A Lee County School Board member joined the Lehigh Acres Community Council at its April 17 meeting to get feedback on the new East Zone high school sites.

Pamela LaRiviere represents District 5, which covers Lehigh.

The Lee County School District is in the process of picking between two possible sites for the new high school – Alva or Gateway.

Mohamed Yasin, the council’s vice president, informed LaRiviere that the council has passed a resolution in support of the Alva site.

Many of the council members explained to LaRiviere why the site is so important to the community.

“We need a new school because we are going to run out of room by 2020 and we are going to be over capacity,” Diane Turrill, the recording secretary, said.

“I think that it would be a big draw for the community and for Alva,”?she added. “We need things like this to help to develop those parts of the town.”

Turrill noted that the recommended curriculum for the Alva school should be given more weight in the final decision.

“The curriculum is very important. The Alva site is going to be geared towards agriculture and environment,” Turrill said. “We don’t have anything like that.”

“If they build a school in Gateway, it’s just going to be another high school – it won’t be as specialized as the Alva school will be,”?she added. “I think that a lot of kids from Lehigh would like to go to a school like that.”

According to Turrill, the council found its discussion with LaRiviere informative and appreciated being given the opportunity to provide local input on the matter.

She said the council intends to send members to the remaining committee meetings to speak up in favor of the Alva site.

She encouraged Lehigh residents to join them in making their opinion heard.

According to Marc Mora, executive director of the district’s Operational Planning and Project Management, the sites go through four selection committees.

The committees give their recommendations to Superintendent Gregory Atkins, who presents a final recommendation to the school board for it to vote on.

The first two committees have already given their recommendations, which one suggesting Alva the other saying Gateway.

Mora expects the board will make its decision by early June.

The Lehigh Acres Community Council will hold its next meeting on May 15 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Lee County Sheriff’s Office East District substation, at 1301 Homestead Road N.