Fort Myers Beach Town Attorney Nancy Stuparich reported to the Town Council Monday that the School District would cover the entire cost of a mediator in their battle over the Beach School, but only if the meeting was moved off the beach.
The Town Council said that wouldn’t be happening and they are sticking to their plan of having the mediation meeting, open to the public, at town hall on Wednesday, November 5th at 1PM. The town has started the process of fighting the School District because they say the district has reneged on an inter-local agreement to rebuild the beach School. The school has not been repaired since being damaged by hurricane Milton in 2024. It did re-open briefly after hurricane Ian.
The town hopes to hire attorney Derek Rooney to mediate the dispute. Rooney is from the law firm Gray Robinson and he is also the attorney for the City of Bonita Springs. The town will only cover half the cost of Rooney’s services so it’s unclear what would happen if the school district refuses to cover the other half.
We asked School District spokesperson Rob Spicker if the town does not change the location of the mediation, would the school district cover half the cost of the mediation? And we asked him where the school district wanted to change the location to? Spicker responded, “Thanks for the opportunity to respond, but we will negotiate privately and in good faith with the Town of Fort Myers Beach rather than through the media.Hope that helps.” Spicker then added, “Yes, we will cover half the cost of the mediation. Our request is neutral location. The District’s willingness to participate at a neutral mid-way site, coupled with its offer to share in the cost of a professional facilitator, reflects a consistent and genuine effort to comply with both the letter and the spirit of Chapter 164. Conversely, the Town’s insistence that the meeting occur only at the Town Hall is not supported by statute and would undermine the neutrality and cooperative foundations essential to this process.”
Town Council members and members of the beach ad-hoc committee have consistently stated publicly that the school district has not been negotiating in good faith and they’ve repeatedly criticized the district for their lack of communication about the future of the beach school. Vice mayor Jim Atterholt is a member of the ad-hoc committee: “After what this school district has done to our parents and their children, it is shameful that they want to once again inconvenience their own constituents. With the countless hours the Beach School parents and kids have spent at Ad Hoc and school board meetings an hour away from our island, it is disgraceful they want to further disrupt their lives—enough is enough.”
The meeting on November 5th is open to the public and the council plans to open the meeting up for public comment. How long each speaker will have has not yet been determined. At Town Council meetings, the public has 3 minutes to speak. At School Board meetings, the amount of time is determined by how long the speakers list is. It can be reduced to as low as one minute.
The School District has not publicly stated what the future of the Beach School will be. The process was recently started to get approvals to demolish the historical building on the school campus. Several board members have indicated they would not be willing to spend the funds to rebuild the beach school. Superintendent Denise Carlin, who campaigned by stating the beach needed a school, has not said where she stands on rebuilding the beach school.
Sorry to say here is a reality. If there are not enough students to support a school, there should not be a school on the island. I suspect most barrier islands do not have a public school and that is just a reality. Stop wasting tax dollars and start rebuilding a community. If enough families with young children appear, then you build a school not the other way around.
Without the school, we will lose more families on the island. Homes will be sold as second homes and AirBNBs. Sanibel has gotten special treatment getting you and running quickly while our school has not, forcing some families having to consider alternative solutions. The town is not acting in good faith and it’s hurting our ability to get students back to FMB. Furthermore, where are they goin to go? There’s no room at Heights, classroom sizes are already over state regulation. What’s next, more one-way 45 minute+ bus drives for my kids to San Carlos again? We have a facility, we were on pace for enrollment numbers before Milton and Helene, and the school board is not holding up to their end of the ILA agreement we had.
Want to talk about wasting tax dollars? FMB sends 29 million dollars to the LCSD every year. For what?? If they don’t want to build a school, that had the enrollment numbers they required, then we shouldn’t be sending them 29 million every single year.
Ed we all know where Carlin stands. She’s the driving force behind all of this. Everything changed when she got elected.