On Monday, the Fort Myers Beach Town Council will vote on creating 6 new committees, all of them will focus on the creation of a Charter School on Fort Myers Beach.
At this point in time, there has been no information shared with the public about how much a Charter School will cost, how much a building will cost to build (or rehab), whether or not the School District will turn over the current school property to the town, or where ongoing funding would come from to finance a Charter School.
The Lee County School District has made it clear they have no intention to open the Beach School. The school was opened briefly after Hurricane Ian but Hurricane Milton put a quick end to that and the remaining kids have been scattered in other schools.
According to town staff, the creation of the 6 committees the Town Council will vote to create Monday, would assist the town with the application for the Charter School. The committees would focus on: Governance, Educational Program, Human Resources, Community Engagement, Facilities, and Finance.
Each committee must be composed of a minimum of three members, drawn from residents and/or subject-matter experts, and each committee shall include one town staff liaison and one member of the Town Clerk’s Office.
Town staff has created a timeline to get the committees up and running:
August 3, 2026 — Town Council approves the charter advisory committees.
September 10, 2026 — Applications due to the Town Clerk.
September 23, 2026 — Town Council reviews and appoints committee members.
October 6, 2026 — Sunshine Law training for all appointed committee members.
Mid-October 2026 — Committees begin meeting on a bi-monthly basis.
If London Bay is going to build workforce housing, you’re going to need a school.
SMALL TOWN GOVERNMENT IS RIPE FOR CORRUPTION.
Taxes going up. Let’s build a school for ten kids. Makes perfect sense.
Waist of time and money, and looks like more places are being listed for sale with not much activity and you wonder why? Costs to residence is climbing at ridiculous rates on every aspect on the island. When will it be budgeted correctly?
Sorry to be a Debbie Downer but….
If Lee County doesn’t find it financially feasible to fund the school, why does FMB think it is? We have enough financial woes to be adding more to the pot.
Bottom line, and being financially responsible, the demographic of the island just does not support an elementary school. The median age of residents on FMB is 66.3 years. I fall close to that group. And. I’m not out buying markers and lunch boxes.
100% agree! Looks like another Mound House situation where the town takes over and acquires more costs and more debt…..
Clearly we can’t afford to fund running six committees, let alone run a charter school. Lee County runs the school district. That’s what our very high school tax bill funds. Do not use town funds, that we clearly do not have, to assume responsibilities that do not belong to town management.
The committees consist of volunteers: there’s nothing to “fund.”
Each committee will have a staff person assigned to it and someone from the clerks office. They are paid employees. They are not free. And they don’t have free time. That sounds like 12 people spending some time on a project that is not related to town management. And probably the next thing they will do is hire a consultant to tell them how to do this planning.
I thought we figured out that that we don’t need a school on the beach.