Diane Linderman and her family moved to Old Lyme in 2003. Her sons graduated from high school in 2008 and 2010. She volunteered on PTO, graduation committees, assisted with musicals, and was president of Friends of Music. She served on the Strategic Planning Committee, Ad-Hoc Building Committee, and currently serves on the Lyme Old Lyme Education Foundation.
Diane has a MS in chemistry, started her career in the chemical industry, taught chemistry at the college and high school levels, and worked as an environmental scientist. Currently she works in accounting for Southern Connecticut Freightliner and is the Continuing Improvement Coordinator.
Name the three characteristics (one word for each) that you believe will make you an effective member of the board of education? Expand on the one that you feel should be most significant to the voters.
The three characteristics that I believe will make me an effective member of the Board of Education are intelligence, commitment, and thoughtfulness. For the Old Lyme community, I feel that my thoughtfulness is the most important. I will think through the issues and consider the impact of my decisions on the schools and the community. I will not be guided by an agenda or personal bias, but will be open to new ideas and approaches to resolve the issues before the board. By thoughtfulness I also mean that I will respect the views of the other board members. I will appreciate the concerns of students, parents, and the community. It is this type of decision making that I believe is needed on the Board of Education.
What do you think will be the biggest challenge facing Lyme-Old Lyme Public Schools in the next four years?
The biggest challenge facing our schools in the next four years is the successful adoption of the Common Core Curriculum, the use of the coordinated Smart Balance Assessment, and the integration of this assessment into teacher evaluations. The board will need to monitor the progress of these important transitions. We will need to ensure that the teachers and staff have the tools needed to implement the new curriculum successfully. We will need to support the students by identifying and working to fill knowledge gaps as they transition to a higher level integrated thinking approach from a more traditional curriculum. We will need to provide appropriate technologies to administer the new computer based assessment tests. We will also need to assist the administrators in adapting to a new teacher evaluation procedure that is no longer based on CAPT or CMT standardized test results. All of these changes are already underway, but it will take several more years for full implementation. This will be an important focus of the board over the next four years.
If you could achieve one objective — and only one — during your term on the Region 18 Board of Education, what would it be?
My only objective while on the Board of Eduction is to keep our schools a vibrant, diverse, and stimulating environment where the children of our community can learn and discover the world. And to do this in a way that is financially acceptable to the community. In light of declining enrollment, this may become very challenging and will require innovative and creative solutions to maintain the breath and quality of the programs in our schools. I am looking forward to having the opportunity to help our schools meet these challenges.