Dan Adler

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Dan Adler

Peoria Public Schools District 150 Board of School Inspectors District 3

Tenure

2015 - Present

Term ends

2020

Years in position

10

Report an officeholder change

Education

Bachelor's

Michigan Technological University

Graduate

Michigan Technological University

Personal

Profession

Technology marketing consultant

Contact

Personal website

Dan Adler represents the District 3 seat on the Peoria Public Schools District 150 Board of Education in Illinois. He was first elected to the board in the general election on April 7, 2015.

Adler participated in Ballotpedia's 2015 survey of school board candidates. To read his responses, check out his 2015 campaign themes.

Biography

Email editor@ballotpedia.org to notify us of updates to this biography.

Adler works as a technology marketing consultant for Caterpillar Inc. He is the president of the Tanglewood Hawthorne Hills Homeowners Association, co-treasurer of the Kellar Primary School PTO and the lead organizer of the Kellar Community Garden. He has also served on the City of Peoria Transportation Committee. Adler earned his bachelor's degree and his master's degree in mechanical engineering from Michigan Technological University. He and his wife have two children.

Elections

2015

See also: Peoria Public Schools District 150 elections (2015)

Two of the seven seats on the Peoria Public Schools District 150 Board of Education were up for general election on April 7, 2015. Both seats represented District 3. One was an unexpired four-year term, and the other was a full five-year term.

The seats of District 3 incumbents Jon Bateman and Chris Crawford were on the ballot. Bateman ran for re-election to a four-year term after getting appointed in August 2014. He faced three challengers, Ernestine Jackson, Daniel Walther and Brenda Wilson. Jackson defeated Bateman to win the four-year term. Crawford did not file to run for re-election, leaving five challengers, Dan Adler, Jeffrey R. Campbell, Josh Haywood, Phil Romanus and Terry Spayer, to run for the open five-year term. Adler was elected to the seat.

Results

Peoria Public Schools District 150, District 3 General Election, 5-year term, 2015
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Nonpartisan	Dan Adler	52.2%	2,913
	Nonpartisan	Terry Spayer	12.8%	715
	Nonpartisan	Jeffrey R. Campbell	7.6%	422
	Nonpartisan	Phil Romanus	9.8%	545
	Nonpartisan	Josh Haywood	17.6%	981
	Nonpartisan	Mae Catherine Godhigh (Write-in)	0%	0
Total Votes				5,576
Source: Peoria County Clerk, "Cumulative Report — Official," accessed April 28, 2015, Peoria Election Commission, "04/07/15 Official Cumulative," accessed April 28, 2015

Funding

School board candidates in Illinois are only required to file campaign finance reports if they accept contributions or make expenditures in excess of $5,000 in a 12-month period.

Adler reported no contributions or expenditures to the Illinois State Board of Elections in this election.

Endorsements

Adler received endorsements from the Peoria Federation of Support Staff (IFT Local 6099), the Peoria Federation of Teachers (IFT Local 780), the organization Change150 and the Business Pac of Central Illinois.

Campaign themes

2015

Ballotpedia survey responses

Adler participated in Ballotpedia's 2015 survey of school board candidates. The following sections display his responses to the survey questions. When asked what his top priority would be if elected, the candidate made the following statement:

“	Rebuilding trust with our community through communication and steady educational and financial improvements.	”
—Dan Adler (2015)

Ranking the issues

Adler was asked to rank the following issues by importance in the school district, with 1 being the most important and 7 being the least important. This table displays this candidate's rankings from most to least important:

Education policy
Click here to learn more about education policy in Illinois.
Education on the ballot

Issue importance ranking
Candidate's ranking	Issue
1	Closing the achievement gap
2	Expanding career-technical education
3	Improving college readiness
4	Balancing or maintaining the district's budget
5	Expanding arts education
6	Improving education for special needs students
7	Expanding school choice options

Positions on the issues

Adler was asked to answer 10 questions from Ballotpedia regarding significant issues in education and the school district. The questions are in the left column, and the candidate's responses are in the right column of the following table:

Question	Response
What is your stance on implementing Common Core standards?	"Our district is and must implement the Common Core standards. We must do a better job preparing our teachers/staff and parents to help our children work through the transition."
Should your district approve the creation of new charter schools?	"At this time I would not support creation of a new charter school within our district. Our current school, Quest, is an asset to the district and does some innovative things. However, I am not convinced that the model can/should be scaled."
Should the state give money to private schools through a voucher system?	"No"
Are standardized tests an accurate metric of student achievement?	"Tests can be a helpful metric of student achievement, however they are not the only measure. Ultimately, we must trust those in the classroom to keep the best barometer of how a student is progressing."
How can the district ensure equal opportunities for high and low achieving students?	"We ensure equality of opportunity by ensuring every school and every student has access to the same types of resources - teachers, behavioral environment, technology. Even extracurricular opportunities should be considered as a measure for providing equality of opportunity."
How should expulsion be used in the district?	"Students with behavior problems should be sent to alternative schools to remove them from their current environments rather than being expelled."
If a school is failing in your district, what steps should the school board take to help the students in that school?	"If a school is failing, I believe it is the school board's job, in cooperation with the administration, to sanction a cross-functional team (including teachers, support staff and administrators) within that school to determine the root cause of the failure and devise a plan to fix it. Then the board's role becomes providing that team with the resources required to implement the plan. If the whole district is failing, then the cross-functional team must represent the whole community. I believe that the only way to turn things around is to work together."
Do you support merit pay for teachers?	"I do support recognizing exceptional teachers with a financial bonus, but I am wary of a system that would tie pay entirely to "results" as defined by test scores. I am skeptical that the testing system is that precise, or that it represents the entirety of the value teachers provide."
How should the district handle underperforming teachers?	"Set up a mentorship program for the underperforming teacher with a more experienced teacher in the district."
How would you work to improve community-school board relations?	"The community at large is an important part of what we do in our schools. We need to recognize this, as well as the stake that each individual and organization has in our success. Two important things I will work towards. 1) Engage community organizations regularly on the strategic direction of our schools and how we're doing in terms of delivering value to students and the community. 2) Be present at community events and show support for good things occurring outside of our schools. It is a measure of respect and indicative that we are all in this together."

Candidate website

Adler highlighted the following issues on his campaign website:

“	I believe that nearly everyone is familiar with the challenges that Peoria's schools face - declining test scores, classrooms that are forced to focus too much time on discipline, and declining/stagnant funding that undercuts initiatives. What I'm most interested in talking about in this campaign, and delivering on as your elected school board representative, is overcoming those challenges in a way that brings our schools and community together. I'm an engineer by trade and a problem solver by nature, and so I immediately jump to solve the root cause of our challenges. These are the three things that I think are most critical for us to overcome so we can deliver the change we all know needs to occur. Problem #1: It's OK for our leaders to fail to hit our goals because things are difficult Few would deny the scale of the challenge that our schools face. But few would deny what is at stake as well. It's hard to think of anything more important than building the foundation for our students' future success and our community's growth. Solution: We must set challenging SMART goals, but the "A" and the "R" in SMART stand for Achievable and Realistic. The compact between the community and its schools means that we maintain a constant dialogue about what is expected, whether our schools are achieving what is expected, and whether the community is adequately supporting the schools in achieving those expectations. School leaders and the community need to be able to hold each other accountable for results. Problem #2: It's OK to ask teachers and staff to deliver better outcomes while we continually tie their hands There's no doubt there are greater demands on our classrooms today. A myriad of state and federal requirements, coupled with funding shortfalls and increased socio-economic barriers within our students' lives, has put great constraints on our teachers and support staff. Unfortunately, our current leadership has made the circumstances more challenging. Solution: We need to stop moving teachers and principals so often that our schools lack consistency and stability. We cannot continue to lurch from budget shortfall to budget shortfall, never completely breaking into a multi-year plan. We need to back up our words by delivering on a long term budget that provides our teachers and staff with the respect they deserve - and thereby aiding our ability to hire/retain the best people in our District. Problem #3: It's OK to try to lead from a closed room, without open discussion and transparency Listening to some within the Board and Administration, you may come away with the feeling that if the community would just keep quiet and get out of the way, these leaders could do a really great job. Solution: For my part, I don't how we could possibly implement the changes we all know need to be made without the community's input and acceptance. We need to have more conversation coming out of Board meetings, more reasoned debate of key decisions, and more sharing of information.	”
—Dan Adler's campaign website (2015)

Recent news

The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Dan Adler Peoria Public Schools District 150. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.

Dan Adler - Google News

See also

• Peoria Public Schools District 150, Illinois
• Peoria Public Schools District 150 elections (2015)
• Hot tub Gatorade, turnout in Peoria and the Wisconsin state budget... (April 8, 2015)

External links

Suggest a link

• Peoria Public Schools District 150
• Office website
• Campaign website