The town of Fort Myers Beach has given in to the School District and decided to attend a mediation meeting at a neutral location. Last week members of the Town Council said the meeting was going to be held at Town Hall, and a change of venue “wouldn’t be happening.”
The new location for the 1PM November 5th meeting is St. Leo The Great Catholic Church in Bonita Springs. The church is located at 28290 Beaumont Road in Bonita. It’s expected that attorney Derek Rooney from the law firm Gray Robinson will be hired as the mediator and both sides will split the cost. The School District made it clear they would not send any representatives to the meeting if it was’nt held at a neutral location.
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.
School District spokesperson Rob Spicker told us last week that the district would cover half the cost of the mediator if the meeting was held at a 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.”
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.
So, more unnecessary expenses for both the town and the school board…
This is a hurdle for those residents that were going to walk to the meeting ;now they will have to take the bus . This may very well mean they will choose to not go . I hope there is a good representation of the people of FMB.
Prepare for:
1 min
2 min
3 min
If Opportunities to speak are available; a good 3 min speech is longer than you think, but shorter than you want in the moment.
Keeping clear and “on message” is a great goal. I would hope the children involved and Beach School grads of all ages will be excused from classes on this day as sitting in front rows of the proceedings would be an incredible “govt in action” field trip.
Today’s children are tomorrow’s board members and councils. Let’s show the kids who they’d rather attain to become, by example.
This demonstrates contempt and disrespect of the FtMyers Beach community! How dare they! We are not second class citizens! Feels like they are turning in to bullies who certainly enjoy the benefits of the tax dollars they rake in from FMB!,
Carol….I so agree….our tax dollars are for the school here….and the transporting of our kids off island is wrong…they like our tax dollars