Lee County superintendent candidates face off in debate

The future of more than 100,000 students is up in the air. It’s been a struggle for the Lee County School District to keep a superintendent.

These three people, Denise Carlin, Morgan Wright and Sheridan Chester, are making it clear that they want the job.

Tuesday night, Carlin and Wright took the stage for a debate at the Cape Cabaret. It was hosted by the Cape Coral Republican Club, and the media was not allowed to attend.

“No offense to the media, you’re all good partners for the Republican Party and all of Southwest Florida, but it’s important that we respect the privacy of the members and the privacy of the discussion,” said Kevin Karnes, president of Cape Coral Republican Club.

While we couldn’t see what was going on inside, we caught up with the two candidates afterward.

“The electorate has a chance here to elect, for the first time in 50 years, a superintendent of schools, and I really feel like this group was able to discern the difference. The difference comes down to experience,” said Denise Carlin, superintendent candidate, Republican.

Carlin further elaborated on what was talked about during the debate.

“We talked about student discipline, we talked about the budget, we talked about the very fact that is elected superintendent for the first time in 50 years, so what would the relationship be with the board? We talked to just about a lot of wide variety of issues, teacher retention, teacher recruitment, student achievement, safe schools.”

We also talked with Morgan Wright, superintendent candidate, Republican.

“There’s always going to be a dividing factor when it comes to experience, and what to say to that is if somebody has been part of an establishment for 30 plus years, and even recently was the number two person for the district, and we are still at where we are at, I have to wonder, does experience really matter? Or do we need somebody from the outside coming in to make those hard calls and those hard changes?” Wright said.

There is also a democratic candidate: Sheridan Chester.

She did not attend Tuesday’s meeting.

We did ask the president if they plan to hold a meeting for the public and media to attend. He said he’s “not opposed to that.”