Marco residents renew push for high school on the island

MARCO ISLAND — They have tried to get a high school on Marco Island before and failed.

But members of a grassroots group who hope to build a school on the island said change is in the air.

“We had some initial meetings two or three years ago, but it didn’t catch the fervor it needed,” said Mario Sanchez, a Marco Island resident and Miami-Dade College professor who is leading the charge for the high school. “This time, we are seeing a lot of interest. A lot of parents want to be involved.”

Part of that change could be a new line of attack. The group is studying the Florida laws and following the example of Marco Island Charter Middle School to get a high school on the island, according to Sanchez.

They are also working with Florida Gulf Coast University to see if a partnership over a high school could be formed.

“There have been state law changes and universities can now take part to help set up charter schools,” said Faye Biles, a Marco Island resident and a member of the FGCU foundation board. “For two years, we have talked about what the university can do, whether it’s sponsor the school or sponsor the community. ... This is going to be a different kind of school.”

The idea behind the school has been presented as a school for exceptional students. But Sanchez admits he is hesitant with the nomenclature.

“This is a high school for everyone. Our goal is that every student would reach an exceptional level of education,” Sanchez said.

Sanchez said a high school on the island is important to the community.

“My son, who graduated from Lely, was on the bus anywhere from one to three hours a day,” he said.

Sanchez said the island also has a wealth of retired doctors, engineers and other professionals who could come in and augment the school’s curriculum.

But Biles was quick to point out that island residents don’t have a problem with Lely High School, which is the current high school for students who live on Marco Island.

“We have always wanted our own high school on Marco Island,” she said. “The Mackle Brothers and Deltona (Crop.) assured us that land had been set aside for three schools.”

One of those parcels was Tract K, which is on the west side of Tigertail Court between Somerset and Century drives on Marco Island. It was given to the Collier County School District by the Deltona Corp., the developer of modern Marco, for use as a future school site.

In March 2006, the Collier County School Board had discussions about selling Tract K. Those discussions were met with anger from Marco city officials and residents, many of whom wanted the district to build a school on the site.

District officials have said the size of the property — 11.6 acres — is too small to do that. The School Board’s prototype has been 2,000 students for a small high school, and those buildings are built on 50 to 60 acres.

There had been talk last year that Marco Island officials and district officials were working on a possible land swap, in which the district would take over land Marco owned elsewhere, and would in turn give Tract K to the city of Marco Island.

That land swap didn’t come to fruition, but the district has proposed using four acres for a solar park and would allow the remaining 7.6 acres to be used as athletic fields or a park. The district would deed the land to the city without any additional cost.

According to the grant application, the district estimates the Tract K project could save the district $2.1 million over 20 years. However, an eagle’s nest in a tree in the middle of the site would mean the site could not be developed by the city until the eagles had left the nest and didn’t return for six years.

The idea was met with resistance during a joint Collier County School Board/ Marco Island City Council meeting last month and many community members pushed the district once again to build a high school on the site.

At a January meeting between the Collier school board and Marco city council, Superintendent Dennis Thompson said he the district had no plans to put another school on Marco Island.

Biles said the community hopes to speak with Thompson again about the possibility of a school on the island.

“We don’t need athletic fields, we have athletic fields elsewhere,” she said. “But Tract K was given to the district to put a school on it and that is what needs to be done.”

District officials argue that the deed to the district says the property has to be used for “school purposes.” They say that a solar farm is a school purpose, addressing the energy needs of Tommie Barfield Elementary School and the Marco Island Charter Middle School.”

The next opportunity to speak with Thompson might be March 3, when he is scheduled to speak at the Marco Island Rotary Club meeting.

Sanchez said while Tract K is an option, there are other places to put a high school, including adding grade levels to Marco Island Charter Middle School.

George Aboundader, principal of the Marco Island Charter Middle School, said any addition of a freshman class would have to be done with the consent of the Collier school board and the approval of the Marco Island Charter Middle School Board because the charter school has a performance contract with the district to deliver educational services to students in middle school.

“No discussion has taken place thus far either between those two parties or among our Charter School Board members regarding this topic,” he wrote in an e-mail. “That doesn’t mean that future talks about adding one high school grade at a time could not transpire, but as of now, none have taken place.”

The idea is not unheard of in the county. Some of the county’s private schools, including Seacrest Country Day School, have grown high schools from a smaller program. Seacrest added one grade a year for four years, until the high school was completed last year.