News Release


District 87 appoints Data Analysis Coordinator, New BHS Principal

March 23, 2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Dr. Robert Nielsen, Superintendent (309) 827-6031

 

BLOOMINGTON –Administrators for Bloomington Public Schools District 87 have named a Coordinator of Student Data Analysis.

Cindy Helmers, currently the Principal at Bloomington High School, will assume the Coordinator’s role effective July 1, 2007. In all, Helmers has 12 years’ experience as an administrator in District 87 as a Principal, Assistant Principal and Associate Principal. Prior to becoming an administrator, Helmers taught math for eight years at BHS. She earned a Bachelor’s Degree in math, a Masters Degree in Education Administration and has extensive experience with a number of data systems in District 87.

Helmers will work with the District’s technology staff, administrators, teachers and loaned employees from State Farm Insurance to streamline data systems. Currently, data on students’ test scores and other measures of academic achievement are stored in a variety of computer systems. Helmers’ appointment is part of an initiative that will ultimately enable teachers to access and use student data to make instructional decisions on a daily basis. 

“As we continue to close the achievement gap, we need to develop predictive models for each student in the District,” said Robert S. Nielsen, District 87 Superintendent. “A large part of Cindy’s responsibility will be to help identify the data that we can use to predict how a student will do in a given school year, based on various measures of success, and to organize the data in a user-friendly format,” he said.

Helmers’ appointment is part of a two-year initiative by the District, which has formed an Achievement Gap Task Force chaired by Willie Brown, an Executive Vice President at State Farm Insurance. The District’s community partners in the Task Force are Unit 5 Schools, State Farm Insurance, COUNTRY Insurance & Financial Services, Illinois State University, Illinois Wesleyan University, the United Way of McLean County and local religious and political leaders.

Tim Moore will become principal at Bloomington High School effective July 1, 2007. He has served as Associate Principal since 2003 and was Assistant Principal at BHS from 2000 to 2003. Moore joined the District 87 staff in 1997 as a business teacher at BHS.

Moore is a member of the 100 Black Men of Central Illinois, the McLean County Urban League and Professionals Assisting Latino Students (PALS). He serves as the current Chair of the B/N Educational Alliance's Diversity Committee. He earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Education from Eastern Illinois University and a Master's Degree in Education from Illinois State University.

“We are very pleased to have hired a new BHS principal from within the District,” said Nielsen. “Based on his education, his previous administrative experience and his tenure with the district, Tim is highly qualified to step into the principal’s role and we know he will do an outstanding job,” he said.

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