School board silent on Fort Myers Beach Elementary
If the Town of Fort Myers Beach was looking to the School District of Lee County School Board to come to the rescue of the Fort Myers Beach Elementary School and reopen the school anytime soon, there was no evidence of that at Monday’s school board meeting.
In the first school board meeting since the Nov. 5 mediation session between the town and the school district regarding the closed elementary school, school board members made no public comment regarding the town’s proposal to take over the school. Nor did they comment on the request made by Fort Myers Beach Mayor Dan Allers for the district to provide $12 million from the school district to the town to construct a new building on the campus.
The only mention of the mediation meeting was made by Superintendent Dr. Denise Carlin in the final four minutes of a three and a half hour workshop, in which she outlined the response she had given the town in a letter last month after the meeting. Carlin also announced that school district administrators and Town of Fort Myers Beach Manager Will McKannay are scheduled to meet next week.
Referring to her letter to the town, Carlin reiterated her position that while the school district would be willing to help with the charter school conversion process, the $12 million the town has requested is not available.
Carlin told the school board on Monday that funds in a FEMA obligation letter for the school district to the elementary school will be “primarily credited to the LAP loan that “we have all talked about” and any other funds would be reviewed for “Hurricane Ian related matters and repairs.”
The town and school district are at odds over how funds were allocated and used by the school district after Hurricane Ian, based on requests for funding the district made to FEMA.
In August, FEMA announced an award letter of $19 million minus insurance reimbursement to the school district which totaled $11.3 million. The funds were for damage to 12 buildings of the Fort Myers Beach Elementary School from Hurricane Ian. The school district had applied for the funds based on repairing and rebuilding several of the structures.
The district ultimately demolished several buildings and repaired the historic school in 2023. The district has given different figures for how much it spent on this, ranging from $6 million for the past year, until a new figure of $6.8 million was given by the the school district’s attorney at mediation, along with other stated numbers. The district received a state loan after Hurricane Ian, which Carlin said would be paid back through the FEMA funds.
The school district also set aside $6 million in its budget last year to construct a cafeteria building for Fort Myers Beach Elementary School, as required under an interlocal agreement. The school district has never moved forward with constructing the building, though it was required to be built this year as part of the agreement. The school district’s legal counsel and superintendent believe the two hurricanes that hit Fort Myers Beach last year have allowed the district to delay the construction.
While Carlin has said the school district doesn’t have the funds the town is seeking for, town officials have questioned where state and FEMA funds have gone that they believe were intended to rebuild the elementary school after Hurricane Ian, and which they believe included funds the district has not used as the district has also been reimbursed by insurance.
Rob Spicker, a spokesperson for the district, said Supt. Carlin would decline to answer questions posed by the Fort Myers Beach Observer regarding the allocation of state funds and FEMA funds for the Fort Myers Beach Elementary School, and the amount of funds remaining from those allocations.
“During the conflict resolution process with the Town of Fort Myers Beach, our comments will be limited to official correspondence with the Town and the meetings we hold together. Therefore, while we appreciate the request to respond to your questions we will continue to honor the process rather than deliberate through the media,” Spicker said in an emailed response to the questions posed for Carlin.
Spicker referred to a statement previously made in August by the superintendent’s office that “The School District has submitted a claim worth $187 million to FEMA, which covers repairs to over 100 locations. The total amount FEMA has validated to date is $128 million, a difference of $59 million. The School District of Lee County has only received $12.8 million from FEMA. These funds were used for the immediate clean-up of school sites and debris removal. The remaining School District FEMA projects are advancing through the FEMA review process.”
In the letter to the town last month, Carlin told Town of Fort Myers Beach Manager Will McKannay that while the school district would be supportive of handing over the school to the town, the school district would want to subdivide the campus property and then give the property with the school to the town outright, rather than lease it.
At Monday’s meeting, when referring to her letter to the town regarding the mediation, Carlin said she had discussed the LAP loan with the school board though it was not clear if Carlin was referring to private discussions she had with school board members prior to or since the mediation.
Since the mediation, the school board has not entertained any public discussion amongst themselves regarding the mediation and the Fort Myers Beach Elementary School.
School board member Bill Ribble said individual school board members have been getting briefings from Carlin individually since the mediation began though they have not discussed the matter as a group publicly. Ribble said it has been through those individual, private one-on-one discussions with Carlin, that an offer was made to the town.
Ribble, who was the school board’s representative to the Nov. 5 mediation, declined to comment on specifics regarding the mediation when reached.
Ribble said “we made them an offer, and you heard what that was, and we are waiting for them to get back with us.”
Asked whether the outcome of the mediation would be dependent on money, Ribble said “It’s about coming up with an agreement that we can both live with. We are going to work this out. We are all adults here. The last thing we want to do is have drama. We want to get this thing put to bed,” Ribble said.
Ribble, who said he worked mediation meetings during his management career at United Parcel Service, said he wanted to wait and see what happens in the meeting next week with McKannay and School District of Lee County Chief Strategy Officer Dr. Ken Savage.
Carlin said the school district facilitated a walk-through of the elementary school last week for Town of Fort Myers Beach Manager Will McKannay. McKannay is scheduled to meet school district administrators next week to follow up on the mediation process and the town’s proposal. McKannay was not immediately available to comment on the walk-through and upcoming meeting.
Fort Myers Beach Councilman Jim Atterholt, who was heavily involved in ad-hoc committee meetings between Fort Myers Beach parents and Lee County school district administrators for months on reopening the school after Hurricane Milton last year, said “everybody on our side is stunned and dismayed at their response to our good-faith offer.”
Atterholt said the hope is the school district will “negotiate in good faith.”
The school has languished since Hurricane Milton more than a year ago, with only minimal repairs and stabilization work done on the campus. Meanwhile, the school district has submitted a report to the state to request permission to potentially demolish the historic school and raze the campus.
While the school board had no discussions Monday on the proposal from Allers and his request for $12 million, or the questions the town has raised about the use of funds from FEMA and the state for Fort Myers Beach Elementary School after Hurricane Ian, the school board did argue on Monday over the hiring of a school board internal auditor.
The town believes that the hurricanes do not allow the district to delay the construction and that the $6 million should be part of the funds the school district turns over to the town for a new school.
School board member Melissa Giovanelli made a motion to move forward with the hiring of an internal auditor for the school board, who would be accountable to the school board in tracking administration spending. The school board was divided on Monday and ultimately decided to postpone on searching for an internal school board auditor.
Giovanelli cited 41 “outstanding items” that district has yet to resolve from a previous audit.
Giovanelli wanted to put a timeline and deadline for hiring the auditor.
Giovanelli’s proposal ran into some pushback from school board member Samuel Fisher, who said he was opposed to setting a date by which the school board would need to hire such a firm. School board member Jada Langford Fleming said she wanted to give the superintendent and the administration more time to address the deficiencies in the audit. School board member Bill Ribble also expressed resistance.
“It’s important that we keep this conversation going,” Giovanelli said.
“We will keep it on our radar and not ignore it,” school board chair Armor Persons said.
The discussion also occurred at the same time that Lee County Clerk Kevin Karnes announced that the inspector general for the clerk and comptroller’s office would be partnering with the school district to identify and investigate fraud, waste and abuse claims relating to spending,
Since the 2021-22 school year, the district’s budget has ballooned from $1.9 billion to $2.9 billion. In the 2022-23 school budget year, when Hurricane Ian hit, the school district’s budget was $2.4 billion.
Messages left with school board members were not immediately returned.