PEORIA, Ill. – Tuesday’s primary elections will determine each party’s nominees for November races involving Congress, state representatives and senators, county board members, and more.
But for voters in two Peoria Public Schools districts, Tuesday’s vote means the election of two seats on the school board.
Voters in District 2 on Tuesday will decide between Andres “Andy” Diaz and David Daye. The District 3 race is between Sarah Howard and Doug Shannon. WMBD Radio conducted interviews with all four candidates ahead of Tuesday’s elections.
The two races are needed to find replacements on the board for Lynee Costic and Larry Ivory.
Diaz is a Peoria native and Woodruff High School graduate, who came back to the area in the past decade. The main reason he says he decided to run for the school board was concerns over how the district was managing its finances, and even raising those concerns during meetings about the lack of audits conducted.
“How the school district has used taxpayer dollars, it bothered me quite a bit,” Diaz said.
In one example, Diaz argues the district spent “over three times” what it should have in its superintendent search, and raised concerns about the background of the search firm.
In addition, Diaz says it’s behind on its required state audit, and thus, cannot determine what programs are working at PPS and which ones need to be scrapped. He argues that it could cost the district grant funding, especially on the federal level.
For educational standards, Diaz says he would push for goals and benchmarks for the district’s new superintendents, especially from kindergarten to 2nd grade. He would like to see proficiency standards by double digits each year.
Proficiency concerns is what led to Diaz’s opponent, David Daye, deciding to run for a seat on the school board. Date is a Rockford native and instructor at Bradley University.
Daye notes that what he saw in his own classrooms at Bradley worried him.
“I was getting students in my college classroom that couldn’t perform the basic tasks. And I thought, surely, if we’re getting students who are unprepared at the college level, we must have an issue in the grades below that,” Daye said.
Daye believes the lack of proficiency is due to a culture of “social promotion,” where students are being passed to the next grade level without the skills needed to pass.
Daye says he would combat that by working to establish a summer school or gap instructional program to bridge the gaps. He would also re-evaluate the curriculum to see if it fits for modern times, as well as working to reduce class sizes.
Daye believes PPS does not have a hard time keeping teachers inside the district, but needs to find ways to have more teachers join. He favors a program that recruits locals who want to become teachers and show them a pathway to that career, and a grant program to fasttrack substitute teachers towards a full-time career.
Daye says he would work to build community partnerships for mental health, and have trained professionals in school buildings. He would also work to establish standards to deal with violent incidents in schools, such as threats and bullying.
Doug Shannon says he decided to run for a seat on the Peoria Public Schools board in District 3 because of a passion for public education, which includes being a substitute teacher in the district. But he feels the current makeup of the board does not listen to the concerns and
“Just look at many decisions from the superintendent search, all the way back to how they engaged the community on the calendar, and even something that should have been a simple decision like clear backpacks,” Shannon said. “But there was no engagement and no communication with the community, and they sort of just did it.”
Shannon says he would have been more deliberate in those decisions, which he believes would have led to the community being behind the decisions more.
The top two concerns for Shannon with the district include school safety and the district’s finances. He believes there is an “incentive structure” where there’s too much worry over getting a student back in class as fast as possible, whether proper disciplinary measures have been taken or not. Shannon also shares concerns with Diaz in District 2 about the lack of audits from PPS, and its impacts.
Shannon says he would work to establish consistent expectations for how a student is punished for violent incidents, followed up by a process that corrects the problem instead of putting a student back in class the next day.
For finances, Shannon believes there’s a lack of leadership on the board in overseeing how finances work, but is not pushing for dramatic changes. He believes he has the experience to lead the district’s CFO towards a successful path, but wants a full picture of the district’s finances first.
Sarah Howard says she decided to run for a seat in District 3 because she believes there is a need for a “culture reset” on the board.
“We need some fresh air, some younger folks who have kids in the district, and have the energy and vision to see through what we need done,” Howard said.
Howard says this is her first time running for elected office, after being behind the scenes on numerous campaigns.
Howard says one of the biggest issues in the district is proficiency in reading and math. She believes improving the numbers is doable.
Her solutions include seeing what has been done in other districts in similar situations, citing Chicago Public Schools as one source of inspiration. One idea she would bring to Peoria is tutor programs involving retired teachers in the area.
Howard also advocates for more mental health support in the district, and inside its buildings. She cites her own experiences in missing a lot of school grieving the loss of her father, and her mother unable to properly help her, which led to anxiety and panic attacks. Howard says that can explain why kids can miss school.
Howard says she would like to push for more teacher aides, especially in the lower grade levels, to help manage classes.
Comments