State gives Lee County School District first part of approval to raze Fort Myers Beach Elementary School campus
State still requires further documentation and reviews for property on National Register of Historic Places, Town Manager objects to consultant's report
The School District of Lee County has received the first part of the approvals it needs from the Florida Department of Education as part of a multi-pronged approval process to raze the Fort Myers Beach Elementary School campus. However, school administration officials on Tuesday said they are not yet prepared to start following up on the procedures needed to do so as they continue mediation efforts with the Town of Fort Myers Beach as part of the town’s efforts to save the school.
The state approval of the district’s recommendation to raze the Fort Myers Beach Elementary School campus was officially communicated to the school board at a workshop held Tuesday through the town’s consulting firm of Accenture and Deputy Superintendent Ken Savage. The consulting firm provided its presentation by phone, in which they gave the school board a number of recommendations about the district’s ability to demolish the historic site.
Accenture, the school district’s multi-million dollar consulting team that has been working on a multi-year contract with the school district since after Hurricane Ian, provided an overview of the Fort Myers Beach Elementary School building, the demolition plans and the school’s operations. Their analysis led to a new round of calls from Fort Myers Beach officials challenging their assumptions.
At Tuesday’s school board meeting, Fort Myers Beach Manager Will McKannay called the report issued by Accenture that was the basis for the Castaldi Report to demolish the school, “incomplete” for not including a number of important details. The report has also been previously blasted by the Fort Myers Beach Chamber of Commerce.
“We still feel strongly that you are receiving an incomplete analysis in the Castaldi Report,” McKannay told the school board on Tuesday after board members received Accenture’s presentation to potentially raze the elementary school.
“There are important data sets we feel that are missing. I want to emphasize nobody in that report spoke to people from Fort Myers Beach, the town staff, the residents, experts in building on the beach. We have plenty, we have plenty on my staff, we have plenty that work on Fort Myers Beach every day. They weren’t part of that study.”
McKannay said he hopes the school district does not demolish the school building. “We want the school,” McKannay said. “We want the property to make sure it remains a school.”
McKannay said the town is committed to working and partnering with the school district whether the school remains a public school or a charter school. “I ask that you continue that spirit of collaboration with us going forward and find the best possible path forward,” McKannay said. “We are committed to do this. It is really, really important to us.”
The school board voted in October to issue the Castaldi Report, in which the school district asked for permission to demolish the Fort Myers Beach Elementary School buildings. The vote was undertaken one day after the Town of Fort Myers Beach Council voted to initiate the conflict resolution process, or mediation, with the school district over the failure of the school district to reopen the elementary school. School district officials have since made statements downplaying the report, saying it didn’t mean the school district had made a decision to demolish the school. McKannay had previously stated that the attempts to raze the school could be seen as the district not acting in good faith as part of the mediation process.
Savage said on Tuesday that the school district is still not set on demolishing the school, though he made no declarations that the district would stop pursuing the demolition under the requirements laid out by the state. The district has done several demolitions in recent years at Bonita Springs Elementary School, Cypress Lake Middle School, and Franklin Park except those projects part of new construction for new buildings, not the elimination of a school.
Savage said the administration is not yet recommending razing the campus. “We would like to proceed with the work we have done in collaboration with the Town of Fort Myers Beach leadership,” Savage said.
School board members were largely silent on the entire subject, with Chair Armor Persons asking a couple questions about how much the school district is spending to maintain the school, and Vice Chair William Ribble saying he thinks the school district and town are close to “getting this thing resolved.” Ribble said he applauded “both sides for their professionalism.” Ribble said the consultants provided “an excellent report.”
School District of Lee County Supt. Dr. Denise Carlin and School Board member Bill Ribble (right) attended a conflict resolution hearing (mediation) at St. Leo the Great Catholic Church in Bonita Springs Nov. 5 with Town of Fort Myers Beach councilmembers and town staff. Photo by Nathan Mayberg
School board member Samuel Fisher, who was chair last year, said he continues to oppose spending any funds on the school as he did last year, though he had supported repairs to the school after Hurricane Ian.
“The district needs to be done with this building,” Fisher said. “I hope we can work something out with Fort Myers Beach. I know how much important this is to our community and what it means to them. But as a district, plainly, we need to get this off of our books and we need to move at that standpoint. I wish Fort Myers Beach the best,” Fisher said. “My heart goes out to them.”
The letter provided to the school district is the first approval as part of a multi-part process the school district would need to go through with the state to demolish the three remaining buildings of the historic elementary school. The buildings, which date to the 1940’s, are on the National Register of Historic Places. Town of Fort Myers Beach officials have vowed to fight the plans to raze the school campus, including through a town historic preservation board which oversees historic properties.
In a letter sent to the school district last month, Florida Department of Education Deputy Commissioner of Finance Operations Suzanne Pridgeon, Pridgeon stated that the state Office of Educational Facilities concurs with the school district’s wishes to raze the three historic buildings of the Fort Myers Beach Elementary School.
“This recommendation does not result in the buildings being classified as unsatisfactory,” Pridgeon wrote to School District of Lee County Supt. Dr. Denise Carlin.
“Therefore, if the district wants to change the classification of the buildings, then supporting documentation of unsatisfactory conditions must be provided,” Pridgeon wrote.
Pridgeon said that the state Office of Educational Facilities (OEF) concurrence with the study recommendation from the School District of Lee County “does not relieve the district of its responsibility for performing required maintenance, minor renovation, or minor remodeling of the buildings to maintain their present uses. Furthermore, razing the buildings requires an approved survey recommendation from OEF.”
The school board would still need to vote again to approve a change in the classification of the buildings to unsatisfactory and to take the next steps toward the razing of the campus, and submitting documentation to the state.
The Town of Fort Myers Beach has been in a mediation, or conflict resolution process with the school district since the Town of Fort Myers Beach Council voted in October to initiate the process. That course of action is the first step the town had to take to challenge the school district’s compliance with an interlocal agreement between the school district and town for the operation of the Fort Myers Beach Elementary School. The interlocal agreement requires that the two sides attempt to mediate differences in the execution of the interlocal agreement before litigation is pursued. The interlocal agreement requires that the school district be operated as a public school through at least 2027 before the school could be changed into a charter school. Its lack of operation since 2024 could now push that date further back based on the language in the interlocal agreement.
Further, the statement by Pridgeon in her letter to the school district that the state’s approval of the district’s recommendation that such an approval “does not relieve the district of its responsibility for performing required maintenance, minor renovation, or minor remodeling of the buildings to maintain their present uses” could potentially give the town more ammunition in its arguments that the school district has failed to repair and reopen the school as part of the interlocal agreement.
Among other requirements, the school district was required to construct a cafeteria building on the campus last year, which it failed to do.
In a follow-up letter to the Fort Myers Beach community posted on Facebook Wednesday, McKannay said the consultant’s report “appears to rely on incomplete analysis and questionable research assumptions.”
This is the second time the firm has been accused of using questionable statistics and data. Last year, the firm issued a report recommending closure of the elementary school in which their data was called into question by the Fort Myers Beach Chamber of Commerce. In the firm’s report last year, they cited repair estimates for the school that were far above estimates the district itself had already released.
The consultants cited a cost-per-student figure for the elementary school that has been challenged by Fort Myers Beach Elementary School parents for not taking into account cost reductions at the school since Hurricane Ian, and further cost reductions since classes are now being held at Heights Elementary School. As of October, there were 41 Fort Myers Beach Elementary School students attending Heights Elementary, where classes had been combined to four classes: a K-1 class, second grade class, third grade class, and a combined fourth and fifth grade class.
During Tuesday’s meeting, School District of Lee County School Board Chair Armor Persons asked what the monthly and yearly costs of maintaining the school.
The administration and consultants did not have that information readily available though they said they would get that information back to Persons. A request to the Superintendent’s office for the costs was not responded to.
Ana Paula, a consultant for Accenture, estimated the cost to operate the school at a cost of $800,000 to $1 million. Ana Paula claimed the per-pupil spending was $27,000 for the 2023-24 school year, which is a figure that Fort Myers Beach Elementary School parents who led an ad-hoc committee have vociferously challenged, arguing that the figure was actually half of that and that the district has manipulated the numbers.
The consultants made a claim that if the school were to be repaired, the modernization repairs would only have a life of seven to 10 years before the district would have to apply funds again, though no citation as provided of how they came up with that figure or how the school building’s modernization repairs would be any different than modernizing any other building seven to 10 years from now.
The historic school, which dates to 1938, was essentially gutted and repaired just two years ago in a $6 million project that included demolition of several buildings at the campus. It also underwent renovations back in 1978.
Ana Paula, whose full name wasn’t provided by the school board or Accenture at Tuesday’s meeting, gave a presentation in which she hurled one-sided jabs at the condition of the school and its financial feasibility. The slide presentation provided to the public and school board did not include Ana Paula’s full name either.
Fort Myers Beach Elementary School has remained shuttered since Hurricane Milton in 2024 despite significantly less damage to the school than it incurred from Hurricane Ian two years earlier. Photo by Nathan Mayberg
Ana Paula said “the building isn’t safe since it has no floor.”
“This continued investment that the district has made creates a repetitive loss scenario as you continue to sink money into a building that will continue needing more funding to stay open,” Ana Paula said. She said the district’s funds would be “better spent in more resilient, higher-need schools of the district.”
Ana Paula said “it is statistically inevitable that it will flood again.” Supporters of the school have pointed to the building’s sturdiness, having survived Hurricane Donna in 1960, which was one of the worst hurricanes in Florida history and which brought significant damage to Fort Myers Beach. Hurricane Charley did not require any major repairs of the school nor did it lead to any lengthy closures.
Ana Paula called the repair of the building now after sone flooding damage from Hurricane Milton and Hurricane Helene “economically unjustifiable” though the Town of Fort Myers Beach has countered that the school district has been approved for $18 million in funding through FEMA since Hurricane Ian that it believes has not been fully accounted for.
In McKannay’s letter to the Fort Myers Beach community that was posted online Wednesday, he said “Approximately $18 million in funding has been approved for repairs and recovery associated with the school. The town believes these funds should be used to restore educational access on Fort Myers Beach and allow families the opportunity to have their children attend school in the community where they live.”
Fort Myers Beach Mayor Dan Allers was leaning on the FEMA funds the town believes the school district has not utilized for Fort Myers Beach Elementary School, when he requested In November during a mediation session with the school district that the district provide the town $12 million for the town to build a new charter school. The town has since lowered its request to $9 million. McKannay has since taken two tours of the building to determine whether the town can salvage the school and make repairs. In January, he took a walk-through with an architect and an engineer, and is awaiting their report.
Allers sent a letter last year to the office of Gov. Ron DeSantis asking him to intervene in saving the school. Last October, McKannay forwarded a letter to DeSantis objecting to the school district’s plans for razing the school campus.
The governor’s press office has not responded to multiple messages seeking comment on the Fort Myers Beach Elementary School, including the pleas of Allers and McKannay.
Among potentially the most questionable assumptions in the report by Accenture given to school board members on Tuesday, was their claim that the elementary school could be razed even though it is on the National Register of Historic Places. Ana Paula said the district could do so “with documentation.”
Ana Paula said that “because of FEMA funding, it would require a Section 106, which is just an analysis to be done, which requires mitigation, it does not require preservation and it does not require that the school be kept.”
Ana Paula was referring to Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act, which requiresa federal review of any project involving federal agencies and national historic sites. The process requires federal agencies to take into account the effects of their undertakings on historic properties, and assess its effects and seek ways to avoid, minimize or mitigate any adverse effects on historic properties. Section 106 would involve a review by the national Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. The federa Section 106 process would also involve a public comment period.
Ana Paula’s suggestion of FEMA funding as the reason a Section 106 review would be necessary suggests the school district would be looking to utilize FEMA funds in order to demolish the historic site. That could go to the heart of the town’s arguments questioning the district’s use of FEMA funds for the elementary school.
Ana Paula also said that the State Historic Preservation Office and Lee County Historic Preservation Board would need to review the razing of the school campus though she said she doesn’t believe the county could stop demolition either. “These are procedural pieces but the land is owned by the school district so you could simply go to the state (historic preservation office),” Ana Paula said.
In her explanation, Ana Paula said the school district would go to the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation to show how the state and county approves of the project and then would have to “mitigate” the demolition of the school, which she believes could include deciding “if a plaque will be left there.”
Ana Paula said that by razing the school campus, it “eliminates this ongoing safety concern, the financial burden, as well as the storm recovery risk, which is a given.”
Ana Paula said the district could also go other ways than demolition, such as transferring the school to the town, a leasing of the property, turning the school into a community center, or a sale of the land.
Savage said he planned to meet with town officials again. “We have enjoyed a lot of productive work with them,” Savage said. “In no way are our hands tied that we have to demolish the building.”