COLLIER COUNTY, Fla — Teachers and students are heading back to the classroom in Collier County. Dr. Leslie Ricciardelli spoke with Fox 4 senior reporter Kaitlin Knapp about potential boundary changes and the desire to pull back from too much technology.
Ricciardelli is in her second year as superintendent of Collier County Public Schools.
With technology everywhere, Ricciardelli wants to shy away from computers.
Hear the priorities of superintendent Dr. Leslie Ricciardelli:
"We're in a very technologically advanced society right now, but we can't just focus on technology," she explained. "We have to get away from technology and really get the kids back to face-to-face interactions."
Those interactions coming from teachers. Teachers they're looking to hire this year.
The district has 79 classroom positions open as of early August. But like many things, money is a factor.
Bargaining has been happening for weeks, and Ricciardelli says a tax neutral referendum you will vote on is a must for the district.
"It's critical because it allows us to take .35 mils from capital dollars and put them into operating dollars," Ricciardelli said.
Knapp asked if the current salary rate is enough for teachers to live in Collier County.
"You know, we did a survey in March, because I really needed to see where we are with this," Ricciardelli explained.
In that survey, she says out of 3,500 employees, 2,200 own their home.
Ricciardelli says while it shows how long people have lived here, she admits it is expensive to live in Collier County.
The county is growing fast, which is why the School Board is looking at boundary changes.
Proposals were shut down twice, and will be discussed again in September.
"I am all about transparency and we're going to bring back the committee," Ricciardelli said. "See if there's some rock we didn't turn over, something we might have missed."
Ricciardelli says she is looking forward to new state standards and assessments, with the idea it will benefit students.
"The immediate gratification of these new assessments — we get the scores right away," she said. "The kids know right away how did they do."
They're also eyeing another aspect in the classroom.
"One of the things we're focusing on very heavily this year is that in every single subject across all content areas, students will read, write, speak and listen across all content areas every day," Ricciardelli said.
This scratches the surface of what Ricciardelli says the school district is doing to continue to maintain an "A" rating.
"I think we just keep doing what we've been doing and really honing in and figuring out where do we have some blind spots or just some areas where we can continue to improve just like any other thing," she explained.
