Homemaker Named to School Board Seat

The Oak Park school district’s newest trustee will assume her post Tuesday.

Linda Seaman, a 43-year-old homemaker who has lived in Oak Park for six years, fills an opening created by the resignation of former school board President Jeri Fox.

Fox resigned after hosting a November party at which alcohol was served to teenagers.

For her part, Seaman said she would never allow minors to drink at a party in her home.

She also said she forbids her children to go to such parties.

“The reality is, is that kids shouldn’t go to those parties,” Seaman said. “Parents just have to make sure their child doesn’t go. Make sure they have standards.”

Seaman said her friends had been encouraging her to run for the Oak Park Unified School District board in the November 1998 election, so when the opening came up, she decided to try for the post. She will serve for the remainder of Fox’s term, which ends this year, and said she plans to run in the fall.

Seaman said she moved with her husband, Chris, and their daughters Whitney, a junior, and Natalie, an eighth-grader, from the San Fernando Valley to Oak Park because of the schools.

Seaman has been a volunteer on councils for her daughters’ two schools: Oak Park High School and Medea Creek Middle School. This is Seaman’s fifth year as a Parent Faculty Club president.

“It’s really important that parents show their children that they are involved in the schools,” Seaman said of her decision to apply for a trustee position.

Three other candidates were interviewed Thursday in public at Oak Park High School by the board’s four other trustees before Seaman was appointed.