This Elmhurst School Has A New Principal

ELMHURST, IL — Kalissa Smith will be a principal without a school.

On Tuesday, Superintendent Keisha Campbell announced that Kalissa Smith would be the new principal of Lincoln Elementary School. The recently demolished school is set to be replaced with a new building, a project that is expected to last a year.

Smith is replacing Jennifer Barnabee as the principal; Barnabee's status was not immediately clear.

Smith will be based at Edison Elementary School for the next year, where most of Lincoln's students will attend, according to the district. Some Lincoln students will also go to class at Hawthorne Elementary and Bryan Middle schools.

Smith was Lincoln's assistant principal for the last two years. She also led the recent Summer Enrichment Program for students from kindergarten through fifth grade, where Campbell said Smith did an "outstanding job."

"She has designed and facilitated school-wide and district-wide professional learning in several areas, ranging from integration of nonfiction writing to responsive practices to support students," Campbell said.

Smith previously worked for Marquardt District 15 in Bloomingdale, according to her LinkedIn page. From 2001 to 2005, she was a Chicago Public Schools teacher.