“Don’t Push Us Into A Fight”

That was the message Fort Myers Beach Mayor Dan Allers sent to the Lee County School District Wednesday at a special Town Council meeting. Allers wants to work with the district to keep the Beach School open, however, the council is prepared to do whatever it takes to make sure the district does not skip out on the deal it signed one year ago to keep the school open.

All 7 Lee County School Board members and School Superintendent Denise Carlin were invited to the special Town Council meeting Tuesday. None of them showed up. In fact, we were told that the attorney for the School Board called the Fort Myers Beach Town Attorney and tried to pressure the Town Council to call off the meeting. 

School Board member Bill Ribble, who represents the beach, has not been seen on the island since the Beach School reopened after Hurricane Ian. At the time Ribble was a candidate. Ribble has not communicated with beach parents or ad-hoc committee members at all over the last few months about the Beach School. He has not returned any of our phone calls or texts to discuss the Beach School.

One year ago the Lee County School District signed an inter-local agreement with the Town of Fort Myers Beach. The district agreed to continue to rebuild the school and add more facilities as long as the town helped increase enrollment at the school and reduced expenses. After one year, according to the ad-hoc committee members on the beach, enrollment went from 50 students to 70 students and the cost to operate the school went from $22,570 per student to $13,271 per student.

To keep their end of the agreement, the school district stated they would build a cafeteria onto the beach school by the end of June 2024. The school district not only has not broken ground on a cafeteria, they have not even sent the work out for bids. It’s also important to note that, in a show of good faith, beach parents agreed to bus their kids to San Carlos Elementary rather than spend $6 million on trailers so the kids could stay on the island while the historic building was repaired. That $6 million in savings was to be spent on the new cafeteria.

In addition, the ad-hoc committee says the district pulled a fast one on them, changing the way they calculate cost-per-student. Using the formula agreed upon during ILA negotiations, ad-hoc committee members see that number at $13,271 per student. Sprung on the ad-hoc committee members last week was a new formula that catapulted the cost to $24,000 per student.

The biggest elephant in the room was a $200,000 consultant the school district hired out of the blue to determine the “viability” of the beach school. The hiring of a consultant came after the district announced 5 possible options to repair and reopen the school after Hurricane Milton. That sent red flags up the flagpole for the ad-hoc committee members as well as the Town Council. They believe the viability of the school was already determined and enshrined in the ILA. An ILA that the school board voted 7-0 to approve. And, for the record, as a candidate, new School Superintendent Denise Carlin campaigned on Fort Myers Beach by saying the beach “definitely” needed a school. 

On Wednesday, the Town Council heard from former School Principal Larry Wood who highlighted the importance of a school to a small community. Estero Island Historical Society President Ellie Bunting, who attending the school, touched on the school’s history. And, Fort Myers Beach icon Fran Meyer, who’s had generations of family members attend the beach school, detailed how the community has rallied many times to help the school succeed and how that brings the residents together.

Tracy Koehler was the Principal of the school up until about a year ago when she took a full-time job with the town. She detailed how hard the school worked to increase enrollment by reaching out to beach businesses and the surrounding communities. She also became emotional when she detailed how difficult it was to eliminate jobs in order to get expenses down.

Vice Mayor Jim Atterholt is on the ad-hoc committee. He said it was bizarre that nobody on the beach, on the council, on the committee, or any parents on the island he’s spoken to was contacted for the survey the consultant was preparing for the school district. “I’m a little more than annoyed. They didn’t ask for input from any of the people impacted by the decision.” 

Mayor Allers met with Superintendent Carlin last Friday. She told him she wasn’t completely up to speed on the beach school issue but would spend the weekend getting up to speed. He said he left that meeting feeling like Carlin would fight to keep the beach school. Ultimately, it appears, despite a signed 4-year agreement in place another vote on what to do could take place, possibly in June or July. In the meantime, there is no work being done to repair the school and parents have already been told their kids will not be going back to the beach school when the next semester begins. 

The Town Council voted unanimously to have the Town Manager and Town Attorney look at every option available for the Town Council to have to keep the ILA alive and the beach school on a path to reopening. Those options will be discussed on June 2md, one day before a school district workshop where the beach school is on their agenda. 

Allers closed the special meeting by saying, “Don’t push us into a fight. We don’t want a fight. I don’t like to fight but I will if I have to. There’s no reason that school is not open now. Waiting another year is unacceptable.”