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Dr. Elinor Scricca, who represents Seat 5 or the East Zone of the Lee County School District, came to Lehigh loaded with facts and figures about the local school system that left many Chamber members shaking their heads.

Scricca was the guest speaker at the Lehigh Acres Chamber of Commerce monthly meeting last Tuesday at the Majestic Golf Club.

"Did you know that the Lee County School District has a $1,428,135,203 budget this year. That's a 'B' like in billion," she said. "And that is a six percent decrease in last year's county education budget."

"And we have a 8 plus bond rating , which means financially we have healthy reserves, and low debt rates."

Then she added that it takes about $3 million a day to operate the Lee County School system which includes 114 schools, including 21 charter schools which are also operated by the school board.

There are about 80,000 students and Lee county is the ninth largest school district in Florida and one of the 50 largest in he country, she told the group.

She said student population is broken down to include 50.5 percent of white students; 20.5 percent Hispanics, 15.2 black students, 3.1 percent multi-ethnic students, 1.5 Asian students and about 2 percent all others.

"Just here in Lehigh, our students come from 159 countries and speak 98 difference languages," Scricca said. "We have a 42 percent mobility rate ... that means if a classroom has 24 students, by he end of the school year, half have moved.

She bragged about the FCAT scores saying that 81 percent of the school have received A or B and that Lehigh Acres schools have mostly been A and B schools.

She continued with numbers that left most members with the opinion that the Lee County School system was big business for sure.

"Regarding our transportation department, we have 52,000 students that we transport every day and our buses travel 72,000 miles a day.

Scricca said that surprisingly, some 72 percent of families do not choose a school that is closest to their homes and many leave the zone to go to school in other areas of the county.

She said once a student gets on a bus in the morning, that child is the responsibility of the Lee County school system until he or she is returned later in the afternoon to his or her home.

"We're really doing a lot of babysitting for some of our students who ride on our busses for long periods of time. That keeps the parents from having to to provide them with day care service, because they spend most of their time of a bus leaving and arriving at home," she aid.

She recalled the boom times over the past five years when schools were being built to meet the demand but she said the demand is not here today and no schools are planned for construction this year.

"A lot of people don't realize that we are mandated by the state for certain things that we must do. One is the class size amendment which if not changed will bankrupt the state," she said. Scricca said many state representatives are reexamining that issue and hopefully, the class sizes will be put back under local school board control.

In her presentation of facts and numbers, she concluded by telling Chamber members that the school system serves 9,000 breakfasts each day and 36,000 lunches. And a very large amount of students are under the free lunch program, she said.

Scricca has 20 some schools in her district which also represents Alva, North Shore, E. Fort Myers in addition to Lehigh.

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