We asked each candidate to answer questions on topics important to the Senn High School community. Below are their answers.
Diana Smith
(pronouns: she / her)
Running for: Community Representative
About the Candidate
In just a few sentences, please tell us about yourself.
I am the proud parent of a Senn graduate ('25, Visual Arts Program) who has lived in Chicago for the past 25 years, with the last four in the Edgewater. I was a Parent Rep on the Senn LSC until my daughter graduated and played a major role in saving Senn Arts. I am active with the Senn neighborhood ICE watch group. I also volunteer with Alder Vasquez's Safe Streets Board, where I am helping to assess accessibility and ADA compliance for future improvements.
What is your relationship to Senn?
I am a former Senn parent, my daughter graduated in June 2025. Before my daughter graduated, I was a Parent Representative on the Senn LSC. I am also a member of the Friends of Senn and I volunteer with the Senn ICE Watch. I have lived in Edgewater for four years with my daughter and six cats (one adopted, two former fosters, and three who wandered into my backyard looking for help).
Why do you want to be on the Senn LSC?
I am returning to the Senn LSC because the work that began in the effort to save Senn Arts is not done. I also believe deeply that the Senn LSC needs continuity and firsthand knowledge. I have the unique vantage of having been through the full high school, college application, and graduation process. Senn is an wonderful school with amazing teachers, top-notch academics, and supportive community. I am returning to make sure future Bulldogs have the same or better opportunities as my daughter.
Do you have any previous experience on a Local School Council? If so, tell us about it.
Yes. I served on the Senn LSC from '22 until my daughter graduated in June '25. I first served as LSC Chair and then as Vice Chair. During the effort the save Senn Arts, I chaired the Arts Committee which was a roundtable panel of parents, teachers, and students who met regularly to discuss the Arts Program, researched and compiled data and statistics, and made recommendations to the Senn LSC.
Where Your Candidate Stands
We asked each candidate a series of questions that important to the Senn High School community. Their answers are below.
Q1. What do you believe are the responsibilities of a Local School Council?
Candidate Answer:
LSCs have both explicit powers and implicit responsibilities. Explicitly, the LSC is responsible for evaluating, hiring, and firing the school's principal. They also oversee the budget, contracts, and account transfers, and they are tasked with approving the CIWP. Implicitly, LSC reps are beholden to their constituents and have a responsibility to escalate issues, advocate for their school community, and work to create a thriving school environment.
Q2. What core values do you hope to uphold as a member of the LSC?
Candidate Answer:
I hope to uphold accountability, fairness, honesty, transparency, and collaboration. Most of all, I hope to uphold accessibility, as a value and as a practice.
Q3. All Parent and Community LSC members are required to complete 9 mandatory training sessions within six months of taking office.
- If you are a current or former LSC member, have you completed all your training sessions?
- If you have not served on an LSC before, do you commit to competing all 9 training sessions within six months of taking office?
(Candidates were given a matrix of preselected answers. Below are the answers they selected)
Candidate Answer:
- I am a former LSC Member.
- I have completed all required trainings.
Q4. What does effective communication for a principal entail, in your eyes? In what moments does principal communication matter most?
Candidate Answer:
Communication is one of the most important duties of the principal, and it should begin, not end with the principal's weekly letter. Making sure information is not only present, but accessible, timely, correct, and accurate is the foundational step to making sure the school runs smoothly and to an inclusive, nurturing environment. Communication matters most during periods of transition, stress, or upheaval. Without effective communication chaos, uncertainty, and mistrust undermine school morale.
Q5. What is your understanding of CPS's policies regarding ICE and federal agents in school buildings?
Candidate Answer:
ICE and federal agents are prohibited from entering a CPS school without a judicial warrant, signed by a judge. Additionally, CPS administrators and staff are prohibited from coordinating with ICE or immigration agents, and need to treat immigration status as confidential information.
Q6. What kind of leadership would you expect to see from the principal when federal agents target our neighborhood and families?
Candidate Answer:
I would expect a good principal to go beyond CPS's policies and do everything in their power to create a safe, welcoming environment for students, families, and staff. A good principal should actively work with neighborhood ICE Watch; and ensure that students, families, and staff understand their rights and have the support they need. Good leadership is also working to ensure that stress, mental health, and wellbeing are prioritized.
Q7. LSC members are responsible for developing and monitoring the school's improvement plan (CIWP), which includes goals around academic success. Describe your understanding of Senn's academic programs. What academic priorities will you emphasize in your role on the LSC?
Candidate Answer:
Senn's academic programs: Major Studies concentrations (Digital Imaging, Health Science, Broadcast Journalism, and Computer Science), IB DP and CP, Arts (Visual Art, Theater, Music, Dance), and the Sheltered ELL program create unique opportunities for each Senn student to have a curriculum that fits their individual needs and interests. The CIWP should continue building on the strengths of diversified and scaffolded programming to ensure student wellbeing and success.
Q8. One of the key responsibilities of the LSC is aligning the school's budget to the CIWP.
- If you are or have been a Senn LSC representative, provide an example or two of what you have done to ensure both ongoing and annual budgetary transparency?
- For candidates who have not served on Senn's LSC: Describe your approach to budget accountability, transparency, and oversight.
Candidate Answer:
As a member of the Senn LSC, I worked hard to make sure that the LSC had full access to all the documents stipulated by the Principal Contract. I was also a member of the Budget Committee, which was tasked with analyzing the budget. I believe that more should be done to ensure that the school's budget and spending are aligned to the CIWP. The LSC should regularly review contracts and expenditures, and discuss them publicly. They should also make budget info publicly available as much as possible.
Q9. What should the role of the LSC be if the principal attempts to quietly make changes without transparency or community input?
Candidate Answer:
It is the duty of the LSC to safeguard the integrity of the school and ensure transparency. The LSC needs to be proactive about understanding what is happening in the school. In the case of Senn Arts, I helped create transparency and community input by meeting with Main Office / BoE officials, inviting parents to participate in meetings, elevating parent and student voice, regularly reporting back to the LSC and constituents, and heading roundtable discussions in the Arts Committee.
Q10. When families consistently learn important information from outside sources rather than school leadership, what should the LSC do?
Candidate Answer:
Consistent issues are a sign that better structure is needed. It is the LSC's job to evaluate the principal and that should be a continuous process, not something that happens once per year. The LSC should set a clear vision of success and establish benchmarks to get there. Progress should be evaluated regularly and feedback given so that the school leadership can course correct. If the LSC is not setting benchmarks and checking back or school leadership is resistant, then there's a larger issue.
Q11. The 5Essentials Survey (link), developed by the University of Chicago in collaboration with CPS, identifies strengths and weaknesses across five areas:
- Effective Leaders (Score: 28, Weak)
- Collaborative Teachers (Score: 47, Neutral)
- Involved Families (Score: 40, Neutral)
- Supportive Environment (Score: 50, Neutral)
- Ambitions Instruction (Not scored due to data error)
What stands out to you and what action steps would you take as an LSC representative to address the challenge areas?
Candidate Answer:
The 5Es Survey reflects my firsthand experience at Senn: a school with excellent academics and in need of effective leadership. Digging into the data: Inquiry-Based Science Instruction, Collaborative Practices, English Instruction, and Math Instruction are all strong, while Effective Leaders and the areas related to leadership are weak. As an LSC Rep, I advocated to have the 5Es Survey included in the principal evaluation process, but evaluation should be ongoing, with a clear plan of action.
Q12. Describe your approach to equity. How would you ensure that decisions made by the LSC support and do not proportionally harm Black, Latino, Indigenous, immigrant, or low-income students? What systems and practices would you support to make sure marginalized voices are not just heard, but actually shape outcomes?
Candidate Answer:
I view equity through an accessibility lens, like the Curb Cut Effect (where curb cuts are interventions for people in wheelchairs but benefit everyone). It's not enough to just not harm traditionally marginalized groups, we need to foster a system that helps people from traditionally marginalized groups thrive because that is a system in which everyone will thrive. For LSC, it's very important to dig into data and to build equity into the process. More specifics are in my statement.
Q13. One of the key responsibilities of LSC members is to evaluate the school's principal. This LSC term will coincide with the contract renewal timeframe for Senn's principal. Describe how you will approach this responsibility.
What key performance indicators should be the primary focus factors when deciding whether to renew a principal's contract.
Candidate Answer:
Oct-Dec 2026 CPS's designated time when the LSC will begin the Cumulative Principal Evaluation process. During this process, the LSC is supposed to look back over previous evaluation data, gather new evidence, and decide on whether to renew the principal's contract. All stakeholders: teachers, staff, parents, students, and community should be surveyed and consulted. Objectively looking at whether benchmarks for success have been met and whether the school is thriving will be paramount.
Additional Candidate Materials
Candidates were offered the opportunity to provide the public with additional materials to be displayed on their profile page. Those materials are provided here.
