Joe Lee
Joe Lee has been the principal of Major Sheldon Wheeler Elementary School since 1998. About 90 percent of Wheeler Elementary School students are from military families, and approximately 70 percent have a parent who has been deployed to the Middle East. In addition to academic achievement, the school focuses on students’ physical aesthetic, social and emotional development. Principal Lee’s well-rounded, interdisciplinary curriculum includes programs such as the school's nature garden, in which students not only learn about growing crops, but about economics, marketing and packaging. Outlets like the garden will be especially valuable during times of anticipated stress and adjustment, when the bulk of troops serving 15-month tours return home. Principal Lee also focuses on family and community outreach, and led Wheeler Elementary to receive the 2010 Norbert Commendation Award from the Joint Venture Education Forum (JVEF), an ongoing partnership between Hawaii’s military community, the state’s Department of Education and various local organizations.
