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New Lee County high school gets named

Posted at 11:01 PM, Nov 22, 2016
and last updated 2016-11-22 23:01:06-05

LEE COUNTY, Fla. -- Newly elected members of the Lee County School Board officially voted to give a controversial high school a new name: "Bonita Springs High School" beat out 800 other suggestions, including some that would have named the school after Thomas Edison or the Imperial River.

"We're pretty convinced this is a clean site, and the best site for this high school," said Chief of Staff for the superintendent Marc Mora.

The site came under fire earlier this year after evidence surfaced that there may be asbestos in the ground.

Test results came back showing there was no evidence of contamination on the 10 million dollar site at the corner of Imperial Parkway and Shangri La Road.

Critics say soil testing didn't go deep enough to gather an accurate sample.

Mora doesn't think there will be any more legal hurdles to clear.

"We haven't had any indication there will be any lawsuits, so a clean site and we're ready to move forward."

Once Bonita Springs High School is built, Mora says Lee County won't need another school for at least 10 years.

"The opening of the Bonita High School will definitely drop the utilization rate of all the other south zone high schools that we have currently and help us with the enrollment growth that we have in that particular part of the county."

A leading opponent of the school decline to go on camera, but told Fox 4, her group will continue to oppose the project.