Superintendent pulls Lake Placid consolidation, will advertise for middle‑school principal after public outcry

Superintendent Dr. Longshore asked the Highlands County School Board to remove the proposed consolidation of Lake Placid Middle School and Lake Placid High School from the agenda and said she will not recommend consolidation going forward.

"I request approval to remove this item 10c from tonight's agenda and will not be moving forward with recommending consolidation," Dr. Longshore told the board. She also said, "An advertisement for a principal position at Lake Placid Middle School will be posted later this week."

The decision followed more than an hour of public comment by parents, teachers and community members who urged the board to preserve separate middle‑ and high‑school campuses and to prioritize leadership stability at Lake Placid Middle School. "What we need is not a merger, we need a principal and we already have the right person for the job," said Susan McCarter, a Lake Placid Middle School teacher, referring to assistant principal Mr. Millian. Parent Erin Hatton told the board, "We need actual transparency," and asked for data and broader community engagement before making a major structural change.

Speakers at the meeting repeatedly described a lack of information from the district about the proposal and questioned the process used to announce the consolidation. Several speakers said the district disabled comments on the Facebook post that announced the plan; parents said that undermined trust. "I don't understand. Where did it come from?" said Peggy Leach, a community member, asking board leaders to explain origins and purpose of the proposal.

Board members acknowledged receiving those concerns. After Dr. Longshore described an 18‑month plan that staff had posted to the board agenda for stakeholders to review, she said she had listened to members' concerns and removed the consolidation item. Board members then adopted the agenda as revised. The superintendent said she would proceed to post the principal job advertisement for Lake Placid Middle School and work to provide "strong leadership at the middle school."

The public discussion included multiple calls for local hires and for further transparency measures, including community surveys and clearer data about academic and operational impacts. Board legal counsel advised that adding new agenda items at the meeting would conflict with Florida open‑meetings requirements unless an emergency existed, but individual board members may make remarks during their comment period.

For now, the consolidation proposal is off the table; the superintendent directed staff to recruit a permanent principal for Lake Placid Middle School and offered to share the written 18‑month plan with stakeholders in the future.

The board moved on to other agenda business after the vote to adopt the revised agenda.