Lee County School District addresses parent’s concerns at town hall meeting

Reporter: Haley Zarcone Writer: Elyssa Morataya
Published: Updated:

Creating open dialog between parents and those in charge of our kid’s education. Thursday night was the first of many town hall meetings being held by the Lee County School District.

The largest school district in Southwest Florida has a laundry list of issues parents want addressed such as school start times, code of conduct, school safety and school lunches.

Thursday night’s meeting was the start of a discussion between those in charge of the classroom and parents at home.

With your student in mind, parents, teachers and school staff have a platform to get their questions answered right from the source.

Superintendent Dr. Denise Carlin, Board Chair Sam Fisher and Vice Chair Jada Langford Fleming spoke to an auditorium full of people wanting answers.

A good amount of questions revolved around proposed earlier start times.

“If I knew my high school student was not picked up on time and had to wait another hour at the bus stop in the dark, I’m not happy as a parent, and those are the parents we’ve been hearing from since I was sworn in on November 19,” said Carlin.

Part of the plan is proposing changes when a child is picked up for school.

“Starting earlier doesn’t make it any brighter outside of course,” said parent Gabriel Denny. “I think the challenge is we’re trying to fit our current transportation model into into a system that probably won’t work given the staffing challenges.”

One mom WINK News spoke with left the town hall happy for the future of a nutritious school lunch.

“I’m happy about the food,” said DD. “So the food choice sucks right now, but be patient people, it will be better soon. So they are thinking about changing that from scratch. Thank God.”

Agree or disagree; the district is starting conversations that involve community input.

The earlier school start time conversation is not a done deal. There is a survey that went out to parents and the district was clear that they want feedback.

If you couldn’t make it to Thursday night’s meeting, they have 6 more town hall meetings scheduled in different parts of the county.

Copyright ©2025 Fort Myers Broadcasting. All rights reserved.

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without prior written consent.