On these pages in recent weeks we have run a number of guest opinions and letters to the editor urging a “No” vote on a ballot referendum that would repeal a decades-old local resolution that establishes the appointment of the School District of Lee County’s superintendent of schools. If approved, the top administrative post would become an elected position.

These “vote No” submissions, summed up succinctly, argue that a hired superintendent, qualified by education and professional expertise, should lead the day-to-day operations of our school system to ensure the best education for our children. Voters, these contributors point out, elect school board members who set the policies that reflect local community standards and, to the extent possible, control where and how tax dollars are spent.

It is the best-of-both-worlds system used universally in all states but Alabama and Florida, where the state constitution allows for a choice and an elected superintendent is a relic among some of the state’s smaller school systems.

Lee County school boards have appointed the public school system’s superintendent since 1974 when voters approved the local resolution this referendum seeks to overturn.

We agree with our community contributors: Our appointed superintendent/elected board system still provides the best balance of skill-specific expertise and public — i.e. voter — control.

Appointment provides a nationwide pool from which to select the person best qualified to operate a school district with 96 campuses, more than 97,000 students, 13,000 employees and a $2.4 billion budget to, in effect, serve as the CEO of one of Lee County’s largest and most complicated business enterprises.

The seven-member elected board assures that not only parents, but the entire community, has input into the direction of the schools we entrust to educate our children.

We’ve not run a single guest column, not a single letter, in support of the referendum that would replace a vetted educator with the best politician campaign financing could, perhaps, buy.

The reason?

We have not received one, not a single submission.

Which surprises us not at all.

This ballot initiative to establish an elected superintendent was not a concerted call from parents and those of us with children in the School District of Lee County’s public school system.

This referendum was not a groundswell request that rose from our community.

It was not initiated by teachers or staff, by school leadership or Lee County School Board members.

It is a political put up job juggernauted through at the state level by our local Legislative Delegation with a wink-nod action anticipated in the shadiest recesses of political byways: Create new lucrative partisan offices here in Lee County. Then, grease the skids for candidates of choice.

Here’s what you have not yet read in the well-researched and carefully presented columns and letters urging a “No” vote on the referendum for an elected superintendent of schools.

Those hoping that voters agree that the superintendent is not a professional position, but a political one, are already gearing up with all hope for the 2024 election.

The next stop?

A similar legislative gambit to put a referendum calling for an elected county manager on the ballot if this one gulls enough Lee County voters.

You gotta love the political machine here in Lee County.

From watching the latest constitutional office incumbent retire shortly before the next election to seeing the handpicked partisan pol appointed so as to run as an incumbent, it may be predicable — but it’s seldom boring.

But we digress.

The issue is not that we, as taxpayers, will have to pay twice if this referendum passes — once for the people with the actual knowledge to do the job and then again for the person who will take credit for it as they smile for the camera, slather on another layer of social media and PR gurus and campaign on the job for their next term or political stepping stone.

The issue is, quite simply, what is best for the education of our children.

Because the change requires voter approval, the choice is in our hands:

The current process by which our elected school board establishes a set of academic and educational criteria, institutes a nationwide search for qualified applicants, vets those applicants down to semi-finalists and finalists, holds one-on-one and public interviews, conducts background and reference checks and hires the person deemed the best qualified?

Or the method outlined in the referendum voters will decide on Nov. 8 which limits the pool to Lee County residents who are at least 18 and haven’t committed a felony; that gives the victor all but carte-blanc to operate our growing-by-the-day school system for the next four years — in between campaigning and accepting campaign contributions, of course?

The answer is pretty plain to us: Elect policy makers. Hire expertise. That means securing the system that we have.

Here is how the referendum appears on the Nov. 8 ballot:

“Repealing Resolution Providing for an Appointed, Rather than an Elected, Superintendent of Schools

“Currently, by resolution of the Lee County School Board, the Superintendent of Schools for the Lee County School District is an appointed, rather than an elected, position. Shall Chapter 2022‐233, Laws of Florida, which repeals the aforesaid resolution and provides that the Superintendent of Schools shall no longer be appointed by the Lee County School Board, but rather shall be elected in a partisan election by vote of qualified electors residing in Lee County for a term of 4 years, beginning with the 2024 general election, become effective?”

Our children deserve better than this.

Vote No.

–Breeze editorial