Stephanie Lucarelli was recently elected chair of the Collier County Board of Education. Lucarelli, who is in her third term on the board, talked about challenges the system has met and has yet to meet.

"We have really been fiscally responsible, making sure that all the majority of our dollars are going into our classrooms, finding areas where we can cut things," she said, outline accomplishments during her tenure. "The longer we go, the harder it gets. But we are very excited to be seeing hopefully, by February, we should be debt free."

She also cited the system's work with non-English speaking students. "Working with students that are not English-speaking, and trying to get them up to speed. I feel like we have been doing such a great job with that," she said.

Hiring Leslie Ricciardelli as superintendent is another decision of which she is proud.

As far as unmet challenges, they are mostly coming from the state, Lucarelli said.

"Lately, it's hard to still believe that they support public schools when there is this constant chipping away of local control, unfunded mandates, restrictions, and accountability measures that only apply to the public schools. Parents at home school can receive taxpayer dollars, but they're not being held accountable in the same way."

Not least among her concerns is the Schools of Hope legislation allowing charter schools to “co-locate” within public schools.

"I can understand that they are saying, 'well, you're already paying for the electricity and and the water. So these schools should be able to move in if there's empty classrooms to those.' But on top of that, the school district also has to supply the custodial service, any maintenance, school safety. They also have to provide all nutrition services so they're going to feed those students, nursing, even transportation has to be provided by the public school district.

"And the School of Hope is not only occupying space rent free, but also getting all of these other services at the local taxpayers dime and that is a concern," she said.

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