Ricciardelli Third Superintendent with Lely High School Roots

By a tight 3-2 vote, the school board appointed Leslie Ricciardelli as Superintendent of Collier County Schools, during the Naples School Board meeting on May 3rd. School board members Erick Carter, Kelly Lichter, and Stephanie Lucarelli voted in favor of Ricciardelli. Tim Moshier and Jerry Rutherford cast the dissenting votes. 

Ricciardelli served as Lely High School principal prior to taking a position in district leadership. She moved up the ranks at the district office, becoming CCPS Interim Superintendent and CCPS Deputy Superintendent. She will officially become Collier County’s twentieth superintendent of schools once she enters into a contract with the school board. Ricciardelli has served as interim superintendent replacing Kamela Patton, who announced her retirement after 11 years as superintendent.

Ricciardelli will be the third superintendent of schools with roots at nearby Lely High School. Clyde Quinby, Lely’s first principal, was superintendent of schools from 1976-1979. Ray Baker, a former school counselor at Lely, was superintendent from 2004-2007. Interestingly, Tommie Barfield of Marco Island was Collier County’s first superintendent of schools from 1923-1925.

Throughout the process, which started with 45 applicants, Ricciardelli received strong support from CCPS team members.

“I have heard from hundreds of people,” Ricciardelli said in an email statement, “old classmates, former co-workers and current employees, former and current students, and parents, and I could not be more grateful for their support of Collier County Public School and of me.”

One former colleague, Beth Colman, a school counselor at Lely, actively supported Ricciardelli’s candidacy. After all, it was Ricciardelli who brought Colman to Lely.

“She hired me at Lely,” said Colman. “She was the toughest principal I ever worked for. She was the one principal that you wanted to work for the hardest. She was so passionate about what she was doing that it bled over into how you worked for her. She and I worked extremely closely together when I was the department chair of counseling.”

Colman watched Ricciardelli rise through the ranks at the district office.

"She always stood out,” Colman said. "She was brought to the district office as the executive director of secondary programs. That was her first job there. And then she kind of worked up the chain. The respectful thing about Leslie is she was there since 2015 and she stayed there and worked her way up to assistant superintendent. And it took her what seemed like a little bit longer of a time to work her way up. But I think it was because of the trust that Dr. Kamela Patton had in her. She knew that Leslie was there for the long haul. Leslie stayed and stayed and stayed where others didn't. And it was because everybody knew Leslie was preparing for this job, including Dr. Patton. Everybody knew Leslie was the only choice to at some point take this job. She's the most educated woman when it comes to what these kids need. She's the most educated woman. She knows the answer to every question. We hated in 2015 when the conversation started about her going, but we all knew it was the natural next step for her. That it would be the best thing for the district. She hated to leave us. We hated to see her leave, but we knew it had to happen. She was the perfect person for that job. The staff at Lely knew that this was an eventual position that she would end up in. It had to be.”