School board member displeased with expansion of Veterans Park Academy for the Arts

A school in Lee County has a renovation project with an $18 million price tag. The campus of Veterans Park Academy for the Arts is expanding. Countless students between sixth grade and eighth grade will now have permanent stations.

But not everyone is satisfied by this expansion. Lee County school board member Gwyn Gittens represents Lehigh Acres, where Veterans Park is located. You would think she would be thrilled by renovations, but she isn’t, as these improvements don’t address her number one priority: Putting more students in more classroom seats.

Gittens is nothing if not consistent. “Since 2018, when I joined this board, I have said, ‘We need schools,'” Gittens said.

Four years later, she’s still saying Lehigh needs more schools. On Tuesday, Lee County schools unveiled that they’re renovating the buildings once used at the old Lehigh Acres Middle School, to become part of the Veterans Park Academy for the Arts.

Steve Hanna is the project manager for the School District of Lee County. “One goal is to make it the greatest learning experience you can have for a student. Another goal is to make it a place students want to go,” Hanna said.

The district is adding new classrooms, rooms for dance, theater and music. But, Gittens isn’t satisfied. “In the meantime, you’ve got students 30 or 40 students in a math and science and reading class, because the classes are so full,” Gittens said. “And you add to that the shortage of teachers.”

Gittens says the renovations should be on hold until the immediate needs of the school district are addressed meaning more seats for students and more teachers on the job.

“When we don’t have the schools and we’re crowded in certain schools. And teachers don’t want to come here,” said Gittens. “And who wants to come and teach in a portable when you could teach and a bright new shiny school.”

She says she won’t stop until her voice is heard. “I cannot fathom how other board members can sit and see the details, see the data. Listen to my impassioned pleas to just build the schools we need and I will stop. But I can’t,” Gittens said.

Gittens told WINK News that she has watched Lehigh and the rest of the east zone of the district grow. She knows how long it takes to build a school from scratch. As a quicker, less costly alternative, she wants the district to add on to existing schools.