Plan for Fort Myers Beach Elementary delayed

The waiting game continued on Tuesday for the families of Fort Myers Beach Elementary School, even if the day didn’t start with that outcome in mind. 

The plan – at first – was to bring the everchanging situation involving the school in front of the Lee County School Board for a decisive vote on its future. 

Parents told WINK News they planned to be at Tuesday’s Lee County School Board meeting, hoping they’d finally get the good news they have waited for. 

But at the last minute, the discussion was removed from the agenda.

The District, in a public statement said, “After receiving the revisions to the ILA (Interlocal Agreement), there is a need for a more in-depth review and additional negotiations before bringing this forward.”

The ILA is an “agreement” between the School District and Fort Myers Beach – one that both sides are clearly still working to actually agree upon. 

Fort Myers Beach Elementary, located on Oak Street behind the public library, has been closed since Hurricane Ian left it in shambles. Some children, displaced from their school for over 7 months, have had to travel more than an hour just to get to a different school.

Parents told WINK News they’ve lost their way of life and are still rebuilding their homes. And the biggest fear parents have is where their kids will go to school.

John Koss has an 8-year-old son who went to Fort Myers Beach Elementary. In an interview with WINK News, Koss said, “My child, who’s proud to say that he’s read over 220 books, he loves school, came home crying to me last week and asked me if there’s any chance that we could keep him at home and start teaching him at home because he’s getting too stressed out going to school.”

“We’ve lost every single thing in our lives. And our main fight is the school right now,” Koss said.

Koss’s son J.C. has had to take the bus for almost an hour to and from school at San Carlos Park every day since Hurricane Ian shut down Fort Myers Beach Elementary.

“Seven months in… it’s frustrating, you know? “On a day-to-day basis, our kid, the effort that it takes just to get our kids to and home from school is a lot,” Koss said.

Koss is one of the many people fighting to rebuild the school.

Jim Atterholt, the vice-mayor of Fort Myers Beach, is another one of those people fighting. “Michael, there could be a vote on the plan to save the beach school. And that’s our hope,” Atterholt said in an interview with Reporter Michael Hudak.

WINK News interviewed Atterholt Tuesday morning because he and others were expecting progress on the school’s status.

“The parents are tired. The kids are tired. They’re worn out. They’re trying to manage their lives in the chaos of post-Hurricane Ian, at the same time, lobby for the school to be saved, and they’re just worn out. And we need help. We really need the school board to help us on this,” Atterholt said.

It’s unclear what specifically made the district take the item off the agenda at the last minute. Parents WINK News spoke to said it’s a dispute over the deadline the district gave the school to build its enrollment. The school wants three years, while some families say they need more.

If the school doesn’t build its enrollment by whichever deadline is eventually set, it may have to transition into becoming a charter school. That is the worst-case scenario according to the people who spoke with WINK News.