Fort Myers Beach Manager considers making counter-proposal following meeting with school district over Beach Elementary

After a meeting with School District of Lee County Chief Strategy Officer Ken Savage this past week as part of ongoing talks over the future of the Fort Myers Beach Elementary School, Town of Fort Myers Beach Manager Will McKannay said that while the meeting was constructive “we did not move the ball any.”

Town of Fort Myers Beach Mayor Dan Allers proposed to the school district last month during a mediation session that the district hand over to the town the elementary school’s campus for a long-term lease agreement so that the town can rebuild the school. Allers asked the school district for $12 million, which the district thus far has balked at.

In a letter to the town last month, School District of Lee County Superintendent Dr. Denise Carlin said the funds don’t exist for what the town is seeking.

McKannay said last week’s meeting with Savage included discussions regarding Carlin’s letter, as he sought clarifications on certain points.

For example, Carlin’s response to the town’s offer was to suggest the school district would give the town the historic school and part of the campus property outright though the district wants to retain part of the property and wants to subdivide it. Mckannay said he didn’t get immediate clarification on that issue, and is awaiting a response.

McKannay said the meeting overall was “very good, very cordial, very constructive.”

Yet the sides appear to be far apart.

McKannay said Savage made no offer of any funds for the town to take over the school.

Without any funds from the school district, the town would be hard pressed to come up with any funds to rebuild the school. The town has endured its own budget challenges and still faces the paying back of an $11.9 million loan to the state. Even if the town were to get some type of aid from the school district, it would face large fiscal challenges to take over the school’s operations while not being able to access the tax funds that town taxpayers would still be sending to the school district.

The district had budgeted $6 million last year for a new cafeteria building for Fort Myers Beach Elementary School as part of an interlocal agreement which required the building to be constructed this year. No action has been taken to construct the building. Parents involved in the school’s ad-hoc committee and others have eyed that $6 million as a starting point for funds the school could turn over to the town, or as a basis point for what the school district owes the community to construct the building.

Town officials have questioned the district on how it has spent FEMA funds and state dollars on the school after Hurricane Ian.

Fort Myers Beach Mayor Dan Allers contacted Gov. Ron DeSantis earlier this year to ask him to intervene in reopening and saving the school. The office of DeSantis has not responded to requests for comment on the issue, including one sent to the communications office of DeSantis on Monday.

McKannay was allowed to tour the Fort Myers Beach Elementary School, and said administrators have granted his request to conduct another visit along with professional contractors and engineers in the next couple of weeks who can assess the damage at the school and how much work will be needed to clean and repair the school, to reopen it.

McKannay said the school looked to be in bad shape when he visited.

“It looks like it hasn’t been worked on in a long time,” McKannay said. McKannay said it appeared contractors for the district had taken off drywall and removed flooring where there was water damage and potentially mold damage, and installed temporary flooring.

“It might not be salvageable as a school,” McKannay said.

The district waited months before making minimal repairs to the school after Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton hit last year, aside from some stabilization work early on. Not long after the hurricanes, Carlin was elected as superintendent after the first election in Lee County for a school superintendent in decades.

McKannay is considering the next steps for negotiations between the two sides as they continue talks.

At Monday’s meeting of the Town of Fort Myers Beach Council, McKannay told councilmembers “I think we are getting close to forming a counter-proposal to the school district.”

Those specifics were not discussed by the council on Monday though.

“We agreed to talk again,” McKannay said.