Mayor’s conference call with congressman, superintendent over Fort Myers Beach Elementary leads to charter school talk
Discussions were part of private teleconference call
Public school, public charter school or no school? Those are the questions being asked about the future of the Fort Myers Beach Elementary School following a private teleconference last week between Lee County School District Supt. Denise Carlin, Fort Myers Beach Mayor Dan Allers, Congressman Byron Donalds and School Board Chair Samuel Fisher.
The school has been closed since Hurricane Milton left the school with some flooding. While remediation work was done, the additional repairs to reopen the school have been delayed with no action by the superintendent or school board to finish the work. The cheapest cost to reopen the school would be $1.3 million based on options presented by the district. It is expected much of that would be covered by insurance as the remediation work was.
The meeting last week was requested by Donalds and Allers in what led to a lot of talks about potentially considering the public elementary school becoming a public charter school though Allers said the town’s first preference is that the school is reopened as a public school.
The meeting followed a letter sent a couple weeks earlier by Allers to Gov. Ron DeSantis calling for him to advocate for reopening the elementary school. Allers said he hasn’t heard from DeSantis. The office of DeSantis has not returned messages seeking comment.
Fort Myers Beach Elementary School parents who have been at the forefront of pushing to have the school reopened say they are open to discussions about a charter school though they are insisting that their first priority be for the school district abide by the interlocal agreement and reopen the school with a new cafeteria.
The teleconference last week about the school’s future has led to more questions than answers.
School Board Chair Samuel Fisher said the meeting went well. “I am still evaluating all the options and have not made any individual decision at this time,” he said.
Fisher said he believes the school district is following the terms of the interlocal agreement.
At last week’s meeting, Fisher said Rep. Donalds and his team were “brought up to speed on the issues related to Fort Myers Beach Elementary School. Like the rest of the community, he will continue to be kept informed as things progress. I appreciate the time he took to discuss Fort Myers Beach Elementary with us.”
Fisher said it could be months before a decision is reached. “I expect conversations around the Beach School to continue over the next few months,” Fisher said.
Donalds, who is running for governor, didn’t return messages seeking comment.
Allers said “we came up with alternative ideas” at the meeting and said there were a lot of discussions from Donalds and himself about a potential charter school. Allers said the teleconference was “very productive” but there was no resolution. He expects the school board to take up the Fort Myers Beach Elementary School in August.
“Everybody agreed to stay in touch,” Allers said. Allers said school officials found their proposal interesting.
“The idea was for the School Board to allow the Town to take over the land, historic building and future building for a charter school.”
Allers said he was following up on the charter school proposal based on the consultant’s report and what he heard from school parents.
“We would like for it to stay a public school as a first option. With recent storms, declining enrollment pre-storm, and the path the school board seems to be taking pre-storm and post-storm I don’t see how they will put more money into the historic building and continue to operate it as a straight public school. There are many benefits to a charter school and no one is a greater benefit than the other,” Allers said.
In an email, Allers said he would “support whatever option keeps a school on the island. Again, first option would be a public school.”
A public charter school would involve a mix of town taxpayer funding and state funding,
At last week’s council meeting, Allers echoed a comment made by school board member Bill Ribble that spending money on repairs at the school was “throwing good money after bad” though Ribble also said he wanted the school district to look into rebuilding the school in a way that had been done in North Carolina after storms there.
“At some point, the school Board will stop investing millions of dollars in a building that has already been repaired once and now needs more repairs,” Allers said.
Allers said there was a lot of discussion about financials for the school. “The conversation has always been about money, if we are being honest. Whether it was a cost per student issue after the storm, or repairing the current school now, it has always come down to money,” Allers said.
Fort Myers Beach Elementary School PTO Vice President Monica Schmucker, who was not involved in the discussions, said “I think it just opened up the conversations to some creative solutions.”
Based on her understanding, Schmucker said the point of the talks was for the town to communicate that it wasn’t going to walk away from the interlocal agreement.
The town council, in May, approved a resolution authorizing Manager Will McKannay and the town’s legal counsel to meet with School District of Lee County Supt. Dr. Denise Carlin to communicate the town’s expectation that the school will be reopened as per the interlocal agreement.
While McKannay and Carlin have both described those discussions as productive, a consultant’s report authorized by Carlin that was presented to the school board following that meeting, did not paint the school in a good light and recommended the school not be reopened. The report has been assailed for using faulty data, such as cost projections and other estimates. For example, the consultant estimated the cost to make additional repairs to reopen the school would be more than $7 million – which would be even more than the amount the district budgeted for a new building with a cafeteria even though the district’s own staff estimated the minimal repairs needed to reopen the school at $1.3 million.
Parents like John Koss have attacked the figure the school district and its consultants are using to estimate the cost per student. The consultant’s report estimates a higher cost per student based on numbers the school district has reported to the state even through the school’s budget was lower this year in 2022 and has undergone significant reductions.
Vice Mayor Jim Atterholt called the consultant’s report, written by the firm Accenture, “severely flawed” and said the presentation “wasn’t helpful.” He said the consultants never talked to any town officials, which he described as “negligence.”
The school district has spent more than $6 million on the firm since 2023.
“My hope is we can move beyond the consultant’s report,” Atterholt said.
Atterholt said he wants to hear from the school board about what they plan to do to build a school, as board member Armor Persons has suggested. Atterholt said he is open to discussions about a charter school.
Atterholt said Fort Myers Beach Attorney Becky Vose has helped start a charter school before and noted that former elementary school principal Dr. Traci Kohler now works for the town.
Atterholt said he supports looking into a K-8 charter school. “I am comfortable with an out of the box solution if it is agreeable to both sides,” Atterholt said. “I am willing to explore that.”
Koss, one of the parents who has been at the forefront of working with the ad-hoc committee and school officials since Hurricane Ian, said “our preference is a public school” though he is concerned that might not the preference of the district’s leadership.
Koss is concerned by the continual delays in the process and in building the cafeteria. “We don’t know what the process is for a decision,” he said. Koss is unsure if a decision will be made at the next school board meeting on July 29.
Mayor Dan Allers said he expects the school board to discuss the school again in August.
Schmucker said her most important priority is to get the school back open this fall so students don’t have to leave the island again.
Students have been commuting to San Carlos Park Elementary and the current plan is for them to move to Heights Elementary this fall.
The school district’s consultants said the district could use modulars to reopen at the school property in time for the start of the school year.
Schmucker said ideally she would like to see the school board open the school in the fall and build the cafeteria as the interlocal agreement calls for. A phased rebuild of additional elevated buildings as the interlocal agreement calls for would address flooding concerns. While she doesn’t support a charter school now she doesn’t oppose discussion about a charter school, but said that would take time.
Fort Myers Beach Councilmember Scott Safford said he hasn’t heard from enough Beach Elementary School parents about their thoughts on the charter school to gather a consensus but said “We need a school on the island whether it’s with the school district, a charter school or hybrid.”
Fort Myers Beach Councilmember John King said he supported the interlocal agreement that was in place and also supported the proposal from school board member Armor Persons to construct a new school on Fort Myers Beach.
“I believe before we make a decision on a Charter School, the interlocal agreement the Town has with the School District needs to be addressed and worked out. That’s what I shared with the Superintendent and Board when I spoke to them on June 3,” King said. “The input I have received from parents, and the public is in support of the interlocal agreement.”
Dr. Carlin has declined multiple requests for interviews over the past month and again declined an interview on Tuesday through spokesman Rob Spicker. Spicker said Carlin “continues to review the consultant’s report, collaborate with district staff and town officials, and will present a recommendation to the School Board when ready.”
Schmucker is concerned the school district’s leadership is “not negotiating in good faith” based on the delays.
“We’re trying to work with them the best we can so everybody is happy and we can get these kids back on the island as soon as possible,” Schmucker said.
Fort Myers Beach Observer Editor Nathan Mayberg can be reached at NMayberg@breezenewspapers.com