With nearly 70% of the vote earned Tuesday night, Denise Carlin will take the helm of the School District of Lee County as the first elected superintendent since the 1970s on Nov. 19.

“I am over-the-moon excited,” Carlin said Wednesday morning. “It’s such a great day. I am very excited about getting to work. I am very honored and humbled about the vote that came forward last night.”

Carlin received 247,929 votes, 68.08%. and her opponent, Democrat Victor Arias, received 116,227, 31.92%.

She will serve a four-year term.

Carlin said it is very exciting to be the leader of the School District of Lee County; it’s like she is going home.

“I have worked with so many of our team members. There are certainly some new people there to get acquainted with,” she said. “I have had great working relationships with employees on our team. I can’t wait to get to work on Nov. 19. After I’m sworn in. It’s game on, get to work and get the party started.”

Carlin, 57, a Lee County resident of 55 years, was a former educator for the Lee County School District for 32 years and former chief of staff.

Carlin has five priorities once she takes office — ensure safe schools for children and staff, improve student achievement, improve teacher retention and recruitment, fiscal responsibility, and empowering parents to be true partners in education.

Carlin said no parent should ever have to worry about their child’s safety while they are school. They should have peace of mind while they are at school.

She said she is committed to fiscal responsibility — learning to live within the budget.

“We are going to live like we do with our own personal budget,” Carlin said, adding that they are going to treat “taxpayer dollars as precious.”

She said empowering parents is vital, as they need them actively engaged and involved.

“We can’t do this job by ourselves. We need parents — they are the child’s first teacher. If we engage them, their children are going to be successful,” Carlin said.

She heard many things on the campaign trail from the voters.

“They were not shy, that was for sure,” she said. “We had some really great conversations.”

The first thing — a high-performing school district where children are ready for the world after graduating from high school, equipped with proficiency in all academic areas, soft skills and being good citizens in order to be successful in their careers.

Another topic: Getting back to the basics, the core mission, educating children.

The teacher shortage was another topic, as residents want the shortage eliminated. Although there is a national teacher shortage, a high-performing school district such as the School District of Lee County, cannot operate on average.

“We are going to roll up our sleeves and eliminate that before the end of the school year,” Carlin said of the more than 200 teacher vacancies.

There are a few ways in which to fill those vacancies.

She said it is important that teachers have planning time, so they can plan those high-quality lessons they are looking for.

Instead, Carlin said teachers are running around covering classes, which is nobody’s fault.

“We are not going to settle in Lee County. We are going to put a high-quality teacher in front of every child,” she said, so teachers can catch a breath. “We are going to improve those working conditions, so we don’t lose those teachers.”

Carlin has met with teachers after school, and during the summer to have a better understanding of why teachers are leaving the profession. Those conversations resulted in two answers: teacher pay and extraordinary student behavior challenges in the classroom.

Carlin said nobody gets into the teaching profession to be rich but they do want a sustainable wage.

“We are going to have a serious conversation about our budget and go line by line through the budget to find money to improve teacher pay,” she said. “That is very important.”

This is the first thing she plans to tackle once sworn into office.

As far as behavior challenges, Carlin said it is important to provide mental health training on how to deal with behavior challenges.

Other areas Carlin will address are student achievement, which falls hand-in-hand with filling teacher vacancies. She said it’s about making sure the Florida Benchmarks, which are approved by the State of Florida and the Florida Department of Education, are occurring in the classrooms.

Another huge priority of Carlin’s is getting out there and into the schools to see first-hand what is occurring. She said she will speak with teachers, principals, parents, and students, so she can get her finger back on the pulse of what is occurring.

Carlin said it is important to see if what the public is saying is aligned with what she is seeing in schools. If there is a disconnect, she said it’s important to set forth an action plan.

Lee County voters approved the change from appointive to elected office via a referendum in November of 2022.

The measure, which was placed on the ballot by the State Legislature and was opposed by the School Board of Lee County, passed with 62.15 percent of the voters in favor, making the superintendent’s post another elected constitutional office in Lee County as of the 2024 General Election.

The existing system of having the superintendent appointed by the School Board had been approved by Lee voters in 1974.