This story was produced in partnership with nonpartisan news organizations and universities across the state working to provide information about the 2026 elections. Learn more about the Florida Elections Reporting Partnership at floridaelections.org. This is one of two stories on the District 1 race in Lee County, the other story link is here.

District 1 incumbent Sam Fisher faces off against Jenn McDaigle in the race for Lee County board of education. The same 11 questions were posed to each candidate. Their answers follow, edited for brevity and clarity.

Q. Why do you want to be a school board member?

A. I want to continue being a school board member because I think we've done a lot of great work in the district anywhere.

I mean, our academic progress has truly increased: graduation rates and increased things like teacher pay, career and technical education.

But it all boils down to me. I'm very invested. I have three kids in public schools.

I'm invested in our community.

I want to keep fighting for our kids and our community.

Q. What are your qualifications for the office?

A. Well, I'm already in the office, so I've done it for four years. Before that, I was on a charter school board in Cape Coral at Oasis for three years. So I kind of cut my teeth on that.

I'm an attorney.

I'm a small business owner.

I've run multi-million dollar budgets before that.

So on top of that, I have significant ties to the community. I'm a member of the Chamber of Commerce. I sit in the YMCA board, as well as the board of directors for Thrive, formerly known as Drug-Free Coalition, Lee County.

Q. How do you stay in touch with your constituents?

A. A lot of phone calls, a lot of meetups in person. Even for now, during this campaign, I'm door knocking almost every day, talking to people from all walks of life all the time.

Q. The superintendent of Lee schools is now an elected. partisan official who no longer reports to nor is selected by the school board. How has that been working out? As a school board member elected to a nonpartisan office, what is your role in relation to the superintendent?

A. The superintendent is the CEO of the district or the company, just like the governor.

And the school board member is legislative. We handle policy and budget. And I think it's been working out actually great.

Prior, when it was appointed superintendent, especially before my time, the superintendent's job was threatened all the time. I mean, we went through something like five superintendents in nine years, something like that. And they were always under the threat of getting fired.

So I think right now it's a better relationship for the fact that we each know what our roles are and we're able to execute those roles without any undue persuasion from having your job held over your head every two minutes.

Q. What do you see as the biggest problem or challenge facing the district?

A. It's always a kind of a combination between budget and obviously that flows into enrollment.

So it's no secret we had to cut money from our budget this year, just like pretty much every other school district across the state. So we need to make sure we can effectively work within our means and it comes down to need to focus on the students and focus on needs over wants right now.

But it also goes in tandem with our enrollment right now. We've lost some enrollment, especially in the south part of the county and we have to work on, you know, I guess the best way to say it is to show that, you know, the public schools are amazing place and attract some of those families back or in new families even.

Q. Explain your position on extending the 1/2 penny sales tax when it expires in 2028.

A. I'm not sure what it is at the moment. I still want to see how things are going with it.

I'm not going to make a commitment one way or other because I want to see what's working with it. I know the last little bit we've been able to build many schools over it, but I also want to see financially where we are in about a year to year and a half.

Q. Although gains have been made, Lee County's teachers' beginning salaries are barely above what is considered a livable wage. Should salaries be higher and how can this be accomplished if so?

A. Well, you always want to pay teachers more, but don't forget people also forget about staff. It's just as important they get paid as well.

Before my time in the board, salary increases were anywhere from 1 to 2%. We've had one 6%, 7% and 8% and it's made it better.

Is it where we want to be at? No, we've got to keep finding ways to pay them.

For example, last year we cut along with the superintendent about $15 million from the administrative budget and that went out to pay the teachers increase last year, which was a 7% allocation.

Q. What can Lee schools do to solve the budget crisis?

A. A couple things. We did this year cut from parts, you know, we no longer need. Over the last, I wanna say it's about two and a half years, the superintendent's office in conjunction with the board has cut about $26 million from the administrative part of the budget right there to be able to use for other things.

The other thing is have continue to have more efficient bus routes. We cut down on the amount of busing from where elementary schools, for example, some parts of Cape Coral had 10 or 11 choices of schools to be bused to where we're down to three or four, so we have to mind transportation efficiency, things like that.

We have to continually find other ways when it comes to more efficient pricing on different things. We've always got to find ways.

We also have a very strong relationship with our local delegation, the state Legislature, and the governor to be able to get certain things, whether it's favorability on certain appropriations to bring back or certain grants or things like that.

So it's not like a one-size-fits-all thing.

Q. Not many school districts have hired federal lobbying firms, but Lee County did so in March. Has this had benefits so far? Judging by public comment, it wasn't a popular decision. Are you in favor of continuing that expenditure? Why or why not?

A. Absolutely. There's other school districts out the state that have had federal lobbyists and success. We've been able to open up a ton of grant opportunities, be able to even help out with, for example, Alva High School and our other schools. [We've] been able to reduce the amount of time on permits, like the Army Corps Engineer permits.

We went down, for example, on one, I think it was slated to be two or three years. We were able to get it done in six months. So people don't understand how much an impact that has.

Q. How do you feel about the voucher system as it exists now? Is it harming public education?

A. It's law, so it's my job to follow the law.

I believe students and parents should have a choice of where to send their kids to school.
So I think the biggest thing for us is, and again, I'm a proud parent of three kids in Lee County schools right now. So I think for me, that's the best option. And I want to make sure, as I said, everyone else needs to have the same option.

And this is reality today. It's nothing that's going to change. So we need to work within those means and continue to promote our schools to show that they're the best.

Q. Do you agree with the current Schools of Hope co-location legislation?

A. It doesn't matter what I agree with. I have to follow the law.

In our area, we haven't had to deal with that. I guess I can see in other areas where there's where there's failing schools and it's worked in other locations.

So but it's the law.

So it doesn't matter if I agree with it or not, I have to follow it.

Q. Is there anything else you'd like to add?

A. I think we're really moving in the right direction.

So as I had mentioned before, academics, we've done significant work in teacher and staff.

The biggest thing for me is we have a stable school district. When I came in, before that, the board before were good people, but they couldn't get along. So I think we've really put the business of the district forward.

We've made our schools significantly safer.

[We have} career and technical opportunities. I'm about to attend the ribbon cutting next week for Cape Coral Technical College, which we're essentially going to almost double the size of it. And we're gonna to meet what our community's needs are.

Because my goal, the board's goal and the superintendent is always to figure out what is the path for success to kids? And is it college? Is it entering a trade? Is it technical schools, is it military, civil service like that? I think that's what we have to keep our eye on the ball for that.

And I'm excited to see things going and I'm excited and hope to continue to do that in the district.

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