Repairing Lee County schools on the ‘not ready to open’ list

Different schools in Lee County are still considered “not ready to open” but work is being done to change that.

Lee County’s Cypress Lake Middle School was one of the schools considered “Not ready to open”. But, a nearby truck that says “Catastrophe response team” has crews cleaning and working to get the school open soon.

As of Sunday evening, only essential personnel were allowed to go into Cypress Lake Middle School, and any other school that’s on the “Not ready to open” list.

WINK News reached out to a spokesperson for the School District of Lee County and he said, “Cypress Lake Middle is on our list of schools not ready to open so it requires clean up and repair before it can be declared safe for students and staff to return. We are working as fast as possible to prepare the school and all our schools for a safe return to normal operations.”

Friday, Superintendent Dr. Christopher Bernier announced schools would remain closed throughout this coming week. Later, Bernier said they’re aiming to return students to an educational environment on Oct. 17.

“We still have significant and disproportional issues to overcome. Not all of our buildings were impacted in the same manner by the storm,” Bernier said. “We still have at least eight schools without power. Some schools, most schools do not have suitable drinking water. Most of our schools remain under a boil water notice. We still have safety and debris issues which will impact the safe pickup and delivery of our students both to and from school.”

Bernier also mentioned he will meet with the board and will provide an update on their reopening plan on Wednesday.