Total disregard for Fort Myers Beach community is unacceptable
Lee County School District's delays in reopening historic Beach Elementary School show indifference to island's residents
As the Town of Fort Myers Beach Council prepares for a mediation session with the administration of the School District of Lee County on Wednesday, we wanted to be optimistic this would lead to the reopening of the Fort Myers Beach Elementary School since it flooded during Hurricane Milton more than one year ago.
Unfortunately, the actions taken by the school district and its leadership since the town voted to initiate the conflict resolution process earlier this month, show a superintendent whose apparent goal is to tear apart our community.
The actions of Supt. Dr. Denise Carlin, the school district’s administration and board have only given the Fort Myers Beach community the indication that their goal is to dismantle the historic school. A letter from Carlin to the town’s manager this past month showed absolutely no rush to reopen the school and an insistence that the district had the right to keep it closed in defiance of an interlocal agreement.
Of all the disregard Carlin and the school board have hurled at the Fort Myers Beach community through the foot dragging and lack of action in reopening the elementary School, the submittal of a report to the state this month by the school district asking permission to raze the historical school building and campus, topped them all.
Dr. Kenneth Savage, in a surprise presentation to the school board this month, portrayed the report as a mere formality. He downplayed its meaning as some necessary administrative function in case the school district decided to rebuild the school, or destroy it. Except he didn’t explain why the administration thought it was necessary to ask the state for permission to destroy the historical campus. The lack of public questioning by the school board at the meeting spoke volumes on the state of affairs. The school district has insisted this is just a report weighing the costs and that no final decision has been made on the school, but the fact the request was made at all at this time speaks volumes.
That wasn’t the greatest instance of disrespect though. Dr. Carlin informed the Town of Fort Myers Beach she would not attend a public mediation hearing scheduled to take place at the Town of Fort Myers Beach Town Hall and instead insisted the mediation meeting take place on a “neutral site” away from Fort Myers Beach. Carlin suggested the Village of Estero, while the town eventually offered up the St. Leo the Great Catholic Church in Bonita Springs, which the school district agreed to. You know, the kind of place you normally go for meetings involving Lee County schools and Fort Myers Beach government. Town councilmembers, who initially insisted the meeting be held at the Town of Fort Myers Beach Town Hall, agreed to the compromise location since they believed that any mediation meeting was better than none.
As Vice Mayor Jim Atterholt said this week, if Carlin believes a “neutral” site is needed for the mediation, does she consider Fort Myers Beach to be hostile territory?
As Fort Myers Beach parent Monica Schmucker said, the refusal by Carlin to hold the meeting on Fort Myers Beach, only shows her disregard for the community.
Shortly after Hurricane Ian three years ago, former Superintendent Dr. Chris Bernier sat down face to face with town residents on San Carlos Boulevard and pledged to work with them on reopening the school. It took longer than some hoped but the school did get opened one year later.
Now, one year after a much smaller hurricane called Milton left much less damage to the Fort Myers Beach Elementary School, Carlin has not held a meeting on Fort Myers Beach with the community and has given no indication the school will be reopened.
In fact, she has given only the opposite impression.
In a letter from Carlin to Town of Fort Myers Beach Manager Will McKannay in response to the town’s initiation of mediation proceedings to force the school district to abide by the interlocal agreement that requires the Fort Myers Beach Elementary School to be open through at least 2027, Carlin detailed the reasons why she believes the school district isn’t required to repair or reopen the Fort Myers Beach Elementary School.
In the letter, Carlin wrote that last year’s hurricanes have led to a “reassessment” of the school, which could potentially include demolition of the building. Her six-page letter cites numerous court cases to bolster her claims, only leading one to believe she has no intention to reopen the school and instead is preparing arguments with the school district’s attorney to defend legal claims from the town to reopen the school.
The school district administration’s disregard for our community’s input started months ago after the school district released what sounded like reasonable cost estimates for making repairs to reopen the school at a low-end cost of $1.3 million to get the school opening with basic repairs necessary to get students back in the classroom. Alternatives for more intensive work would range from $3.5 million, to more than $6 million if the district raised the elevation of the building. The school district is also due insurance and FEMA reimbursements, the latter of which have also been a bone of contention from the town as to how that has been spent by the district.
There is also the option of building a new school at cost of $15.9 million in the original report. That option had support earlier this year from school board member Armor Persons.
Shortly after those estimates from a local planning and engineering firm were released by the district, Carlin ordered the district’s South Florida-based consultants Accenture (currently on a multi-year, multi-million dollar contract with the district) to do another study on the school that involved new cost estimates that put the base cost for repairs at more than $7 million and up to $9.8 million on the high end.
The report was blasted by the Fort Myers Beach Chamber of Commerce for inaccuracies.
The cost estimates seem highly questionable since the more intensive gutting of the elementary school and the demolition of several buildings after Hurricane Ian cost just $6 million (which was covered by insurance and FEMA).
Accenture was also asked by Carlin to do a further report on whether the school should exist at all.
They even polled county residents on what they thought of the school, if they thought it was important to the community and whether they thought the school should continue to exist.
Since when have local school decisions been based on polling? Is this because the school district’s superintendent is now a political figure who has to run for office?
That polling was submitted to the state by the school district in the 141-page Castaldi report which seeks the authority to raze the school if the school board elects to do so.
The majority of county residents who responded to the polls actually showed support for the Fort Myers Beach Elementary School reopening.
Why should the best interests of our community’s children be decided based on an unscientific poll anyway?
What is best for Fort Myers Beach children is to not wait in more than an hour of traffic in the middle of the afternoon on a sweltering, hot March day when traffic can back up during peak season for miles down San Carlos Boulevard on the road back from Heights Elementary School (where Fort Myers Beach students currently go) to get to Fort Myers Beach.
The Fort Myers Beach community deserves its own school. And it is simple math.
The taxpayers of Fort Myers Beach pay far more into the school district than they get out of it. Approximately $29 million is coughed out of Fort Myers Beach taxpayers to support the Lee County school district’s ballooning $2.9 billion budget. All that Fort Myers Beach taxpayers have asked for is a small school that costs about $1.5 million to operate.
While the Fort Myers Beach Elementary School has nosedived to 40 students since Hurricane Milton, it was at about 70 students before Hurricane Milton sent students to San Carlos Park Elementary School and at more than 80 students before Hurricane Ian. The district expanded the boundaries from which students could attend the school after Hurricane Ian and allowed the children of those who work on Fort Myers Beach were allowed to attend as well. That appeared to be working on growing the school’s population until the school’s growth was stifled again by the delays of the district’s leaders in getting the school back open.
While Dr. Carlin and some school board members have expressed their concerns over the relatively miniscule budget of the Fort Myers Beach Elementary School at less than $1.5 million this past year, Carlin and the school board have not shown anywhere near the same level of concern for the $162 million that was approved last month to be spent for the construction of a new high school campus in Alva. The school, which will serve the growing population of Lehigh Acres, faced widespread opposition from the Alva community for its impact on local roads and infrastructure as students from Lehigh Acres are bused in there. The school board approved the $162 million spending plan for the campus on the same day they voted to request to the state that the Fort Myers Beach Elementary School campus be razed.
The scene at the meeting couldn’t have highlighted the disconnect of this school board from its communities any starker. One community of residents pleading with the board not to build a school in their town, while another community pleaded for the reopening of their school. Neither community was listened to by this out of touch school board.
Fort Myers Beach parents have been concerned for months now that the superintendent were looking to trim what is the leanest ounce of fat on its budget – the Beach Elementary School, as an almost sacrificial lamb to look as though they were being fiscally conservative.
For a district whose budget has grown from $2.4 billion just three years ago to $2.9 billion this year, the fairy tale concept that it is the little Fort Myers Beach Elementary School dragging Lee County’s school district’s budget down, is the biggest insult of them all.
Fort Myers Beach Observer Editorial