Parents and concerned others packed the board room and spilled into overflow rooms to watch the school board meeting on monitors Tuesday evening, protesting budget cuts that are eliminating staff and programs in the Lee County School District.
Thirty-six speakers addressed the board, all of them expressing distress over budget cuts, teacher non-renewals and the system’s $46.7 million budget deficit.
Among them was Charla Fox, who said she has spent 25 years in Lee County classrooms. “I’ve seen leadership come and go,” she said. “But I have never seen morale as fragile as it is today.
“Last year the narrative was desperation. We were hiring internationally because we could not fill seats. This year the narrative has shifted to right-sizing the budget. But let’s be clear. Calling these non-renewals instead of cuts is a semantic game that our students are losing.”
Gage Griffin gave an impassioned comment, saying he was there to represent his wife. “It’s because of her that we were able to buy our first home. It’s because of her that I was able to go back to school. And it is because of you that she no longerhas a job. … It’s hard to believe that you can say fiscal responsibility is the reason you’re cutting waste when what’s being cut is my wife’s job. … It’s shameful to say that she is waste.”
“You cut, and you add,” said Gwyn Gittens, pointing to “the large staff and salaries at the district office.” Gittens, a former school board member, told the board that “Your lives, and ours, would be much happier if you share more information.”
Two Cypress Lake High School students lamented cuts to arts programs and the fact that 20 teachers were non-renewed at the school. They were two instances of many that drew applause and subsequent admonishment from the board about “no clapping.”
Soon, a majority in the room were raising their hands and waving them after people spoke.
Kay Polston, one of a group of people sporting T-shirts in support of Edison Park Elementary School art programs, is a counselor at the school. Her position was cut to part time. “Mental health is not a part-time job,” she told the board. “A student in mental health crisis won’t always happen on the 2.5 days that a part-time counselor will be at the school.”
Several were critical of the building of a new high school in Alva, rather than spending the money on teachers and staff. Several others urged the board to make the pause permanent on moving the students with medical special needs at Buckingham Exceptional School to Royal Palm Exceptional School.
After all 36 speakers had finished, most of the audience filed out of the room. Quite a few shouted “Shame!” prompting the board to call a recess.
