LEE COUNTY — Superintendent Greg Adkins announced the end of his 33-year career Friday at the Lee County School District to thunderous applause.
"Serving as your Superintendent for the last five and a half years has truly been an honor and a privilege," said Dr. Adkins.
Adkins received an emotional thank you from several board members for his service.
"I value his leadership, and appreciate all that he has done," said School Board Chair Debbie Jordan.
"The most effective and admired Lee County School District Superintendent in memory, locally and statewide," said School Board Member Cathleen Morgan.
But other School Board members, like Betsy Vaughn and Melissa Giovannelli, chose not to speak at the press conference. They are both calling for Adkins to step down immediately, and would like to see a new interim Superintendent selected as early as the next School Board meeting.
"If we’re going to go in another direction, I feel like we need fresh eyes, fresh thoughts on it from the start," said Vaughn.
"Hiring an immediate interim Superintendent would would be very helpful in this transition," said Giovannelli.
We asked Superintendent Adkins to respond to those calls that he step down immediately.
"I think collectively together we can figure out what’s the best plan for a transition whatever that tenure of time would be," said Adkins.
Vaughn said, if an interim Superintendent is selected, it will likely be someone who is already working at the district in an administrative role.
"The most logical choices would be drawn from our upper-level administrators," said Vaughn.
Both Vaughn and Giovannelli said, for the permanent Superintendent role, they would like to do a national search for candidates, and would like to hopefully have that position filled before the start of next school year.
