CCPS lays out vision for new school year, shows safety features

Collier superintendent Dr. Leslie Ricciardelli spoke to school and district administrators to lay out her vision and key priorities for the 2024-2025 school year.

“Today was really a day to reflect on all of our achievements from last year. And to thank everyone because it takes everyone to every single person impacts and has a significant impact on the success of our district,” said Dr. Ricciardelli.

The goal she says is to continue building on their success.

“We’ve done such amazing things over the last 12 years, 13 years in Collier County, we just need to continue to build on that, even with all the new things coming through the state new assessments, new accountability models,” she added.

WINK News asked her if they plan to reach a new deal with teachers soon.

“I hope so. I’m not part of the bargaining unit, but they are working on it and hopefully that all, hopefully that’ll come to agreement sooner than later,” she explained. “But that’s, that’s up to them and the board.”

WINK News also got a walk-through of the Aubrey Rogers High School campus, checking out various safety features within CCPS schools.

“All of our classroom spaces, elementary through high school have a system in place, we call them lockdown shades,” said Chad Oliver with CCPS. “So, if the school were to go in a lockdown, that goes over the window so that you’re not able to see inside the classroom space.”

At Aubrey Rogers High School, which is only a year old, they have specific lockdown areas in each classroom, clocks where messages can be shared with students and emergency lockdown buttons.

“Nearly 7,000 staff in Collier County have the ability to call for a lockdown,” Oliver added. “They can do that from their mobile phone, a landline, and in this case, students are empowered to call for a lockdown as well.”

Dr. Ricciardelli said at the moment, there are 79 classroom positions open right now across 51 school sites.

“When you look at it like that, it’s you’re not talking about a massive number at any of the school sites. We have seven open positions for bus drivers, we’re in really good shape. I think we hired 14 bus drivers this summer. So, trained them, hired them, really excited,” she said.

In terms of what teachers are getting paid, Dr. Ricciardelli said they’re doing the best they can right now. She agrees it is expensive to live in Collier, but she believes there are also a lot of benefits to being here.