September, 2025

SANFORD - The Lee County Education Foundation was honored to be featured at the Sanford Area Growth Alliance’s September Public Policy Luncheon, where Executive Director Wendy Wicker Phillips shared the Foundation’s story, impact, and vision for the future. Since its founding in 2003, LCEF has grown a $1.3 million endowment, distributed more than $2.5 million, and impacted over 10,000 students in Lee County Schools. The presentation highlighted key initiatives that are shaping education locally, including the Head of Class Awards, which celebrate and reward all school staff for student growth; the Temple Sloan Lee County Teaching Fellows Awards, …

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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. 

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April 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”…

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