Fort Myers Beach Manager calls on Lee County School Board to suspend demolition process for elementary school

Town of Fort Myers Beach Manager Will McKannay has issued a letter to the School District of Lee County School Board and Supt. Dr. Denise Carlin, calling on them to refrain from taking further steps to demolish the Fort Myers Beach Elementary School and to suspend the submittal of a report to the state in which the district has sought permission to raze the campus.

The action followed a vote by the school board Tuesday night to submit a 142-page Castaldi Report to the state, which requests permission from the state to raze the Fort Myers Beach Elementary School campus. The report calls for demolishing three buildings, including the historic Fort Myers Beach Elementary School building which is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The letter penned by McKannay was also forwarded to Gov. Ron DeSantis, U.S. Senator Rick Scott, Rep. Byron Donalds, State Senator Jonathan Martin and State Rep. Adam Botana.

In the letter, McKannay said the submittal of the report for razing the elementary school campus “could prejudice the statutory mediation framework” which the Town of Fort Myers Beach initiated after a vote by the town council on Monday. The council voted to commence mediation proceedings due to what the town believes is a failure by the school district to abide by an interlocal agreement. The agreement requires that the school remain open through at least 2027 and that a cafeteria building be constructed as part of repairs from Hurricane Ian. The cafeteria building was supposed to be constructed this year.

Meanwhile, students who were attending Fort Myers Beach Elementary School and who were transferred to San Carlos Park Elementary School last year after the district closed Beach Elementary, are now attending Heights Elementary and the student population has fallen.

In his letter, McKannay said the district’s actions to submit a Castaldi Report that requests permission to raze the Fort Myers Beach Elementary School campus could be considered a unilateral action affecting good-faith negotiations and the mediation process that the town initiated under Florida statute as part of the interlocal agreement’s mechanism for resolving disputes between the two parties.

Further, McKannay states in his letter that the town has a historic preservation board which would need to approve a special certificate of appropriateness permit in order to move forward with any demolition of the historic building. McKannay said the school district’s pursuit of state permission for razing the campus would violate local preservation law.

McKannay called on the school district to coordinate with the town’s historic preservation board regarding plans for potentially razing the school campus.

The district would also need state and federal approvals to demolish the historic building, which dates back to 1947, and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The vote by the school board Tuesday, which was made without any discussion by the school board, followed a workshop in which School District of Lee County Chief Strategy Officer Dr. Kenneth Savage downplayed the significance of the report, comparing it to a formality and requirement for rebuilding the school or demolishing it. He compared it to reports the district has issued for other rebuilding projects in the district, except they didn’t involve a historic building that has been under consideration for closure by the school district since it was shuttered after Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton caused flooding damage. The school board would still need to vote to take further steps to demolish the building or rebuild. The school board has made no decisions on the future of the elementary school, one year after it was closed after Hurricane Milton.

Fort Myers Beach Elementary School parents and town leaders have complained about the delays by the school district in taking any actions to repair the school. A consultant’s report that forms the basis for the Castaldi Report the school district is submitting to the, has state, been derided for inaccuracies and questionable cost estimates. The repair estimates in the report are much higher than initial cost estimates the district detailed earlier in the year with the assistance of a local architectural firm. Those lower cost estimates were not part of the report submitted by the district to the state.

An initial cost estimate put the cheapest cost of repairs at $1.3 million for one of five options that were under consideration until School District Supt. Dr. Denise Carlin instead asked the district’s consultants in April to conduct a facilities study for the elementary school in which a Miami and Doral-based firm put the cost of repairs at $7 million on the low end and recommended closure of the school.