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 district presenter said, noting the upgrade would modernize legacy systems, integrate with panic-alert features for "Alyssa's Law" compliance and provide districtwide emergency coverage for about 57,000 students and 11,400 staff.

A second request seeks $10,050,000 for phase 1 of vestibule installations as part of a $23,400,000 multi‑phase project to add secondary barrier vestibules at school entryways. The presenter described a vestibule as "an enclosed space or small room that creates a buffer zone between exterior and interior doorways" where visitors can be verified before entering school buildings. The district said it would complement the $10,050,000 federal request with approximately $4,384,000 of district funds (about a 43.6% local match for phase 1).

Ballard Partners lobbyists described how the congressional appropriations process works and warned of timing uncertainty. "I would anticipate that Congress ends up passing a continuing resolution to keep the federal government open and funded at 2025 levels rather than moving the fiscal year 2026," Dan McFall said, adding he expects final appropriations "probably end of this calendar year" and that timing and floor time could slow community project approvals.

Board members asked how the firm would engage federal stakeholders and about the timeline. Tracy Poe and Dan McFall described their congressional and appropriations experience and said they would monitor markups, floor action and conference negotiations and keep the district informed at each step.

The presenters also thanked local law enforcement and county officials for letters of support the district submitted with the requests.

No formal board action was taken at the workshop; the district said it will track the requests through the appropriations process and notify the board as items move through committee and floor consideration.

The district also said written two‑page summaries of the funding requests were provided to board members before the workshop and will be made available on the district website after the meeting.

Ending: District staff and Ballard Partners said they will continue tracking committee markups and floor action and will report back to the board as the congressional appropriations process advances and as any award notifications occur.