Candidate Name: Hannah Smith
Occupation: Attorney who previously clerked for Justices Clarence Thomas and Sam Alito at the U.S. Supreme Court.
How long have you lived in Southlake? What brought you to town?
We initially moved to DFW from the Washington, D.C. area after my husband John finished serving as Associate White House Counsel to President George W. Bush through the end of his second term and was hired by an aerospace and defense company for a position here in DFW. We have lived in the DFW area for about seven years, first in Coppell for about five and now in Southlake for about two. After much research and exploration across DFW, we chose Southlake because we wanted to raise our family in this wonderful community and educate our kids in Carroll ISD.
What inspired you to run for this position?
I am deeply invested in the excellence of our district. My husband and I are the parents of four Dragons, the youngest of which graduates in 2032. Our children love their teachers and classmates and learning and serving in their school communities. Three of our Dragons participate in the gifted and talented program and one is in the special education program. Our family is blessed by the quality education, varied activities, personal mentorship and abundant opportunity that Carroll ISD provides to all.
I am passionate about giving back to our community by serving as a school board trustee to uphold Carroll ISD’s excellence. As an elected school board trustee, I will partner with Dr. Ledbetter, our new superintendent, and fellow board members to implement a five-year Strategic Plan that leads Carroll ISD to an even better future.
What in your background has prepared you for this position?
With degrees in education policy and law, I have dealt with many of the educational and legal issues that face public schools. I will bring that educational and legal expertise to my service as a school board trustee. For Carroll ISD, I have served on the School Board Budget and Finance Committee, the School Board Student Health Advisory Committee, the new superintendent focus group and as a PTO volunteer. In our community, I serve as a church youth group leader, a cub scout leader, on the board of the Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra’s Parents Guild and support my kids’ teams in swimming, football and baseball.
What do you hope to bring to this role?
As a school board trustee, nothing will be more important to me than ensuring the next generation is equipped to learn, lead and succeed. I will bring to this role my passion for promoting Carroll ISD’s excellence in academic, athletics and other activities. I commit to building the brightest possible future for our beloved Dragons.
What do you hope to accomplish in this position?
I want to get our schools back to normal now that we are reaching herd immunity to COVID-19 in the coming months. As a parent, I am deeply grateful to the Carroll ISD teachers and staff who have worked so hard to help our students learn through a year of the most challenging environment of our students’ lives. I want the following.
1) To return — as much and as soon as responsibly possible — more students to the classroom and fully revive all athletic, social and other extracurricular activities,
2) Create a real distance learning academy for those students still unable to attend in person due to specific medical reasons.
3) Dedicate staff to such an academy, to enable each teacher to focus on only one population of students — either online or in their classroom.
Why do you believe you will be successful in this position?
I believe I will succeed because of my hard work ethic, my trained ability to think critically and ask tough questions about difficult problems and my practical experience in working well with others toward lasting solutions. I am looking forward to working collaboratively with the rest of the board to tackle the challenges and opportunities that Carroll ISD faces as we move into this new chapter with our new superintendent.
What are your top priorities if elected?
First, increase transparency for the community. Southlake is blessed with highly educated and engaged parents. During COVID, many have watched more school board meetings than ever before. While robust conversations may be occurring in closed sessions, the community should hear the deliberation on all matters that can be discussed publicly. The board owes it to our Carroll ISD families, who sacrifice so much of their time and resources, to be completely transparent.
Second, improve board oversight of the administration. Trustees are elected to oversee and direct policy. Over the past several months, many issues have come to light that suggest the board should have asked more questions and provided better guidance. The citizenry — through the board members they elect — should direct policy to the district, not the other way around.
Third, elevate fiscal responsibility. Our taxpayers deserve to know how and why their tax dollars are being spent. To be better stewards of taxpayer dollars, the board needs to oversee expenditures more rigorously and share financial information more openly with the community.
What actions do you believe are necessary to help unify the community?
Both unity and diversity are important to our community. Our demographics have shifted in recent years, and Carroll ISD now has more students from different cultures than it did just a few years ago. What a gift to our educational community! It is a blessing to live in a place that is dynamic and growing and attracting people from everywhere because of all the goodness it offers.
Carroll ISD’s schools are at the heart of that growth. Like my family, many families move to Southlake for its schools and community. Our schools’ primary responsibility is to serve the academic needs of all its students, which helps forge unity among its students and ultimately the community.
What’s your relationship with CISD?
We are a Dragon Family with four Dragons in Walnut Grove Elementary, Durham Intermediate, Carroll Middle and Carroll High Schools. Our Dragons are involved in Dragon Youth Baseball, football, NTN swim team, All-Region Honor Treble Choir, SASO Girls Southlake, Durham and Carroll Ambassadors, the Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra and Cub Scouts at White’s Chapel. Our family are proud supporters of the CISD Booster for Special Programs, the CISD Advanced Placement Booster Club, the Southlake Association for the Gifted and Talented and the Carroll Education Foundation. Nearly every day, my family engages with CISD students and parents at the CISD Natatorium or the playing fields across Southlake.
What does being a Dragon mean to you?
We are all Dragons. We are all God’s children. We are all unique. I’m grateful to see how much Dragons love one another, regardless of differences. Our students stand out because they are kind, generous and helpful. We’re braggin’ on our Dragons because they are such positive examples to our community, state and nation.
Is there anything else you would like our readers to know?
With our youngest of four children set to graduate from Carroll ISD in 2032, our family has staked the education of our next generation on the quality of our schools. I am committed to protecting their tradition of excellence for the next decade and beyond.
Each candidate in this race was provided the same questions. We are publishing their answers in their own words. The views expressed in these articles do not directly reflect those of Southlake Style.