Lee County Schools seek $17 million in federal community project funds for intercoms and vestibules

Lee County School District officials told the school board on Tuesday that they submitted two federal community project funding requests — one for modernizing school intercom systems and another to install secure vestibules at remaining school entries.

"We are excited to share for the first time our federal community project funding requests," said Christy (Chrissy) Houlihan, who introduced the briefing, adding Ballard Partners lobbyists Tracy Poe and Dan McFall were helping the district track the requests.

The district requested $7,000,000 toward a $50,021,861 intercom modernization program covering 57 schools; officials said the district has already invested or committed $43,021,861 toward the total. "Safety is our district's number one priority," a…