May 21, 2025
SANFORD - One, whose early education took place in Mexico, wants her future students to be inspired and feel cared about.
The other, a lifelong Lee Countian, wants to be a “bright light” for her students — just as her late grandmother was.
They’re Susann Gonzalez-Ortega and Isabella Miller, soon-to-graduate students from Lee County High School, who’ll be receiving scholarships of up to $36,000 to pursue teaching degrees, and then come back to Lee County as teachers.
Read MoreApril 1, 2025
SANFORD — In becoming the inaugural winner of the Ernest and Ruby McSwain Middle School Head of Class prize, principal Natalie Kelly says she and her team at SanLee followed a time-tested formula, one that prior winners of prize utilized at the elementary-school level.
“It was the result of many intentional and strategic actions,” said Kelly, who led the year-over-year academic growth at SanLee Middle School during the 2023-24 school year. “It was no happenstance”…
Read MoreMarch 11, 2025
SANFORD — Back in 2010, when the then-7-year-old Lee County Education Foundation launched its “Head of Class” program, the focus was squarely on Lee County’s elementary schools.
The research-based rationale: building a strong academic foundation in elementary-aged students was the best way to help guarantee later academic successes. That Head of Class award, a unique teacher incentive which included a $50,000 cash prize for the winning school, has since been awarded 11 times, most recently on Jan. 29 — to J. Glenn Edwards Elementary…
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