Lee County school district must search for new superintendent

The School District of Lee County must begin searching for an educator to replace Superintendent Greg Adkins, since he announced Friday he will retire at the end of his contract June 30.

This leaves the future of Florida’s ninth largest school district up in the air.

Adkins received a round of applause before and after he spoke at Lee County Public Education Center to announce his retirement after 33 years with the District and five years as superintendent. Although Adkins certainly received a positive sendoff, his evaluations from three members of Lee County School Board also show there was scrutiny of his job performance. The other four board members were clearly supporters of Adkins in his role.

Board members Mary Fischer, Chris Patricca, Debbie Jordan and Cathleen Morgan shared positive evaluations and widely praised Adkins for his response to COVID-19 and his work to improve the mental and social health of students.

Betsy Vaughan, Gwyn Gittens and Melisa Giovannelli were more critical in their evaluations.

Giovannelli’s review was the longest, most detailed and most critical. She wrote in part, “You encouraged false investigations/complaints to be made by your staff against board members without board members’ knowledge.” She also wrote, “You failed to protect whistle-blower employees that came forward for protection.”

These evaluations are, however, from May of 2020. WINK News has requested 2021 reviews from the district but is still waiting to hear back.

Gittens noted “missed opportunities” during the pandemic to help students who fell behind as the achievement gap worsened.