The District 87 school board on Wednesday approved some changes to elective course offerings, and heard a report on a new health sciences program being offered at some elementary schools and the junior high.
Bloomington High School principal Timothy Moore presented proposed changes to four elective courses, including two in the industrial technology program and two in the fine arts.
A course called Civil Engineering and Architecture will replace a previous offering called Principles of Engineering. Moore said the change will offer experience with architecture to interested students, and will have a project-based curriculum.
Similarly, a course called Engineering will replace a course called Energy and Power. While more advanced engineering courses are offered through the Bloomington Area Career Center, Moore said that this offering will be more of an introduction for students who may be interested.
On the arts side, a new course will be offered called Ceramics 2, following the popular Ceramics 1 that is currently offered. Moore said these courses’ success is at least partially attributed to a new hire in the art department who specializes in ceramics.
Another new class in fine arts will be Raider TV and Media that will offer students opportunities to learn podcasting, broadcasting, and social media skills through school events and reporting. The class will have some prerequisites, such as the already-offered journalism class.
“We offer a lot here at Bloomington High School,” Moore said of the new media class. “[This] just gives the opportunity for more students to be involved here.”
Nicole Rummel, assistant superintendent of teaching and learning, noted the funding to purchase equipment for the class comes from a grant.
“That course won’t cost us anything to get up and running,” she said.
“I see this as a chance for students to just connect,” Moore told WGLT after the meeting. “Maybe just students who love ceramics, and have an opportunity to take another class, or now give the students who love multimedia an opportunity to take the Raider media class. Just I see all four of these classes as an opportunity just to grow our electives and give more opportunities to students.”
The board approved all course changes after Moore’s presentation.
Health science academy
The board also heard a report from some of the professionals behind the new Health Science Career Academy at Bloomington Junior High School, including several school nurses and a Heartland Community College professor who is also involved with the Black Nurses Association.
The program started with two cohorts at Oakland and Irving Elementary Schools, where interested students met after school for six weeks to learn about healthy lifestyles, “social determinants of health,” signs of conditions such as diabetes and hypertension, and careers in the medical field.
This year, the program entered the junior high with a $10,000 grant. Twelve students are currently going through a similar, but more expansive program, that includes CPR certification and a trip to the OSF Simulation and Education Center in Peoria. Another cohort of around 14 students is expected to go through the program in the spring.
“We started the Junior Health Science Academy because we wanted to have an avenue to introduce to students who otherwise would not be able to know about these different health careers, the requirements, and even just some of the health promotion that they’ll learn throughout the program,” the Heartland instructor, Dameron Beverly, told WGLT.
Interested students had to go through an application process that included writing an essay. Each accepted student was also assigned a professional mentor from a health care field.
