Lee County school board member said her complaint about school district goes back to 2019

Gwyn Gittens has been on the Lee County School Board for two years.

Since day one, she has not liked what she’s seen and what she heard.

This week, Gittens sent a letter to Gov. Ron DeSantis asking that he investigate the School District of Lee County for “waste, fraud and abuse.”

On Wednesday, Gittens said a lot of district employees are telling her, quietly, they are glad she is speaking up.

Gittens described the school district as being “in crisis.”

The letter sent to the governor has not been provided to WINK News and Gittens declined to go into details about her allegations.

“My strategy for doing this is to contact the governor, let him know what’s going on, and to wait to see what the governor has to say,” Gittens said.

Gittens told WINK News she told DeSantis about everything she knows. Her allegations go back as far as 2019.

Gittens is the only Black school board member and represents the only majority-minority district in the county. Her district is made up of much of east Lee County.

Both points are relevant because they come up frequently at heated public meetings between school board members.

Race is also part of the discussion.

“I was in a meeting not long ago,” Gittens said. “And I said, I made a comment. I said, I really think this is about me. And the response was, Oh, this is not about your race. And I said, Oh, I didn’t say that. I never said race.”

This is bigger and more encompassing, Gittens said.

“When, when this all comes out, you’ll see that it’s broader. It’s not about me,” she added.

Gittens said it’s about the students and her decision to go to the governor was not an act of hate for the district.

The governor’s office said they don’t have a letter from Gittens. Gittens said she received a similar message so she sent the letter again.