Lee County Schools superintendent at center of investigation

FORT MYERS, Fla.- The Lee County Schools superintendent is now the center of an investigation.

The school board voted unanimously to investigate Dr. Nancy Graham to see when she knew about an alleged cheating scandal at the Dunbar Community School.

“Why do we as taxpayers have to pay an excess of $10,000 for an additional report when there has already been a summary of findings,” asked one parent.

It all stems back to an alleged cheating incident at Dunbar Community School, where a teacher’s aid was accused of illegally aiding a student to pass her GED.

Graham says she did everything right in keeping the school board informed on the issue and wants to be trusted.

“So I am being very careful to look at this as they want to trust and maybe this is what they need to be able to do that once and for all,” said Dr. Graham.

But some board members feel Graham didn’t do her job on keeping them in the loop. The external investigation will look into how the superintendent handled the scandal.

“I think an external investigation will clear any doubt that anybody might have,” said board member Mary Fischer.

“We have an obligation to the public because we have been accused of being biased and trying to sweep this under the rug and we have got to have a clean cut, unbiased investigation,” said board member Jeanne Dozier.

The investigation should take 45 days and there is no word on how the findings could affect the superintendent.