Editorial: MICMS groundbreaking a milestone for Marco

Breaking ground at the Marco Island Charter Middle School on June 5 was a milestone for the island. Only a decade ago a small group of concerned parents and local residents saw the need for an on-island middle school and put their sweat into making it a reality.

Progress has continued ever since giving pupils at the school an A-rated education and working with the Collier County School Board to add bricks and mortar.

Pupils graduating from Tommie Barfield Elementary next year will be able to enjoy the full fruits of this community’s labor. They will be the first generation to graduate from the new school. In future years they will come back to the island and stand before it and say, “This was my middle school.”

For those teachers, pupils and administrators who made the initial portables into a student body, you are the pioneers — the frontier men and women. Through your persistence in making sure that the middle school’s reputation was beyond reproach, you paved the path to the school board and brought the dream of a permanent structure to fruition.

Members of the School Board deserve credit for seeing the value of the work done by the Marco Island community. The Marco Island Charter Middle School is the first charter school in the state that a school district has ever constructed. They, too, have broken new ground and initiated a new way of thinking.