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.
The district did keep their word, they rebuilt it after Ian. HOWEVER, they did NOT say they would keep rebuilding it after other hurricanes. There are other kids that get bussed just as far, and the beach school has less then 100 kids. Most GRADES have WELL over that, if not doubled! Spending millions of dollars on less than 100 students is insane. They kept their word, they built after Ian.
They didn’t seem to have a problem taking fema money and insurance money to rebuild it though. They got enough to cover the costs, it should be used for what it was meant for.
Build it and they will come!
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.
So for three years there hasn’t been a school. And per your statement these families have moved. So they obviously moved inland to where the schools are actually located and where the current island kids are getting bused to. So your point again is what?
Jason, a large number of families still live on the island. There have even been some that have moved out of state and moved back.
“The town is not acting in good faith.”
WHAT?????
The town has done everything it could in trying to get LeeCo to honor its commitments under the Interlocal Agreement.
You seem quite unaware the school isn’t operated by the town but rather by LeeCo. If you want to blame someone, blame the LeeCo School board.
That was an error. Ethan means “The school board is not acting in good faith”
Typo!! Sorry, I meant the SCHOOL BOARD is not acting in good faith. The town have been fantastic advocates for the community and school.
Apologies for the typo!
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.
You don’t send them 29 million dollars. You are not educated on how tax revenue is collected.
All you have to do is search…
Fort Myers Beach contributes approximately $29 million in annual property tax revenue to the Lee County School District (LCSD). This figure is based on local officials and news outlets reporting that the town’s property tax dollars sent to the district total this amount, which is significantly more than the budget required to run the Fort Myers Beach Elementary School.
Annual contribution: The annual contribution from Fort Myers Beach to the LCSD is approximately $29 million.
Source of funds: This revenue comes from property taxes paid by residents and business owners in Fort Myers Beach.
It’s county tax me net. Not beach tax money. Again. You don’t understand that the beach doesn’t have that money to use. Nor does Sanibel or Fort Myers or any other town in Lee county.
We do have the students, if the school would open up we would very quickly reach enrollment. The only reason enrollment NOW is an issue is because the school boards antics and we’re off island. There’s a legal agreement and they are ignoring it. It’s simple. The people want the school, the district has someone interested in the land where the school sits.
The reason my family moved to this island is because there was an EXISTING and AMAZING school here. Having a school here is what will drive people with families here.
Ed we all know where Carlin stands. She’s the driving force behind all of this. Everything changed when she got elected.