November, 2025
Sanford- Employers, when hiring, have overwhelmingly asked applicants to come to the job prepared.
The Lee County Education Foundation, in partnership with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Carolina, is renewing its effort to make sure middle school students in Lee County get a head start on that count.
Read MoreSeptember, 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, …
Read MoreMay 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…
Read MoreFebruary 13, 2025
SANFORD, NC — Wendy Wicker Phillips, who spent much of her 30-year career as an educator at Deep River Elementary School, has been named the executive director of the Lee County Education Foundation.
In the newly created position, Phillips will serve as a public-facing advocate to help LCEF collaborate and partner with the greater Lee County community and Lee County Schools to fulll the Foundation’s mission — that of helping to create an outstanding school system that graduates students well-prepared for the 21st century workplace and success in life…
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