The Lee County School District’s four superintendent finalists had dinner with school board members Wednesday night in a tiny VIP room at the Veranda restaurant in downtown Fort Myers. The room, which has glass windows and had a soft sunlight coming through, fits 1o people, tops. But there were 14 of us in the there.

The four superintendent candidates, one candidate’s wife, four school board members and the district’s personnel director were seated and eating beef tenderloin and chicken marsala. Meanwhile, two videographers, a photographer and a reporter stood around the table documenting this first meeting between board members and the finalists.

No, the media didn’t eat. But yes, the food looked good.

It was cramped quarters, but the board members didn’t seem to mind the media barging in on their meet-and-greet dinner with their finalists.

“We can get a good feel for the (finalists’) personalities,” board member Mary Fischer said. “It’s a good way to break the ice.”

After the board selects its new superintendent May 17, look for the board to go on a retreat with the new schools chief. At Tuesday’s board meeting, Lee County School Board Chairman Tom Scott pushed for the potential retreat. Scott thinks it would be a good idea for the board members to get to know the district’s new CEO. The retreat might happen in August at an undisclosed location.

There’s no doubt these six individuals will have plenty to talk about. Here are four items that have to be on the agenda:

1) Budget. Budget. Budget. Lee is projecting a $48 million shortfall for its next budget.

2) Creating a fair teacher merit pay system

3) Fixing an inefficient transportation system. A recent audit said Lee could save $10 million by shortening routes.

4) How will the new superintendent reorganize district staff. Like new CEOs, new superintendents often bring their own people.

There are about 11,600 Lee County students with disabilities. That’s about 14 percent of Lee’s 81,929 student population.

The Lee County School Board recently asked for more information on how these students are being supported in schools. A federal requirement mandates that the district have an individual education plan meeting once a year with these students. About 10 percent of students will have more than one meeting annually, the school district said.

The state Department of Education is conducting an on-line and paper survey for parents of students with disabilities regarding how well schools are supporting parents’ involvement in their child’s education. The survey will wrap up June 30. Results of the survey will be posted on the department of education’s Web site this summer.

How do you think the district supports students with disabilities?

Minorities represent 51.1 percent of Lee County’s 81,929 students; minority teachers represent 12.5 percent of Lee’s 5,000 teachers. Those numbers don’t sit well with Greg Adkins, Lee’s Chief Human Resources Officer.

Adkins has started a 42-member committee to help increase the number of minority teachers in the district. The committee, which includes East Lee County assistant principal Obed Morales (pictured above talking to a student), told the school board Tuesday night how it plans to increase the number of minority teachers and make sure they stay here.

Each of the 42 members of the committee have paired up with a Lee minority teacher to help them seek teaching credentials or help them through receiving additional training. The process of becoming a teacher is exhaustive and many teachers get boggled by all the steps, Adkins said.

The task force has also partnered with Lee’s Hispanic Teacher Network, which started with 12 members in 1997 and has grown to 311 Hispanic teachers today. The committee also wants to reach out to local colleges and universities to identify potential teaching candidates, develop online recruiting tools and reach out to local businesses and institutions to develop retention strategies.

Dwayne Courtney, Lehigh Elementary Principal, said the committee is working with FGCU and Edison State College to find minority teachers. FGCU will have 24 minority teaching candidates by the end of the spring semester; Edison’s College of Education will have 24 minority candidates.

Lee’s lack of minority teachers to represent its student population isn’t going to change overnight but this is a good first step.

It looks like Greg Adkins won’t be leaving the school district. Adkins, head of the Lee County School District Human Resource Department, interviewed for the Indian River School District superintendent position but he didn’t make the final cut of finalists.

The Indian River school board picked Indian River’s assistant superintendent of curriculum Fran Adams and Wayne Gent, Palm Beach County area superintendent, as the top two finalists last week. Adkins had previously made the board’s top-four list.

It’s not clear where Adkins, pictured above when he was principal of Dunbar Middle School in 1999, will go from here. Adkins, 46, has served Lee’s schools for 22 years and has been Lee’s chief human resources officer since 2003. Adkins didn’t apply for Lee’s open superintendent position because he wants to start as a superintendent at a smaller district. Indian River, with 17,000 students and 27 schools, fit the bill. Lee has 81,929 students and 107 schools.