To the editor:<\/p>\n
Before a child can learn, they need to\u00a0get to school, arrive on time and have enough to eat. Lee County has room to improve in all these areas.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n
Late buses mean lost instructional time. Parents across the district have raised concerns for\u00a0years\u00a0about routes that leave students waiting\u00a0at bus stops well past their scheduled pick up times.\u00a0 A child\u00a0who walks into the first period\u00a015 minutes\u00a0late begins the day already\u00a0behind.\u00a0Transportation\u00a0is a serious operational\u00a0issue that\u00a0requires the same careful oversight that the board applies\u00a0to every other part of the district.<\/p>\n
Free and reduced\u00a0price meals matter. A child who has not eaten is unlikely to be focused on reading comprehension or long division.\u00a0 Hunger makes learning hard. \u00a0Every school district should provide students with strong and reliable access to healthy meal programs.<\/p>\n
Properly trained school resource officers also play an important role in keeping\u00a0the school campus safe, especially as the district prepares for larger class sizes and a higher\u00a0staff-to-student\u00a0ratio.\u00a0 Budget pressures cannot be allowed\u00a0to weaken the safety\u00a0measures protecting students and educators.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While these issues\u00a0don\u2019t generate flashy headlines\u00a0they are still the daily conditions that determine whether a school day works for a child.<\/p>\n
I support Jenn McDaigle for school\u00a0board, because she is focused on these essential responsibilities and understands that strong schools begin with getting fundamentals right.<\/p>\n
Secure Jenn McDiagle a seat on the Lee County School Board.<\/p>\n
Vote, Vote by mail and participate\u00a0in this important school\u00a0board Election Aug.\u00a018<\/p>\n
Kathleen Callard<\/p>\n
North Fort Myers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To the editor: Before a child can learn, they need to\u00a0get to school, arrive on time and have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120266,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210],"class_list":["post-371239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}