On Monday the Fort Myers Beach Town Council will initiate its first action against the Lee County School District which the town believes is not living up to its agreement to rebuild the Beach School.
The town will vote on a resolution to initiate a conflict resolution process prior to possibly filing a lawsuit. The School District has still not made an official decision on whether the Beach School will reopen, however, the community sees the writing on the wall.Â
Here’s an excerpt from the resolution the Town Council will consider Monday: “Recent events have created a doubt in the mind of the Town Council regarding the School Board’s willingness to adhere to the terms and conditions, as well as the spirit of the Rebuild Agreement, as evidenced by actions indicating an intent to close the Fort Myers Beach Elementary School at the conclusion of fiscal year 2026-27 due to an insufficient number of students for Fort Myers Beach Elementary to financially sustain itself, as determined by the School Board in its sole discretion based on the Cost Per Student Report. Section 164, Florida Statutes, the Governmental Conflict Resolution Act, requires governmental entities to engage in negotiation and mediation prior to the initiation of litigation to enforce rights and obligations in agreements between one another. The Town recognizes the Rebuild Agreement itself requires written notice of breach and the pursuit of good faith efforts to resolve disputes through negotiation and nonbinding alternative dispute resolution prior to litigation. The Town Council finds it in the best interest of the public to formally initiate the statutory conflict resolution process as provided in Chapter 164, Florida Statutes and the dispute resolution as required in the Rebuild Agreement.”
Another waste of time and resources-
A charter school is and has been the only viable solution . The economics for a public school doesn’t work .
There is no vision or plan for FMB , just a bunch of disjointed wants and one offs .
I agree that the money we are asking for from Lee County is a pittance compared to what we’re paying to fund the county schools. Cmon $1.5 mil is nothing – rebuild the school for those folks who work on the island.
I struggle to understand how you believe that the majority of funds that go to Lee County School District comes from FMB. There are lots of large highly valued communities that supply funds to the schools
Everyone, please take a remedial government class so you know how it actually works.
Here are the numbers for you. FMB pays 29 million annually to LCSD and asks for $1.5 million in return. LCSD says, “You get nothing”
Fort Myers Beach taxpayers contribute approximately $29 million annually to the School District of Lee County, a figure that has been noted by local officials and news outlets. This amount is for property tax dollars paid by residents and is considerably more than what is needed to fund the Fort Myers Beach Elementary School, which has operated on a budget of around $1.5 million.
And then LCSD comes back and says, well, you need to have a certain number of students. FMB say, ok, we have that. LCSD says,………you still get nothing.
I agree the money is coming from Fort Myers Beach, all these residents paying for education with their tax dollars but not needing education for their residence.
If the school district is looking at that and then see the town is only wanting high rise multi million dollar condos, those condos owners will not have children so why provide a school to a community that only wants high rise buildings and less residential streets
Maybe the town has realize the rest of Lee county doesn’t want to fund a school for 50 kids when there are schools with hundreds if not a thousand students that need attention.
Maybe Lee County has to realize that the majority of the funds it gets to push towards those thousands of students come from Fort Myers Beach. You have it backwards. Lee County isn’t funding a beach school. The beach is funding Lee County.
Right. Tell me another good story. You beach people are confusing your tiny property tax dollars to the bed tax money from vacationers you all don’t want. Can’t have it both ways. And tell me why is it you all only care about your elementary school and not middle and high school? Kids don’t matter after they turn 12 for your schools? No logic in it.