By Laura Martens
Mr. Bloom is a Central DeWitt alumni who has taken on the role of becoming our High School Principal. He is trying to get to know every student and his interview answers will hopefully help students get to know him.
Q: If you could be any other person for one day, who would you be and why?
A: Abraham Lincoln because he helped our country through one of the most challenging times but he did it, I think, in an amazing fashion and I would just love to see how he attacked the things that we can all imagine that our country was going through with the civil war.
Q: What made you want to join our school district this year?
A: 33 years ago I graduated from Central DeWitt High School and I had great experiences as a Saber. I was influenced to go into teaching and along the way did some coaching and student senate advisor; I did lots of different things and was loving it but I had some folks say You have leadership characteristics, have you ever thought about becoming a principal? So, I had finished my first master’s about that time and started working towards another master’s.
So I had never applied for a job in DeWitt but in the back of my mind I always thought ‘boy, it’d be kind of cool to come home professionally.'
When Mr. Pickup announced (his retirement) in November, and I know Mr. Pickup professionally and personally for quite a few years. I reached out to him and just learned more about the job. I think the conversation was 3 things he really liked about the job and one of the biggest challenges, and after that 45-minute conversation it just really cemented. It’s kind of my dream job to come home and try to influence and impact in my new role as principal in this great place.
Q: Where were you before this job?
A: I spent about a decade in the Davenport schools. I was in two different schools in the Davenport district; Frank L. Smart and Davenport North High School. Then I spent just a little over a decade in the Clinton schools. I was in two schools there; Clinton High School where I was a teacher and coach and also became associate principal for four years but then left there for an opportunity to be elementary school principal in a building of about 500 students in the south end of Clinton and that was Bluff Elementary.
For the last decade, I’ve been supporting a larger community of learners at the Mississippi Bend Area Education Agency where I was a regional administrator.
Q: When you were a teacher, what subjects were you teaching?
A: I taught Special Ed. to start my career and I really learned a lot in that phase and then moved into teaching high school social studies.
Q: What are your goals for the school year?
A: My goals are to try to positively impact and influence all our students and staff and to support our students as they chase learning.
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