The City of Cape Coral Charter School Authority will have a more discussion in February concerning the establishment of committee to address school capacity and the waitlist of students.<\/p>\n
Superintendent Jacquelin Collins told the board Tuesday night that they have to start thinking ahead and optimize for next year, so the municipal system can accommodate the number of students they are projecting to be enrolled within their four schools.<\/p>\n
The charter school system has a \u201cbubble effect\u201d as there are two elementary schools that matriculate into one middle school and then one high school.<\/p>\n
Collins recommend forming a committee of at least one governing board member, as well as someone from the finance, and facility department to weigh options on how to move forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat are portables going to cost us? Is that the solution we want to go with? Will we have money to build a brick-and-mortar eventually? Do we utilize extra space at the middle school? Should the high school move from block schedule to ensure we have more classroom space? We need the right people at the table to help us consider some scenarios,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s time to start thinking about that for fiscal year 2028.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are currently 3,454 students enrolled in the charter school system with 1,423 students on the wait list. The highest number is for Oasis Elementary South with 600 students.<\/p>\n
Board Chair Kristifer Jackson said they have a bottleneck system, which was not always a problem because they would lose students to other programs at other high schools.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are retaining all of the students, especially with a sports complex and our teams are doing exceptionally well. We have this bottleneck that we have to figure out a solution,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Jackson said it is time to think with innovation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith 1,423 students waiting, we are doing a disservice to our community without letting them in,\u201d he said. \u201cWe do need to come up with a \u00a0committee and come up with outside-of-the box ideas of how to tackle that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jackson threw out ideas of what they could do, one of which was portables, which he was not excited about. He said they have portables at the Oasis Elementary North campus, which did not work out well. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt alienated students and teachers. It\u2019s a whole separate place. They don\u2019t feel connected,\u201d Jackson said, adding that portables always require maintenance. \u201cIt\u2019s not a good look; it\u2019s not the Oasis look. It\u2019s a cheap look and not conducive for learning. I don\u2019t think that is the route we want to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
The board agreed that a smaller committee makes sense.<\/p>\n
\u201cToo much input starts getting cumbersome. You are competing rather than coming up with solutions,\u201d Jackson said.<\/p>\n
Vice Chair Karen Michaels said any solutions they come up with are 100% inhibited by the budget.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe finance piece is so important to this,\u201d she said, adding that the conversation should be between administration, the board, the finance team and facilities to start as a core group.<\/p>\n
The conversation will continue at the Feb. 10 meeting at 5 p.m. in City Council chambers at City Hall, 1015 Cultural Park Blvd.<\/p>\n