The Lee County School has selected a new superintendent.
In a 6-1 vote, the board has decided to enter contract negotiations with Christopher Bernier.
Bernier will have to negotiate and sign his contract before being officially appointed superintendent of the School District of Lee County.
About 90,000 students attend the school district, which has a budget of $1.5 billion and 12,000 employees.
Bernier spent 22 years working in Broward County.
Bernier would replace interim Superintendent Kenneth Savage, who was appointed to the job after Greg Adkins left the job in June of last year.
In a statement, Bernier, said he is “committed to putting out students first and working with the school board to achieve its vision of being world-class school system.
But Gwyn Gittens, Lee County’s only Black school board member, said she believes Bernier is equipped to lead all students.
“He’s worked in minority-majority districts and very well trained on explicit and implicit bias and all those things,” Gittens said.