Two half-pints delivered a quart-sized message to City Council

Photo by Cheryl Ferrara, Special To The Eagle

Olivia Watt, 10, and brother Jonathan, 7, meet Councilor Larry Magel before presenting their "thank you" to the council for its support of the Marco Island Academy public charter school.

Olivia Watt, 10, and brother Jonathan, 7, thanked the city’s seven councilors for their letter supporting the Marco Island Academy, a public high school seeking its charter to become the first on Marco Island.

“I am in the 4th grade at Tommie Barfield, and I’m lucky to attend a school in the community where I live,” Olivia said. “When I graduate, I hope I can say I attended three of the state’s best schools (in that same community).”

Jonathan, a first grader at Tommie Barfield Elementary, has lived on Marco Island since he was 2 years old.

“I like living here,” he said. “My family almost moved, but I didn’t want to go. Then my mother started working to build the high school.”

Both children offered thanks on behalf of their mom, Jane Watt, who had a previous engagement and could not attend the meeting.

Last Friday, the Academy submitted its letter of intent to the Superintendant of Collier County’s school board. Watt said she will be meeting with the Superintendent in the next two weeks.

“Our hope is to have the charter written by the end of May,” Watt said. “That will give us two month to have it reviewed by highly qualified professionals before it is submitted to the Collier County School Board in August.”

The city’s letter of support will accompany the submission.

“Since the city’s founding, it has tried to fold teen into it fabric,” Watt said. “We are grateful for its support and promise to provide a place where teens feel at home in their community both educationally and socially.”

The school plans to build on Marco’s YMCA campus and has entered into a partnership for land use and operations integration. The Marco Island Family YMCA is located on the corner of San Marco and Sandhill Roads.

“We are in the process of finalizing an operation agreement,” Ashley Lupo, chairwoman of the Y’s Strategic Planning Committee, said on Monday. “We need to work out details like how we will share the land and the facilities, how we share maintenance and costs, and how we will schedule facilities’ use.”

Academy planners have been holding the school’s architectural design close to the vest, but on Monday, Watt was willing to reveal some of its features.

“The design is really amazing,” Watt said. “It will have a ‘green’ roof with rooftop planters where students can grow fruits, vegetables and herbs to be used in the culinary arts program.”

Classrooms will be raised above a parking garage giving students a view of treetops and sky. Extensive landscaping will abate noise and offer a lushness for surrounding neighbors, Watt said.

“Students can work or socialize in a garden terrace that will be placed off one of the floors and in an outdoor living laboratory that will provide hands-on learning,” she said. “The laboratory will house a science pavilion and pond where students can study the natural behaviors of animals such as fish, turtles and frogs.”

A glassed entryway will allow natural lighting into the school’s “bio-larium,” a lobby housing an indoor water feature where propagating fish will yield natural fertilizers for the gardens on the roof, she said.

“Even the gymnasium was designed to blend with the neighborhood.”

Carl Titgemier, member of the Y’s planning committee, said architectural plans have been reviewed by city officials and by the Marco Island Civic Association.

“They don’t see any conflicts with building codes or deed restrictions at this time,” Titgemier said and added, “I love the plan. It’s in harmony with the neighborhood and it’s green. It was developed by a top-notched, world-renowned architectural firm.”

Skip Merriam, the Y’s board president, said the entire project would be 83,000 square feet with the school’s portion comprising 53,000 square feet including the gymnasium and fitness center.

“It’s a total unit that will capture 14-to 19-year-olds, not only giving them a high school but a full year-round place for teen programs as well,” he said.

Although the Academy has chosen a temporary location for its campus to open in August 2011, that site is still in negotiations and will not be made public until all plans are final, Watt said.

She stressed that the August 2011 student population would be limited to 9th and 10th graders, and she was heartened that the Academy appeared to be gaining both recognition and support. Since last week, the number of volunteers for the new school grew from 170 to 207, Watt said.