Dr. Denise Carlin

Superintendent Dr. Denise Carlin shared that she has an unwavering commitment to the staff of the School District of Lee County during Tuesday night’s meeting.

“I am proud to share with our community that we are so focused as a district on the five priorities I ran on,” she said. “I’m so happy because as a team we talked about our priorities and the laser like focus on our work.”

Those priorities include ensuring safe and secure schools; increasing student achievement; expanding technical education opportunities; increasing teacher retention and recruitment; ensuring fiscal responsibility and empowering parents as partners in education.

Carlin said it’s about prioritizing their budget and making sure they are putting dollars where they belong.

“How are we going to preserve dollars and generate dollars to put towards salaries,” she said. “I can tell you I have an unwavering commitment to our staff. I’ve given a work directive to cabinet. They will be coming back with budgets in terms of cuts – go line by line.”

Carlin said the line by line will separate out the “must dos” and “nice to dos.”

“Perhaps putting the nice to dos aside,” she said, adding they have to “focus on high quality teachers and other team members we have in the school district to making sure they are making a livable wage. That is my commitment. We are going to model the way as the central office. We are going to start the work.”

Carlin said there was an incident a couple of weeks ago at one of the elementary schools. She said OPENGATE caught a weapon that was brought onto campus and stopped it right there.

She said as far as increasing student achievement, they heard from numerous teachers during public comment of its importance.

“It’s our number two priority right after safety and security. Our team is buckling down. We are looking closely at ways to improve student achievement – it starts with teachers and high-quality practices,” Carlin said.

Another priority is making sure they partner with parents, as it is important to empower voices of parents.

“My priorities – and now they are our district priorities,” Carlin said. “I am proud of that work and can’t wait to get started on it.”