{"id":35515,"date":"2025-11-06T07:46:17","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T07:46:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/35515\/"},"modified":"2025-11-06T07:46:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T07:46:17","slug":"fort-myers-beach-mayor-asks-school-district-to-give-town-beach-elementary-for-charter-school-fort-myers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/35515\/","title":{"rendered":"Fort Myers Beach Mayor asks school district to give town Beach Elementary for charter school – FORT MYERS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fort Myers Beach Mayor Dan Allers has proposed to the Lee County school district that the Fort Myers Beach Elementary School be turned over to the town to be operated as a municipal charter school and that the school district provide the town $12 million to build a new municipal charter school. The proposal was made at the end of today\u2019s mediation session between the town and school district at St. Leo the Great Catholic Church in Bonita Springs.<\/p>\n

The mediation session, also known as a conflict assessment meeting, ran more than three hours and included a divergence of statements and positions from the school district, town and residents before the bold proposal suggested by Allers at the end of the meeting.<\/p>\n

Before Allers made the overture, the meeting began with a statement by Town of Fort Myers Beach Manager Will McKannay in which he detailed how the town needed the school to reopen and how an interlocal agreement between the town and school district required the elementary school to reopen.<\/p>\n

McKannay called on the school district to honor its commitment to the Fort Myers Beach Elementary School.<\/p>\n

\u201cFort Myers Beach Elementary School is more than a building. It\u2019s a symbol of resilience, continuity and a hope for a community that has endured the devastation of hurricanes Ian, Helene and Milton. For our youngest residents, reopening the school is essential to restoring stability, supporting mental health and ensuring long-term academic and emotional recovery,\u201d McKannay said.<\/p>\n

McKannay said that sending Fort Myers Beach Elementary School students to Heights Elementary School was not in line with the interlocal agreement. McKannay said repairing and reopening the elementary school was not a financial burden on the school district as FEMA reimburses up to 90% of the reconstruction costs for the elementary school.<\/p>\n

Transferring students to another school or demolishing the school campus would jeopardize FEMA funds, McKannay said. <\/p>\n

McKannay said reopening Fort Myers Beach Elementary School promoted stability on Fort Myers Beach. Reopening the school supports local employment, attracts family and redevelopment, McKannay said. The school\u2019s enrollment was increasing before Hurricane Milton as it expanded its curriculum with the contributions of Florida Gulf Coast University, McKannay said.<\/p>\n

During public comment, parents asked what kind of message the school district was sending to children about honoring contracts and commitments. They questioned how the school district had eliminated the second grade at the elementary school.<\/p>\n

Fort Myers Beach Chamber of Commerce President Jacki Liszak said the district\u2019s delays in reopening Fort Myers Beach Elementary School had led to real estate deals collapsing, as families seeking to purchase homes had backed out once learning the school was not functioning.<\/p>\n

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Fort Myers Beach Observer Editor Nathan Mayberg can be reached at Nmayberg@breezenewspapers.com<\/p>\n

To reach Nathan Mayberg, please email nmayberg@breezenewspapers.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fort Myers Beach Mayor Dan Allers has proposed to the Lee County school district that the Fort Myers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35516,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210],"class_list":["post-35515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35515\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}