VOLUME 63, NUMBER 24
School district consolidates administrative positions
Page 1 n Week of Wednesday, April 30, 2025
WEEK OF APRIL 30, 2025
By MEGHAN BRADBURY
news@breezenewspapers.com
Islands tradition to offer baseball and camaraderie By TIFFANY REPECKI
F
trepecki@breezenewspapers.com
ree tickets to the 32nd annual Sam Bailey’s Islands Night are available for the community. The Fort Myers Mighty Mussels will play the Dunedin Blue Jays on May 7 at 7:05 p.m. at Hammond Stadium in Fort Myers. The gates will open at 5:45 p.m., with the pregame parade set for 5:50 p.m. “This is a celebration of the season that was and looking forward to the rest of the year,” SanCap Chamber President and Chief Executive Officer John Lai said. “It’s an opportunity to convene the community in a way that we can get the residents
and business community together in one spot.” The late Sam Bailey, a former athlete and island pioneer, founded the tradition. Bailey, whose descendants own and operate the Bailey’s General Store on Sanibel and The Island Store on Captiva, wanted to get the whole island together in one place and came up with the ballpark. According to his family, he approached the former Fort Myers Miracle organization about sponsoring a game. Bailey was able to negotiate the deal, but then had to figure out how to pay for it.
captivasanibel.com
SANIBEL CAPTIVA CHAMBER
Organized by the SanCap Chamber, the 32nd annual Sam Bailey’s Islands Night — 50th Anniversary Edition will take place on May 7 at Hammond Stadium in Fort Myers. It will feature the traditional pregame parade and ceremony, followed by the Fort Myers Mighty Mussels versus the Dunedin Blue Jays, with a first-ever fireworks display to close out the event.
The Lee County School Board recently adopted 12 job descriptions for academic services, business services, human resources and executive services division, which will support a consolidated organizational chart designed to put more money in classrooms. “When I bring you recommendations, from all my heart, I truly believe this is the team and structure that is going to lead us to number one,” School District of Lee County Superintendent Dr. Denise Carlin said at a meeting on April 8. “Not only are you holding me accountable — I am holding myself accountable. If we don’t achieve our goals as a district, I will fire myself in four years. That is how serious I am about myself in this work.” See SCHOOL DISTRICT, page 22
ISLANDERINSIDE
See ISLAND TRADITION, page 22
By NICOLE WINFIELD
Pope Francis, left, appears on the central lodge of St. Peter’s Basilica to bestow the Urbi et Orbi (Latin for to the city and to the world) blessing at the end of the Easter mass presided over by Cardinal Angelo Comastri in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican on April 20, 2025.
Associated Press
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis, history’s first Latin American pontiff who charmed the world with his humble style and concern for the poor but alienated conservatives with critiques of capitalism and climate change, died on April 21, 2025. He was 88. Bells tolled in churches from his native Argentina to the Philippines and across Rome as news spread around the world after the announcement, which was
AP PHOTO/ GREGORIO BORGI
See POPE, page 22
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Pope Francis, first Latin American pontiff, dies at 88
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