Back to School
First day was off to ‘a great start’
More than 100,000 children headed back to school Thursday and, despite some late buses, the first day of class was off to a great start, public school officials said.
“The number is significantly smaller than last year and the delays are 30 minutes or less compared to an hour, or more, last year,” Lee County School District spokesperson Rob Spicker said of to-school transports.
The district would like to remind parents that if their child is not currently assigned to a bus, or they want to request a new or different bus stop, they need to call their child’s school to enter the request.
“We will collect all the requests for the first two weeks of school and process them all at the same time. Once all the changes are made we notify the bus riders several days in advance of the change taking place so they can be ready for the first day of the new service. It is a process, but prevents us from making changes every single day that can be very disruptive based on the requests that come in. Instead, we make one group of changes for everyone all at once,” Spicker said.
Superintendent Dr. Christopher Bernier said during a Tuesday night meeting that the district was still in need of 67 bus drivers.
“Last year we were arriving 20 to 30 minutes late and middle school students missed their first period of instruction. By doing the proximity plan, we are saving over 15,000 miles per day in bus transportation,” he said.
Bernier said there are always two priorities of equal importance — academic achievement and school safety.
School safety
New safety measures are in place for the 2023-2024 school year.
“We are excited about a lot of things. The safety and security, the Guardian Program, the OPENGATE entry technology and other safety enhancements we made,” Bernier said. “Our greatest hope is it’s a non impacted year… not dealing with former issues of infectious disease, that we don’t have a hurricane. (The hope is it will be) a great, awesome ’23-’24 to move forward without interruption.”
Spicker said the schools that implemented OPENGATE on the first day reported that students responded well and the virtual weapons detection system worked as expected.
“The best advice for students and parents is to leave any heavy, or metal objects at home and be ready as they approach the school entry technology with their Chromebooks out,” Spicker said. “Each student using the system will use the lessons learned today and the next few days to refine their procedures and then help mentor the next group of schools to introduce OPENGATE on their campus.”
On Friday, Aug. 4, the Lee County Sheriff’s Office officially finished all the training for the Guardian Program candidates, which included 15 who went through training, with six impacted. The Guardians will be used as force multiplier in addition to the School Resource Officers.
They went through 160 hours of training that included firearms, deescalation, tactics and medical.
Guardians will be uniformed and easily recognized with their day glow yellow uniforms, Bernier said, adding the bright color will help police officers responding to a building recognize them as Guardians.
“Last spring, with support from the School Board, we announced that we would be partnering with the Lee County Sheriff’s Office to provide interested and qualifying employees with the required training to participate in the Guardian Program. Recently, a graduation ceremony was held for those that successfully completed the training. These individuals will be placed in the school and District buildings in which they currently are employed. They will be uniformed and armed and will support our School Resource Officers during emergencies,” an email sent to parents read earlier this week.
The system will start at 16 campuses. The pilot project will continue to roll out into every elementary, middle and high school, large and small, as the district continue to refine the implementation.
“By the end of the school year, all schools will have the technology,” Bernier said.
He hopes the OPENGATE system will help parents have conversations with children regarding the lengths both the district and school board take to protect students and staff. Bernier also hopes it will help young people make better decisions knowing the technology is there regarding items not permitted at school.
Change in school assignment methodology: Proximity
In addition to technology, the district has made improvements for transportation as the elementary proximity plan rolls out this year.
“While we have less vacancies because there are less numbers of drivers necessary, all drivers are employed,” Bernier said, adding that 15,000 daily trip miles were eliminated.
“It’s a shorter range in time when transporting elementary school students,” he said.
With that, there is a higher percentage of time for high school and middle school students to arrive to school on time, as the district operates on a three-tier system with elementary schools falling into the second tier. This will also improve students arriving home on time.
Some routes remain uncovered, but the district continues to move people through the human resources pipeline with the hope of getting them started on the first day of school.
Bernier said the after school programs are up and running at the elementary schools. Some schools have already started wait lists due to the demand.
“They have established a pool of fingerprinted young people to work after school in these programs to eliminate the wait list,” Bernier said, adding that they are reaching out to the local universities to track their talent as well.
This year the district will start to explore a proximity plan for middle schools, compressing attendance zones so children can attend schools closer to home.
Volunteers needed
Many meet-the-teacher open houses took this week in advance of first day of school on Thursday.
“Parents, we want your involvement,” Bernier said, adding that could come with conversations with their child about school, volunteering, or becoming a field trip chaperone.
He said by becoming involved it really sends the message to a child the value of public school education.
“We encourage (parents) to find opportunities in the school. To volunteer and be an integral part of your child’s education,” Bernier said.
Post-Ian changes
Almost a year later, the district is still feeling the impacts of the destruction Hurricane Ian left behind.
There are still two sites where students will not return to “their” schools. Hector A. Cafferata Elementary School will remain at the portable campus behind Cape Coral Technical College. This month the board will vote on contractors to begin working on the K-8 school in mid Cape Coral.
The other school, Fort Myers Beach Elementary School, will not be in its home either. Bernier said the tentative plan is to get the students back into their historic building some time this fall.
Most maintenance is complete, or nearing completion for other buildings that had hurricane damage. He said there are still roofs that need to be worked on, which will be with earnest and great speed.
Those who would like to see an update regarding a specific school can visit the district’s website, leeschools.net, and click on the hurricane icon. Here the community can get an updated transparent scorecard with progress of all the work being done.
Also to roll out this year is a PSA regarding bike ride and walk safely. Bernier said the district has worked with the mayors of Cape Coral and Fort Myers, as well as police chiefs to ensure students are safe to and from school.
The district is also promoting the “see something, say something” initiative. He said they can put all the technology in place, but they need students and staff to be their eyes and ears.
This year the district has added more than 2,000 seats in the neediest area, Lehigh Acres, with the opening of Amanecer Elementary, Lemuel Teal Middle School and additional seats at Lehigh Acres Middle School.
“I am excited and thankful for the half penny sales tax. Without that money, those buildings are not possible,” Bernier said.
The community can also look forward to the refreshed strategic plan, which focuses on such areas as academic outcomes in reading, writing, math, graduation, discipline, recruitment and retention, operation and maintenance.
“Those will have public facing score cards located on the website,” Bernier said. “The community will have a score card much like a student report card.”
The school board will discuss the refreshed plan at the Aug. 16 board meeting. He said they are looking forward to getting that approval and sharing the work at town halls and touring the community.
Bernier said he is excited about getting back out and spending time in the community.
To reach MEGHAN BRADBURY, please email news@breezenewspapers.com