Peoria Standard

Peoria resident Linda Smith is a candidate for the Dunlap Community Unit School District 323 school board.

Smith has spent most of her life in Peoria. She said she wants to make sure that voters know of her plans including being "able to work in unison with the union in the community and just make sure that we're all going [in] the same direction." Smith also wants parents to know "that [the] safety of their kids is very important to me.” She also wants to maintain the high academic performance of the schools. Smith finds it necessary to "make some changes and correct some special needs programs so those children can benefit from the school district. I'd like to increase the credits and college credit opportunities to reduce college costs and support extracurricular activities.”

“I care about the district and I think I have a lot to offer in the way of financial expertise, curriculum development and analysis and policy. Most people don't like to write policy, and I actually enjoy it,” Smith told Peoria Standard. “The Dunlap policy statements, they're not very well aggregated. So you have policies that the union [has] for communicating with each other, combined with policies on student behavior and other policies with curriculum in sports. They're just disjointed. We also have policies that are mandated by the state of Illinois. I just think that our entire policy manual needs to be reorganized.”

Smith is a CPA with 35 years of business experience.

“I'd like to see our taxes under control," Smith, a fiscal conservative said. "I don't think we need to raise taxes and I want to eliminate any frivolous spending. It'd be good if keepers of the taxpayer money make sure that the kids are safe and they have the appropriate facilities and equipment in order to learn along with the curriculum.” 

She has been actively involved in attending school board meetings and voting in all board elections, about which she said "I'm not sure that all of the candidates have." She said she's not afraid to speak up when she finds things that don't seem to be good decisions and is open to giving her opinion. "So I'm already involved,” Smith added.

"I'm an active volunteer, " Smith said. "I'm in learning and development for a consulting company where I create training and education curriculum, typically for hospitals, for the software that they're implementing. So I have extensive experience in curriculum development. The curriculum needs to be developed but reviewed. I have some good ideas about expanding the career and technical education for the kids who are involved in college, making sure that our students are competitive with other schools so they don't miss out on college opportunities. And that's because their grading scale is higher than other schools. So I really just want to advocate for the students and make sure that they get everything they need within the constraints of financial conservatism.”

Dunlap Community Unit School District 323 oversees an annual budget of more than $65 million, according to the National Center of Education Statistics. The district includes eight schools responsible for 4,693 students and employs 418 staff members, including 291 classroom teachers.

Smith is a senior advisor, change management and training for Impact Advisors in Chicago, her LinkedIn profile shows. She was previously employed as a grant writer by Peoria Public Schools.

Smith is a member of the Dunlap High School Parents Association.