The Charlotte County School District is hosting 3 ground breaking ceremonies today. They reflect the district’s continued recovery from Hurricane Charley which devastated the county in 2004. Hurricane Charley damaged 10 schools in Charlotte County – six of them beyond repair. Now plans to rebuild three of them are complete. School and Community relations officer Mike Riley says the triple groundbreakings mark a milestone.

“We have reached a settlement with fema and our insurance and then received a guaranteed maximum price from the architects, engineers and builders so we were able to go ahead with those three schools so we thought we’d go ahead and make a it a great day and do all three at one time.”

The price tag for rebuilding the 3 schools is about 112 million dollars.
A rebuilt Neil Armstrong Elementary and Baker Head Start Center will welcome back students in mid 2007. Punta Gorda Middle School’s new campus should be ready by early 2008.

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Charlotte County School officials have a busy morning planned. They’re attending groundbreaking ceremonies for three schools being rebuilt following destruction by Hurricane Charley in 2004. Students from Neil Armstrong Elementary, the Baker Center and Punta Gorda Middle School have attended class in portables since then. Community Relations Officer Mike Riley says the new schools represent a wide-ranging collaboration.

“one of the things that’s unique about the planning and building of this school is the children have been involved – school staff – cafeteria folks – teachers – parents have been involved – and what we’ve done is built the school to fits the needs of our community”

The price tag for the three rebuilt schools is about 112 million dollars. The new campuses should all be up and running by early 2008. The student population in Charlotte County declined by 11-hundred following Hurricane Charley – but enrollment is once again on the rise.