Of New Jersey where he finished his college education. He obtained his master’s degree in school administration from The College Of New Jersey.
Rohner began his teaching career in Marlton, New Jersey at Cherokee High School as a history teacher and then came to Maryland to teach in MCPS as a Social Studies Resource Teacher. Rohner then became an assistant principal for Rockville, Churchill, and Wootton High Schools before ultimately becoming the principal at Damascus.
When asked about his previous inquiries before MCPS, Rohner mentioned he temporarily worked for an insurance company that worked mostly in hospitals. He discussed his time at the company mostly consisted of teaching hospitals about their insurance plans. However, Rohner chose to leave after a short time and when questioned why, he argued the inconvenience of having to work on snow days and how he missed teaching.
Rohner began his term at Damascus during the 2024-2025 academic school year after former Damascus Principal, Kevin Yates, retired. When asked why he chose to become the principal at DHS, he mentioned that he only interviewed at Damascus. After being asked what the connection and interest he had for the school was, Rohner replied that he and Kevin Yates were good friends and that the Damascus School Spirit reminded him of his own high school back in New Jersey. Rohner also mentioned he preferred smaller schools because it was easier to remember faces and get heavily involved with the students and overall community.
So far, Rohner has implemented many policies throughout the school, the most prominent being his cell phone policy. While the policy may have been created with good intentions, some students have mixed feelings about it. When asked about the phone policy, one senior explained that he thought the policy was okay, but he wished that he was still allowed to wear headphones. He also said that the policy didn’t really affect him because he “was never really on his phone before.” Despite this, Mr. Rohner has mentioned that, compared to other options, Damascus isn’t as strict. Simply put, throughout MCPS and the United States schools have begun to crack down on phones, not just Damascus, and Damascus is comparatively lenient to most schools in the county. The reasoning behind this is that Rohner couldn’t justify “putting phones in a box” for the entire school day. While it was easy to explain why students shouldn’t use phones during class time, he couldn’t justify anything past that when he himself and other teachers use their phones in between classes also. He believes that during class is an opportunity for students and teachers “to talk and interact,” and phones are a hindrance to this. Teachers overall have been happy with the new phone policy remarking that it is effective as of right now. One science teacher explained that she had “never seen such high student engagement” and that the policy has been running pretty smoothly so far.
Rohner mentioned that going forward, he will be implementing a new policy that has already started being used throughout MCPS requiring students to wear their IDs at all times. Rohner argued that he couldn’t implement it as early because not all students had their pictures, but the policy will be starting in the second marking period after all students get their new student IDs. He believes that this will help with safety in the school. Other than that, he said he doesn’t have any other plans so far, but as the school year goes on, he may find inspiration. Teachers largely share this feeling and believe that, as of right now, the school year has been going great and not much else is needed.
Despite Rohner just beginning his term, it’s clear to see he has been positively engaging with staff and students and is clearly passionate about the growth of the school.
