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A Sign Is What He Wants

Tribune photo by LIZ BLEAU

Riverview High School Principal Bob Heilmann has been name one of the 25 national winners of the MetLife Foundation Ambassadors in Education.

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By LIZ BLEAU

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 10, 2008

RIVERVIEW - When Riverview High School Principal Bob Heilmann got the call saying he was a winner, he thought perhaps he had won a recent drawing he had entered at Home Depot.

But instead, he had been tapped as one of 25 principals nationwide to be given the 2008 MetLife Foundation Ambassadors in Education Award that carries with it a $5,000 grant for the school.

Heilmann was surprised because he hadn't entered the competition; staff members had entered him without his knowledge.

The award is given for community collaboration.

Heilmann, 59, who has been at Riverview for 10 years, downplayed his achievements and said he is just "a spoke in the wheel that keeps moving forward."

It's a wheel, he said, designed by former school superintendent Earl Lennard and first Riverview High School Principal Vince Thompson, who saw the school as a community center from the beginning.

The school originally was going to be named after a Tampa-based educator, but Lennard and Thompson persuaded the school board to change the name to Riverview, Heilmann said, because "they had the vision of this school as a community place."

Thompson, who was one of many who nominated Heilmann for the award, said under Heilmann's leadership "Riverview High School is known in the community as a very friendly place for students, parents, community members, faculty members and staff."

"Not only has he built relationships among local businesses and organizations, he and his students are reaching out to local elementary schools and offering tutoring services for younger students in the community who are struggling," Thompson said.

The school has been involved with the community in many and varied ways over the years, Heilmann said, including being home to three churches, the site for the popular Trick or Treat Street, Relay For Life events, blood drives, school carnivals, voting and dinners for the elderly.

Heilmann's choice for spending the grant would be to put it toward a high-tech digital sign in front of the school that would highlight school and, of course, community events.

The sign costs about $40,000, he said, so the $5,000 grant would only be a start, but he is quick to add that the community would likely help support the project and help raise the money for it.

Reporter Liz Bleau can be reached at (813) 865-1557 or lbleau@tampatrib.com.

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