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The Superintendents to Watch award recognizes up to 25 school district leaders each year who have fewer than five years of experience as a superintendent and who demonstrate dynamic, fast-paced leadership with strong communication at its core.
Deep roots are vital for ecosystems to thrive. They forage for water and nutrients beyond the reach of surface roots. During the hardest of times, deep roots provide stability and growth. The imagery of deep roots is appropriate for a Superintendent to Watch in Naples, Florida, who is now leading the school district where she grew up, which currently serves 50,000 students.
The District School Board of Collier County (Board) chose Dr. Leslie C. Ricciardelli as interim superintendent on December 13, 2022, following a mutual transition agreement between the Board and the former superintendent who had led the district since 2011. The decision for an abrupt leadership change—seven months before a planned retirement—created challenges and opportunities. The superintendent change came on the heels of three out of five school board seats flipping the prior month. Dr. Ricciardelli deftly achieved credibility and allayed fears through a nuanced communication style marked by three words: engagement, collaboration, and inspiration.
“A lot has happened in the last 24 hours, but I want to make sure you hear directly from me and know my heart,” she stated in a video message (file uploaded) shared with parents, staff, and community members the day after being named interim superintendent. Dr. Ricciardelli then set out on a wide path of listening and taking informed action. She shared her story of growing up in Naples, attending Collier County Public Schools (CCPS), and choosing to raise her family and devote her career to education in Collier County.
Dr. Ricciardelli released a 100-Day Report (file uploaded) outlining progress around established priorities. She set an ambitious schedule of internal and external engagement events and meetings with key stakeholders. On May 9, 2023, Dr. Leslie C. Ricciardelli was appointed the 20th superintendent in the 100-year history of CCPS.
During the superintendent selection process, Dr. Ricciardelli’s reputation and public relations efforts were evidenced by the many public speakers who packed the board auditorium and spoke passionately in support of her selection.
Dr. Ricciardelli affirmed a commitment to strategic communication by maintaining staffing within the Office of Communications and Community Engagement, adding the position of Chief Communication Officer to the Senior Leadership level and meeting one-on-one with the Communication Chief weekly or as often as necessary. She encourages professional learning through the National School Public Relations Association (NSPRA) and has opened communication lines between the Board and district staff. While certainly worthy of recognition and accolades, Dr. Ricciardelli is the first to deflect attention. As she explained to a media member, “This really is not about me. This is about Collier County Public Schools. This is about their livelihood, their education.”
Under Dr. Ricciardelli’s leadership, the school district where she maintains deep roots has achieved an A-rating from the State of Florida during each of her years as superintendent of schools. In October of 2024, CCPS earned the Florida Department of Education’s highest designation of sustained excellence as an Academically High-Performing School District.
Dr. Ricciardelli supports the CCPS Office of Communications and Community Engagement by embracing both new and traditional platforms for reaching stakeholders. Just as she examines other district divisions through a return-on-investment lens, Dr. Ricciardelli looks for ways to work efficiently and repurpose communication content to extend the reach.
The Superintendent prioritizes relationships with local newspapers, TV stations, and magazines to place district news within those outlets. Most Collier County residents are not directly involved in the school district. Therefore, CCPS looks for opportunities to reach voters and taxpayers who have a stake in CCPS but do not receive communication coming from district channels. For example, CCPS places a monthly article, with photos, in two local magazines that have a direct-mail circulation of 30,000 households. This publicity comes at no additional cost to CCPS because the publisher wants news from our local schools. Two of these articles have earned Excellence in Writing from NSPRA’s Publications and Digital Media Excellence Awards.
Additionally, CCPS places a monthly article in Neapolitan Family, which reaches more than 50,000 parents monthly through print and digital issues, web and social media traffic, and emailed newsletters. A third example comes through submitting stories for the Inspiration section of Collier County’s daily newspaper, Naples Daily News. In all these examples, district staff write the articles and submit photos, and publishers get new content to readers. A win-win!
On the TV side, CCPS partners with the local NBC affiliate to air video content—produced by the school district—highlighting standout seniors graduating from our 10 high schools. CCPS Senior Spotlights run 90 seconds and feature students in their own words describing schools they’ve attended, sharing K-12 memories, and thanking educators who helped them. CCPS writes the news anchor intros and shares video files, and NBC2 airs the packages leading up to commencement ceremonies. These video stories are spread across all traditional and digital district platforms, and now CCPS reaches a regional audience spanning six counties through this partnership. CCPS Senior Spotlights are also printed in a weekly newspaper called The Naples Press.
While Dr. Ricciardelli sees value in traditional communication platforms, she also embraces new technology to increase achievement and engagement. For example, she is exploring how AI can augment translation services and the district’s inbound customer support. With over 100 different languages spoken by students and families, AI translation will help open doors for communication.
Part of the Superintendent’s commitment to communication and transparency includes a focus on sharing news from the School Board. Recognizing most people do not have time to watch Board Meetings that often span several hours, district staff members record a three-minute summary following each Regular School Board Meeting. The Chief Communication Officer runs through high-interest topics, explains key votes, and points viewers online for additional information. These Board Meeting recaps are spread across social media and placed on the district website. While stakeholders may not have hours to follow a Board Meeting, they can at least watch a high-level summary in three minutes.
Under Superintendent Ricciardelli’s leadership, Collier County Public Schools (CCPS) embarked on the development of a new five-year strategic plan, prioritizing broad community engagement and a comprehensive review of key data sources, including employee and parent surveys, audit reports, and academic performance indicators.
To ensure a wide range of voices were heard, CCPS implemented a process designed to capture diverse input from across the county. Using a sophisticated survey tool, the district posed three open-ended questions, aiming to gather both qualitative and quantitative insights. The survey was distributed in the fall of 2023 through various channels, including email, text messages, social media, and public presentations. Participants responded anonymously, with the ability to share their thoughts and rate the responses of others on a scale of 1-5, helping to prioritize key themes. The three questions asked about important next steps the school district should take to support the academic success of students, the quality of the educational experience provided by CCPS, and the quality, cleanliness, health, and safety of CCPS school facilities. Participation was unprecedented. Close to 17,000 people took part in the survey, more than 10,000 unique thoughts were shared, and nearly 250,000 ratings were submitted on those thoughts.
This extensive community feedback—the largest ever gathered by the district—was instrumental in shaping the strategic plan, informing the district’s goals and strategies.
Additionally, focus groups were convened throughout the development process. A total of 365 individuals participated in these sessions, which ranged from small, interactive discussions to larger groups that provided input through the open-ended survey tool. These focus groups further refined the district’s priorities.
Throughout the process, CCPS maintained transparency by sharing reports with the community after each survey question. These reports summarized the feedback, ranked priorities, and provided interactive data that could be filtered by various categories (e.g., teacher vs. student responses).
The final strategic plan (file uploaded) emphasized academic achievement and established clear, actionable goals. It also addressed operational efficiency by focusing on streamlining human resources, staff resources, and internal systems, responding to feedback about outdated and redundant processes.
In terms of communication and engagement, the plan set goals to differentiate outreach to specific audiences. For example, this year the district is enhancing support for parents/guardians who are new to CCPS. This will include targeted research to highlight high-need topics and then the development of resources in multiple languages to better support families. It also includes increased and improved communications for students and families in transition years (elementary to middle school; middle school to high school) to help ease the transition.
Additionally, the new strategic plan introduced a centralized platform to promote community involvement across the school district’s 50+ schools, encouraging local businesses, community members, and citizens to participate through volunteering, sponsorships, and other forms of engagement.
Dr. Ricciardelli takes a dynamic, hands-on approach to communication, with a strong emphasis on building trust in the school system by effectively sharing the district’s story. Community engagement is cornerstone of this strategy. Last year, the Superintendent delivered presentations to more than 60 community groups and offered a detailed overview of the district. These presentations covered district demographics, standardized test outcomes, annual priorities, and student opportunities, while also highlighting the district’s successes and addressing the current challenges facing education.
Media engagement is another critical component of Dr. Ricciardelli’s communication strategy. By actively collaborating with the media, she ensures the district’s story is accurately conveyed, responds promptly to community concerns, and remains accessible for inquiries. Last year, the Collier County Public Schools (CCPS) Office of Communications and Community Engagement handled 460 media requests through a streamlined system that guarantees timely and precise responses. She has been highly accessible to journalists, frequently engaging in one-on-one conversations to offer deeper insights into key issues and to help the community connect with her on a personal level. In addition, she has hosted press gaggles, where she provides briefings on important topics followed by open Q&A sessions with media members.
Internally, Dr. Ricciardelli understands that effective communication with staff is vital to the district’s success. She has developed a comprehensive communication framework for internal stakeholders, which includes monthly meetings with principals, biweekly senior leadership meetings, regular one-on-one sessions with school board members, quarterly virtual "Leadership Link Up" meetings with all school administrators, and biannual meetings with all district staff.
Dr. Ricciardelli has also addressed larger community issues through impactful partnerships and campaigns. She collaborated with the Collier County Sheriff’s Office for a Laced and Lethal public campaign to raise awareness about the dangers of fentanyl and to prepare school and district sites for emergency treatment. Additionally, the Superintendent spearheaded the "Keep Collier Safe" initiative, a school safety program that includes anonymous reporting options, safety videos, and a joint press conference with the Sheriff’s Office. This multifaceted campaign is designed to protect students and ensure school safety while strengthening collaboration between the district and the broader community.
Above all, Dr. Ricciardelli is dedicated to students. She frequently visits schools and attends as many district events as possible. She also established the Superintendent’s Advisory Council, a year-round forum that elevates student voices and fosters direct communication between students and district leadership. Whether at school events or in day-to-day interactions, Dr. Ricciardelli is consistently engaged with students, gathering their feedback, offering advice, and ensuring their needs are met.
B.A. - Mississippi State University; MPA - University of Georgia
I believe school PR/communications is what I was born to do! One of the biggest decisions a parent can make is where to send their child to school, and it’s an honor to share with our parents the engaging work that their children are doing under the guidance of world-class teachers and leaders. On any given day, in any given school, there are many stories to be told and I take that charge seriously. As school communicators played a key role in COVID-19 communications, storytelling was more important than ever – not only did I share information with parents about our protocols, but I also made over 80 visits to schools last year and told a variety of stories about how students were thriving with both in-person and distance learning options. I also worked with principals to determine best mitigation practices and helped make those pervasive, because positive action must be the foundation of what we are ultimately communicating. School public relations is incredibly complex and I love that each day brings a new challenge.
My greatest school PR success was completing 11 nationally-innovative school communication audits using a process of research, planning, implementation, and evaluation. I am now in phase two of this project and am attending school council meetings to garner feedback from parents about school-level communication and how I can better support the work of their schools. One of the most significant findings is that as students take more ownership of their learning, they also take more ownership in parent communication. Therefore, next steps are to better prepare parents for this transition and to also determine best practices from exemplar teachers and coaches at the secondary level so we can strike the right balance with parents feeling informed and fostering student independence.
My greatest school PR challenge is overcoming rigidity. Like many PR professionals, I am detail-oriented and a self-described perfectionist. It’s a blessing and a curse to see when something is one pixel off, but the greatest challenge I have faced in my 13 years in this field is to learn to be more flexible. I might have an aversion to Comic Sans or Curlz, but it’s not the end of the world if those are a font favorite elsewhere. What’s more important is the bigger picture – staff and parents feeling well-informed and students growing and learning in positive school cultures. Instead of telling someone their website isn’t formatted properly, I now make a 2-3 minute screencast if I think there’s a quick tutorial I can offer to provide ongoing professional learning. By being much more flexible, I have deepened relationships and become better at supporting the most important job that occurs in our school system: teaching.
My favorite part of my job is the relationships. I often say that there is no substitute for showing up, and that’s why I make so many school visits each year. From getting to hold a gorgeous monarch butterfly to watching a vibrant student musical to seeing 3-D printing in action from engineering students, I have witnessed countless unique opportunities, and these experiences are just a small piece of what our students get to take part in each and every day. If I didn’t take the time to form relationships, I wouldn’t know that what students value is knowing that the photos I take may show up in their yearbooks. I wouldn’t know the myriad of annual activities that teachers do across our schools because I wouldn’t have witnessed them firsthand. I wouldn’t know about the families of our principals or what they believe makes their school unique. All of that is invaluable because at the end of the day and at the end of this career, relationships are what will remain – both professionally and personally.
The communication tool I use the most is Canva! I would be a brand ambassador if they asked! I am not very mathematically-minded and it can be challenging for someone with an eye for good design – but not an eye for rulers and gridlines – to be a graphic designer. However, Canva has made it possible and I am able to create aesthetically-pleasing graphics with short turn-around times. I have trained communication ambassadors at our schools how to use it as well. Right after Canva, the tool I most use is iMovie. I am completely self-taught in videography and using iMovie and Canva together has made me someone who can add “videographer” to their list of expertise.