Denise Carlin has spent the past year as Lee County’s first elected superintendent in 50 years, and she describes her tenure as one filled with significant changes and challenges. The School District of Lee County, which serves over 100,000 students and employs more than 12,000 staff members, faces ongoing issues related to safety, staffing, and transportation.

“I’m just so honored. It’s just been an incredible privilege to serve as the Superintendent,” said Carlin.

Carlin campaigned on five major priorities: safer campuses, raising student achievement, keeping teachers in classrooms, and addressing staffing shortages. She recalls the staffing challenges she faced when she first took office.

“When I was sworn into office, we had over 200 teacher vacancies, which is absolutely amazing because it was November. School starts in August. We were able to get over 200 teacher vacancies down to 17,” said Carlin.

Transportation has also been a significant challenge for the district. Last year, thousands of students were late to school daily. Carlin explained that the situation has improved dramatically.

“This time last year, we had over 8,000 students that were late to school every single day, 8,000, and about 18,000 that were picked up late at the end of the school day. We made some adjustments on start times, and as of last week, we had 96% of our buses showing up on time to school. So is it at 100? No. Am I satisfied? No. But 96% on-time arrival is a whole lot better than it was this time last year,” said Carlin.

The district has also partnered with Bus Patrol to enhance safety by using cameras to catch drivers who illegally pass stopped school buses.

“So warning period in November. December we play for keeps,” said Carlin.

As Carlin heads into her second year, she is focusing on improving student achievement within classrooms.

“We are absolutely going after student achievement now. So we have the teachers in place for the most part. Still have to fix those last 17 vacancies. We know that we’ve increased time. At the high school level, we were able to get an additional 30 minutes a day,” said Carlin.

Carlin remains proud of the progress made but acknowledges that there is more work to be done.