Last day of school for Lee County students

Reporter: Ashley French
Published: Updated:

The 2023-2024 school year has officially wrapped up for students in Lee County.

The last day of school was Friday, May 31, marking the official start of summer for over a hundred thousand students in Lee County.

While the last day of school is an exciting time for students, it’s also a time for school staff and administration to reflect on the achievements and challenges they faced this school year.

Chris Englehart, Principal at Fort Myers High School, said there is always room to make improvements.

“Obviously, there’s always things that you want to improve on,” said Englehart. “I think a lot of the measures that were put into place this year have made a really big difference for our kids. And I think just kind of continuing down that road and making sure that we have a safe environment and creating a place where kids can learn and feel safe.”

One of the primary focuses for Lee County is adding more safety and security to its campuses.

Since the approval of its half-cent sales tax, the school district has allocated some of those funds to create a safer school environment.

This is an investment that Brian Gibson, the principal of Fort Myers Middle Academy, said is well spent.

“One thing that we did here was make sure we revamped the front office to make sure it is secure and safe for the school,” said Gibson. “Students, parents, and visitors are able to come in knowing that they have to walk through that and make sure that schools are going to be safe.” 

Gibson said that while safety is at the top of the mind, so is adding more educational opportunities.

“We will be one of the first schools to have an opportunity for students to receive their high school credit in a foreign language,” said Gibson. “We want to make sure we foster that opportunity as early as possible, and we want to provide that in the middle school setting.” 

Fort Myers Middle Academy will offer foreign language courses in Spanish, French and American Sign Language. Students and teachers are excited to take advantage of this opportunity next school year.

The Lee County 2024-2025 academic school year is scheduled for August 12.

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