Collier County Public Schools Superintendent Kamela Patton stepped down Tuesday night during a regular school board meeting and Deputy Superintendent Leslie Ricciardelli was unanimously named interim superintendent. A mutual transition agreement drafted this week by attorneys for both the board and Patton precipitated the leadership change. Patton, appointed superintendent in 2011, announced in June that her tenure would sunset at the end of this school year but now it will end months earlier. A school district reception next month will honor Patton, who was Florida’s superintendent of the year in 2022 and a finalist for national superintendent of the year.