Lee schools governance
Looking over the past year the Lee County Public Schools superintendent and School Board have fired teachers and disciplined students for executing their 1st Amendment rights, stopped immunization of students based on quack science, been caught not knowing about a $92.4 million dollar deficit, firing teachers and staff to make up for the deficit, allowed the School Board chair, security officer and another person to go to Washington to lobby when still retaining lobbyists, and now they are demoting, firing and moving principals on a whim. There is a pattern here of enforcement, intimidation and not taking responsibility for their actions and inactions.At this week’s June 9, 2026 School Board meeting (which can be found on YouTube), after multiple people spoke up in support of a principal who is being demoted and moved, Board member Debbie Jordan said “…when we just sit up here and we make decisions, it gets confusing…. l believe that we owe… the people who come here to speak… that they… need to understand how this all takes place.” The Board Chair Armor Persons then requested the Board attorney to explain the role of the superintendent and the Board as they relate to personnel. He explained that the superintendent makes the decisions and the Board’s role is to approve her decisions.Board members admitted that they often vote on things that they don’t have complete information on. Board member Jada Langford Fleming said “Dr. Carlin was elected by our county because they trusted her. I trust her as a board member to make those decisions and there is information that we are not privy to…” Essentially she confirmed they often rubber stamp the superintendent’s actions. Then Board Chair Armor Persons proceeded to make a false comparison between their relationship with the superintendent and the Lee County Board of Commissioners saying “…this is not uncommon in government. I mean, we have in the county commissioners, they approve the budget for the sheriff. The sheriff makes all his staff decisions.” However he didn’t recognize that the county commissioners and sheriff are constitutional offices with separate taxing jurisdictions, not like the superintendent and Board that are part of the same taxing jurisdiction. Then Superintendent Denise Carlin said: “When we’re all rowing the same direction, nothing is impossible.” In other words, “when you are all rowing in the direction I want.”We all recognize that the superintendent is elected as the administrative arm of the Lee County Public School governance, and the Board is elected as the legislative arm. However, the Board is not there to rubber stamp the superintendent’s policies, they are there as a check and balance to the superintendent. When decisions are made in private meetings and workshops before the general Board meetings, it appears no matter what the public says under Public Comment, their opinions really don’t matter to the outcome of items voted on.How should the Lee County School Board and superintendent move forward? They need to gain some empathy, stop dictating based on political ideology, and finally get back to common sense respect for students, teachers, staff, and each other. Hope for the Board to get a spine and stop being lap dogs for the superintendent. If they can’t vote them out.
Daniel Becket, Fort Myers
Class act deserves recognition
I’m 33 years old from Palm Beach County. Last Tuesday I was in Marco Island to measure a job for a client. Before I headed back to Palm Beach, I stopped at Bamboo Wok in Naples to grab lunch. Uncharacteristically of me, I left my wallet there. Hours later, after realizing, I called and the owner confirmed, he couldn’t have been more sincere. When I explained I lived hours away he offered to mail it to me. I told him I had one single $100 bill in the wallet and that if he would pay for the shipping out of that hundred, he could keep the rest. He overnighted my wallet and put the change back in my wallet. Class act that deserves recognition.
Daniel Micheli, Lantana, FL
Reject anti-wildlife action
As a proud Floridian there are so many things I love about my state, and our wildlife is certainly near the top of the list. Our shores and waters are home to some of the world’s most beloved and rare species. Among my favorites are sea turtles. Just this week we celebrated World Sea Turtle Day.
Florida’s beaches include sea turtle nesting grounds and five of the world’s seven sea turtle species are found in Gulf waters. But these incredible, peaceful animals are as vulnerable as they are special — all five Gulf species are protected under the federal Endangered Species Act.
Fortunately, for us and the turtles, the ESA has an incredibly strong track record. It has saved 99% of listed species from going extinct. Unfortunately, a little-known group of federal regulators (the so-called “God Squad”) voted to exempt oil and gas drilling activities in the Gulf from key Endangered Species Act requirements this spring.
I don’t know a single Floridian who wants to see our native sea turtles hurt, and yet that’s just what hangs in the balance. World Sea Turtle Day falls in mid-June each year, and this year I’m telling our leaders to do right by turtles and all marine species and reject anti-wildlife action in Washington, D.C.
Suzanne Thomas, Naples
Sluggish Post Office service
I posted a letter from one part of Fort Myers to be delivered to another part of Fort Myers. It took 16 days to get to the recipient. There was clearly nothing wrong or confusing with the recipient address. This seems ridiculous!
Richard Frechette, Fort Myers
Risk of offshore drilling
A recent Tampa Bay Times article about threats to federal protections for endangered species such as the Rice’s whale is another reminder for Floridians of the dangers of oil and gas drilling off our shores.Many of us remember when the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster happened in 2010. Our tourism-based economy suffered even though our beaches here in the Naples area weren’t affected. Images of oil-coated wildlife and long-term harm across Gulf Coast communities are a tragic legacy.We cannot let history repeat itself. Our coastline is now under direct threat of more offshore drilling in the federal government’s latest five-year leasing plan. Expanding offshore drilling won’t lower gas prices anytime soon, if ever, but it will put our coast at risk of disasters like Deepwater Horizon.There is overwhelming bipartisan consensus that drilling in the Gulf is a bad idea. In December 2025, Florida’s entire congressional delegation sent a letter to the administration urging Florida’s removal from the current federal government’s plan.
Rice’s whales live only in the Gulf of Mexico, and needless offshore drilling may be a death sentence for them and cause their extinction. Preserving ecosystems they depend on also protects livelihoods that rely on healthy oceans. Florida’s economy and future depend on that commitment.
Solemi Hernandez, Naples, Oceana Florida field representative
Left bias against billionaires
It has well known that Senator Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and others especially on the left have an aversion for millionaires and especially billionaires. Bernie in fact says that America shouldn’t have any billionaires. Congresswoman AOC infamously stated no billionaires could possibly “earn their money.” They seem to believe in selective capitalism. An example would be that they seem unbothered with NBA players who “earn” $40,000,000 a year or a Hollywood movie star who demands $20 million to act in a movie. Well last week it seems they had a big problem with Elon Musk being a multi-billionaire. As of Friday June 12th, Mr. Musk just became in fact a trillionaire. I would imagine Bernie will have to recalibrate his criticism.
John McWilliams, Fort Myers
World War II rationing
To the people complaining about the gas prices for the last few months; think about what our parents and grandparents had to go through during World War II. The United States implemented widespread rationing through the Office of Price Administration (OPA) to conserve essential resources.
Here are some examples of rationing: gasoline, rationed based on need; new cars unavailable for civilian purchase; shoes and rubber footwear, stoves, typewriters, bicycles, coal and firewood, silk/nylons (for parachutes), and certain medicines.
Foods: sugar, ½ a pound per person per week, coffee (from 1942 to mid-1943) about a pound every 5 weeks; meats beef, pork, veal, lamb, and fish; butter and shortening; cheese, cream cheese, cottage cheese, canned milk. Processed/canned/frozen foods − over 300 items, including canned goods, dried fruits, jams, jellies, and mane preserved products (to conserve tin/metal for military use).
As far as paying too much for gas, if you don’t buy those 4 bags of chips, pretzels, etc. ($20) and the pizza ($30), you just saved $50. Also, don’t buy Starbucks, and pack a lunch.
Remember the Second World War started because no one would listen to Churchill. Trump saw the situation, (because of what Obama and Biden did), and did something about it (and it only took about 3 months). Iran had plans to destroy Israel, take over the Mid-east through intimidation, then Europe, and on to us. So stop complaining about gasoline and Trump, he knows what he’s doing (gas prices going down, stock market going up, and no nuclear bombs).
Jim Adduci, Naples
MAGA says be very afraid
Locals in this area who have watched any TV or have a smart phone have by now seen a couple of prototype MAGA politicians running for office telling us that as the midterm elections approach, we all need to be focused on the shiny mirage they have conjured up of invading hordes of mostly brown- and black-skinned murdering, raping, and pillaging illegal immigrants in our communities and to be very afraid of them. They tell us to be very afraid of those overwhelming numbers of awful LGBTQ+ people who threaten to overrun our society, dominate your children in every sport they participate in and go into bathrooms not in keeping with their birth sex. They tell us these are the concerns foremost on the minds of working families after almost two years under the MAGA king. They want us to not be concerned about the high cost of energy, groceries, and the bare necessities of living caused by Mr. Trump’s now struck-down illegal tariffs and his war of choice. They want us to not be concerned about the unaffordability of health care and the Republican health care plan which is to “just die.” They want us to ignore Mr. Trump’s dangerous hero complex that caused him to take this nation into an ill-considered war with no concern or planning for its disastrous second, third and fourth order effects. They want us to ignore the “in your face” evidence of the most certifiably corrupt grifting president in the history of the United States. They want us to ignore a department of injustice that has had case after case thrown out of court with threats of sanctions against DOJ lawyers stupid enough to pursue Mr. Trump’s retribution campaign. Finally, they tell us overall to ignore the glaring incompetence of a self-memorializing president and his lapdog Cabinet who tell lies every day to cover up for their incompetence. These mini-me P.T. Barnum Trumps running for public office, and there are a lot of them, tell us we DO NOT need to be afraid of a frothing at the mouth MAGA mob attacking the United States Capitol, threatening to kill the vice president of the United States, U.S. congressmen and senators and overthrow the government because their candidate did not win an election, even as the MAGA king today, keeps repeating the same Big Lie that incited the January 6 attempt at insurrection. As the old saying goes, I was born at night, but not last night. We need to all recognize where the real threat is, and believe me, folks, it ain’t the hardworking immigrants making this country better or the LGBTQ+ community seeking their human rights and the right to be left alone. Please folks, don’t give your vote to anyone who thinks you were born last night. You will know those folks by the shiny objects they want you to focus on.
Thomas Minor, Bonita Springs
The Iranians played Trump
So, the great dealmaker finally got a deal with Iran − except that he didn’t. The announcement was that the Strait of Hormuz would be opened and that the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports would end. Well, guess what? Before February 28, 2026, the Strait of Hormuz was already open, and there was no blockade of Iranian ports. So, according to senior defense officials, with direct and replacement costs, we will have spent close to $50 billion − and let’s not forget the 13 U.S. service members killed and the 380 wounded in action − to get something we already had!
What about the Iranian nuclear stockpile, you ask? Trump got nothing! That will be “negotiated” during the next 60 days. HA! What about the Iranian missiles? Not a word. The Iranians played Trump like Pearlman or Yo-Yo Ma plays their Stradivarius.
P.S. By the time you read this, “the deal” may be off − again.
Ken Brindle, Cape Coral
Distrust on both sides
With the vague bare outline of a temporary deal between the United States and Iran reached, deferring the critical issue of nuclear materials maintained by the latter country, much has been made of the untrustworthiness of the Iranian regime.
The venality of that nation’s leadership and lack of reliability to keep its word may be so, but it should be remembered that it was the United States under President Trump that repudiated the nuclear limitation agreement that was agreed to by Iran and this country and other nations during the Obama administration and Iran was, by all accounts, complying with when President Trump reneged in 2018.
Since then, in his current term he has continued his penchant for disowning willly-nilly prior multi-lateral obligations and arrangements entered into by this country, such as one dealing with combatting climate change, which he professes is a Chinese-bred myth, and the World Health Organization, among others.
He seems to be the kind of person who, when invited to someone else’s home for dinner, the host should count the silverware after he leaves.
There’s plenty of reasons for each side to distrust the other and invoke Ronald Reagan’s admonition: “Trust but verify.”
Marshall H. Tanick, Naples
No positive ideas from liberals
It’s been a month since I wrote to the Mailbag suggesting that liberals make some positive suggestions on how to improve America if they want to gain popular support among Republicans and Independents. The result − silence of the tomb! If your leftist readers think that they’ll take control of Congress in November by repeating their mantra of “I” “Hate” “Trump” over and over again, I believe they have another think coming.
Four years of Biden purposely opening the borders to anyone and everyone is not something to which the majority of our citizens want to return. Taxing tips and overtime have no universal appeal, either. Want your daughter to share her locker room with a biological male? Vote Democrat.
No response to an appeal for better ideas for a month probably means that they don’t have any.
Dave Bridgeman, Alva
Democrats uncooperative
I find it ironic that the Democratic leadership Schumer and Jeffries are complaining that they were not given the details of the Trump agreement with Iran. The Democrats have not attempted to enter into the negotiations during this war. They criticized Trump from day one and never offered to compromise on any issue, let alone one as crucial as this.
If you can’t join the conversation because you hate our leadership and never enter into discussions, you do not have the foothold to compromise. They are like the little kid that can’t play baseball because they have no equipment and the other team will not lend them their bat and ball.
Michael Zubrow, Naples
Writer shows bias
I have never understood why Nancy Armour writes about sports. In virtually every article she writes there is a condemnation of the United States. Usually, she condemns the United States as irretrievably racist; even though many, if not most of the players in the sport may be Black, and well compensated.
In the case of the World Cup, she concludes that it carries a “stench” surrounded by “ugliness and greed.” The World Cup will be played in three countries in North America, all of which will celebrate their culture and traditions. Every indication is that the fans are having a terrific experience.
Bruce Foster, Naples
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Lee School Board rubber-stamps superintendent | Opinion letters
Reporting by Letter writers / Fort Myers News-Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Letter writers | USA TODAY Network
