WINK News speaks with Lee County Superintendent Dr. Greg Adkins

With school starting in less than one week in Lee County, we asked parents if they have any concerns for the new year.

Our 15-minute conversation with the School District of Lee County superintendent covered everything from bullying to district spending. However, the main topic was school bus safety.

Bus stop safety is a significant concern for parents after the death of two Lee County students earlier this year.

When asked to list specific changes his district has made, Greg Adkins, the superintendent, pointed to benches across cities like Cape Coral, working with cities and the county to bring in more sidewalks and better lighting, along with long-term solutions like letting students go to school closer to home.

“I’d say that the school district continues to do quite a bit,” Adkins said. “We continue to work on making our schools safer. We continue to make sure we’re communicating with our parents and our community about school bus safety.”

We also took some of your questions posted on our WINK News Facebook page straight to the superintendent. Sandra asked: why can’t the school district invest in metal detectors?

“I think you have to think about the logistics around metal detectors,” Adkins said. “It’s not just a cost issue it’s talking about taking something like 2000 students and moving that through a metal detector.

“Now,” Adkins said, “I’m not ruling it out.”

WINK News viewer, Joey, asked: how will you deal with bullying?

“I believe that you have to deal with bullying through training,” Adkins said, “which is what we require all of our teachers to undergo.”

Lastly, we asked: Why not move start times up? Is there no better answer than to have students wait in the dark for their bus?

“One of the things you have to do is you have to look at the other end of things because if you move school start times in the morning, then you start throwing off the afternoon times,” Adkins said. “And you have to look at when our middle school is arriving at home, and you’re putting them out in the dark.”

Adkins asked parents in the days leading up to the start of school, check out the bus stop your kid will go to and have those conversations about staying safe.