The Beach School Remains in Limbo

In a very contentious meeting Thursday night between members of the Lee County School District staff and beach parents there doesn’t seem to be any more clarity about reopening the beach school after the meeting than there was before.

The Town of Fort Myers Beach and the School District are entering year two of a 4-year inter-local agreement that includes benchmarks the Fort Myers Beach community has to reach to grow enrollment and lower costs. If those agreements are met, the School District was required to continue to rebuild and add facilities onto the school. 

In the first year of the agreement enrollment at the school went from 50 to 72. And, costs per student were being lowered. The community was also working hard to enroll students of resort employees. In return for that success, the ILA states that “by 2024-2025 the district would build additional facilities on the campus to accommodate a permanent kitchen. Also, by 2024-2025 the district will improve the Historic Building with additional classroom space to accommodate up to 80 students.” 

The school has been closed since Hurricane Milton 8 months ago. There has been no plan approved to repair the school and there certainly has been no work done on a new cafeteria. The School District has not even put that project out to bid. During the ILA negotiations ad-hoc committee members representing the beach agreed to ship their kids to San Carlos Elementary to save the district $5 million to rent portables to keep the kids on the beach. In return for that savings, the new cafeteria was supposed to be built. 

Before last night’s meeting, members from the ad-hoc committee started to get the vibe that closing the school permanently was being considered. The first sign was that a consultant was hired to consider the viability of the school. That made no sense to committee members because they believed that was decided by the 7-0 school board vote to sign the ILA one year ago. (READ THE ILA HERE)

They were also being told Lee County School Board members were not to speak directly to them about the future of the beach school. That was also a new tactic being that the communication was open and free with all board members before the ILA was signed. Specifically School Board member Bill Ribble, who represents Fort Myers Beach, would not speak to committee members. During ILA negotiations former Board Member Chris Patricca attended beach events and appeared on Beach Talk Radio multiple times to answer the tough questions about the school. Ribble was last seen on Fort Myers Beach during the ribbon-cutting reopening of the school — as a candidate. He did not return a phone call to Beach Talk Radio Wednesday of this week. When pressed by committee members on why that was the directive given to board members by the Superintendent’s office, staff had no answer. 

Members of the school district staff seem to be struggling with what to do with the school after having to close it after Hurricane Milton. 5 options were unveiled in early April to remediate the school ranging from 7 months to 18 months to repair, with cost estimates ranging from $3 million to $16 million. It’s unclear why one of those options hasn’t been chosen and implemented already and a new consultant was hired. Unless the School District believes the ILA is no longer the document they are working from. 

Last night when Vice Mayor Jim Atterholt asked Deputy Superintendent Ken Savage if the school district was working within the ILA, Savage said “The framework of the ILA guides our work. We have to take it seriously. There is a capital side of this that is significant. It’s a costly decision.”  At no point during the meeting last night did any staff member guarantee, or even hint, that closing the school permanently was off the table.

Members of the ad-hoc committee were not given the consultants report last night. They were shown slides but told the report was not complete and they’d receive it when it was complete. Beach Talk Radio requested the scope of work contract with the consultant from the school district on May 12th and we have not been provided that documentation. 

Ad-hoc committee member John Koss told district staff last night that he was told a questionnaire in the report was skewed toward closing the school and ad-hoc committee members were not contacted or asked to give the consultant any input. That also made beach school supporters very suspicious. Koss was very critical of the communication from the school district. 

Despite there being an ILA in place, a workshop will soon be held to discuss the school, followed by a school board vote on June 3rd about the future of the school. That vote could include one of the 5 repair options. It also appears closing the school for good could be an option. It was one year ago that candidate – now Superintendent – Denise Carlin when asked if the beach should have a school said, “yes, yes, absolutely.” Mayor Dan Allers is meeting with Carlin at 4PM today and we hope to have details about that meeting on our show Sunday. The Town Council is also planning to have an emergency meeting about the school on Wednesday, May 28th.

One thing is clear; when the school year starts in August, beach kids will not be attending the Beach School.

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