Two of the four School Board of Lee County races on the ballot were decided in Tuesday\u2019s primary election, with the remaining two races headed to run-offs in the general election in November.<\/p>\n
With 22 of 22 precincts reporting, School Board Member Sam Fisher was re-elected to the District 1 seat, while School Board Member Jada Langford Fleming, with 99 of 99 precincts reporting, was re-elected to the District 6 seat \u2014 an at-large one decided countywide.<\/p>\n
The incumbent, Fisher faced challenger Jenn McDaigle for the seat, which is a four-year term from 2026-30. He garnered 16,895 votes \u2014 57.93% percent of the total ballots cast \u2014 compared to McDaigle\u2019s 12,268 votes \u2014 42.07% percent.<\/p>\n
Only voters in District 1, which includes Sanibel, Captiva, Boca Grande and much of Cape Coral, could cast a ballot in the race.<\/p>\n
District 6 <\/p>\n
Langford Fleming was re-elected to a second term as she held off a challenge from India Palencia.<\/p>\n
With 99 out of 99 precincts reporting, Langford Fleming received 66.41% of the vote, compared to 33.59% for Palencia. Langford Fleming received 80,754 votes compared to 40,853 for Palencia. District 6 covers all of Lee County.<\/p>\n
Langford Fleming, a former elementary school teacher for the School District of Lee County, currently works as an athletic trainer in addition to her $54,000 job on the school board.<\/p>\n
Palencia, a substitute teacher for the school district, ran a campaign challenging Langford Fleming and the school board\u2019s management of the district\u2019s finances during a time of fiscal crisis in which the district reported an operating deficit of more than $90 million earlier this year. The Estero resident also criticized the district\u2019s record on student achievement.<\/p>\n
Langford Fleming, of Fort Myers, had touted the district\u2019s cuts to the administration and staff, while focusing on student achievement.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t wait to see what happens four years from now,\u201d Langford Fleming said.<\/p>\n
District 4 <\/p>\n
In the District 4 race, incumbent School Board Member Debbie Jordan fought to hold onto her seat against three challengers, Carl W. Baxter, Tony Beougher and Gisele \u201cGigi\u201d Gentile. With no candidate winning a majority vote of 50% plus one, the top two vote-getters advance to the general election to face each other.<\/p>\n
On Nov. 3, Jordan and Beougher will vie for the seat. With 16 out of 17 precincts reporting, Jordan won 7,290 votes \u2014 39.52% percent of the total ballots cast \u2014 and Beougher earned 5,835 votes \u2014 31.63% percent. Gentile came in in third place scoring 3,096 votes \u2014 16.79% percent, while Baxter received 2,224 votes \u2014 12.06% percent \u2014 for last place.<\/p>\n
A four-year term from 2026-30, the District 4 seat includes part of Cape Coral, North Fort Myers and part of Fort Myers. Only voters in the district could cast a ballot in the race.<\/p>\n
District 5 <\/p>\n
For the District 5 race, incumbent School Board Member Armor Persons battled to retain his seat against two challengers, Crystal Johnson and Carline Saintilus. With no candidate winning a majority vote of 50% plus one, the top two vote-getters advance to the general election to face one another.<\/p>\n
On Nov. 3, Persons and Johnson will vie for the seat. With 17 out of 17 precincts reporting, Persons won 7,151 votes \u2014 43.53% percent of the total ballots cast \u2014 and Johnson earned 5,161 votes \u2014 31.42% percent. Saintilus scored 4,116 votes \u2014 25.0% percent.<\/p>\n
A four-year term from 2026-30, the District 5 seat includes the northeastern region, like Lehigh Acres, Alva, Buckingham and Olga, and the outer northeastern section of Fort Myers. Only voters in the district could cast a ballot in the race.<\/p>\n
All election results are unofficial until certified.<\/p>\n
Fort Myers Beach Observer Editor Nathan Mayberg contributed to this article.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two of the four School Board of Lee County races on the ballot were decided in Tuesday\u2019s primary…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":312463,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210],"class_list":["post-375232","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\/375232","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=375232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375232\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/312463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=375232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=375232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=375232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}