IRVINE : Cameron Chosen to Head School Board

Helen Cameron, a two-term board member on the Irvine Unified School District Board of Education, was this week elected board president for 1991.

Cameron, 44, was chosen to replace Mary Ellen Hadley. The board selects new officers each December. Trustee Greg Smith was selected to serve as clerk.

Cameron was president in 1985 and 1986 and said she plans to make 1991 her last year on the board. Now that her youngest daughter has graduated from University High School, she has no more children in the district.

“That’s an important part of being informed about the community,” Cameron said.

Next year will be an exciting one for the board, because it will be implementing its new strategic plan, she said. The plan outlines the district’s goals and steps needed to fulfill them.

The strategy was developed after meetings with parents, teachers and district officials.

One of the biggest challenges for the district will be to examine the changing student population and determine how to most effectively teach students from different backgrounds, Cameron said. The district will be looking at ways to train teachers to instruct students who have different learning styles.

On Thursday, Cameron also was selected to serve as president of the Coastline Regional Occupation Program, a joint training program that involves four nearby school districts.

Once a schoolteacher in Australia, Cameron has lived in Irvine since 1972 and helps manage a biotechnology firm headquartered in Montana.