LEHIGH ACRES, Fla – The School District of Lee County is holding a community meeting in Lehigh Acres on Tuesday to talk about the future of two different schools there.
Students and staff at the current Lehigh Acres Middle School are getting ready to move into a new building that’s under construction and set to open in August. So the district now has to decide what to do with the soon to be former Lehigh Acres Middle School campus.
Because of all the overcrowding and growth in the district’s East Zone, it plans to renovate that old campus for future use. Its proximity to Veterans Park Academy for the Arts creates a unique opportunity.
“When you look at an aerial map, even though Lehigh Acres Middle School is on Arthur and Veterans Park is on Homestead, they actually share a common border. So the schools are right next to each other. And we're determining whether we should go with a super type school concept where that becomes one large school in the way we renovate LAMS and update it. Or does it become two schools? Or does it become something else that we haven't quite decided or even thought of yet,” explained Rob Spicker, Assistant Director of Media Relations & Public Information for The School District of Lee County.
That's why the district wants to hear from the Lehigh Acres community to understand what it thinks is going to work best for kids there.
The above projects are a few of the many the district is working on to meet the growing demands of its East Zone.
“Lehigh Acres is our growth spot, we need to catch up. If you go back to the sales tax campaign, we were $450 million short in maintenance. We needed at least six schools because we hadn't had the income of capital cash to keep up to build. Well now we have it and so now we're catching up and that's we're at is trying to look back at the needs, where do we need it and what can we build and how quick can we get it done,” explained Spicker.
He added that the recently announced future innovation school that's in partnership with Florida Gulf Coast University is yet another project that will help address overcrowding in this area.
Tuesday’s community meeting will be in the Star Café at Veterans Park Academy for the Arts at 6:00 p.m.
