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The School Board of Lee County has voted to move forward with the first phase of  the old Lehigh Acres Middle School campus improvement project.

The board approved the first phase of the budget, which will allow the district to enter into contracts and start the design for the renovation, which has tentatively been scheduled to be done for the start of the school year in August.

The project has been budgeted at about $8 million and calls for new ceiling, lights, carpet, vinyl, case work, science lab updates, as well new locker rooms and showers for the gymnasium.

Construction Project Management Director Scott Reichenbacher said about $16 million has been set aside for the joined arts building that will be shared between Veterans Park Academy for the Arts and the old LAMS building.

“If I need to get more than $8 million then it’s coming from the performing arts center budget. That is my projected cost right now for that. If I need to grab a million or two off the $16 million, that’s what needs to happen and our vision will have to be reduced for that arts building accordingly,” he said.

There are two design phases in the contract. The first is approximately three months to get the design put together for the renovation of the old LAMS building.

“If I don’t get that project moving forward now, that school will not be open in August,” Reichenbacher said of the substantial completion of Aug. 1, 2022 for the update and renovated old LAMS building. “There is no program involved at this time for that. This is just freshening up, updating it and getting it prepared for students to sit in seats.”

The second phase would begin the following year in August and would be the build out of the shared arts performance building between the current VPAA elementary and whatever you name the middle school to be, he said. 

Board member Gwyn Gittens again shared her concern with building a “super school,” as there has not been discussions about one, two, or three schools, but rather refurbishing a middle school.

“Refurbishing that building to house different grades would be something different,” she said.

Reichenbacher said, in his opinion, they cannot refurbish that school for younger kids, meaning bathrooms in classrooms, as they do not have money for that.

“The middle school, old LAMS will be refurbished for middle school grades only,” he said at the meeting held last Tuesday.

During a Monday workshop last week, the board also heard updates on other projects throughout the district with many taking place in the East Zone.

The MM Middle School is complete and passed its certificate of occupancy. Reichenbacher said they are moving into the close-out and audit stage of the project.They did the foundation for the addition portion over the summer, which will be linked with the J elementary build next door.

“All of that muddy work, noisy work and underground work is in place ready for the foundation to be poured onto it,” Reichenbacher said.

The J elementary design is under way and the purchase orders have been issued to the vendors. The Lee County School District and Emergency Management of Lee County agreed to harden only the cafeteria portion of the building, he explained.

“This is a verbal commitment and will also be notarized in meeting minutes with EOC,” Reichenbacher said.

The Transportation Dispatch Building for the East Zone on Buckingham Road, which was originally $900,000 has increased to $1.5 million.

“The project has doubled. It is a steel building and everything steel right now has increased. So, working with the capital committee they will be able to provide some funding to meet that need. However, the county, anytime you have to open up permits with the county, it exposes us to their current traffic and offsite potential of improvements,” he said. “So they have asked me to do a limited traffic review study.”

That study is about $5,000. Reichenbacher said it appears it will only require some minor striping. He said if that is the case, maybe another $5,000 to $10,000 in restriping of the left turn lane into the property the district will move forward.

“If it requires major asphalt replacement and milling and things of that nature then we are going to scrub the project, at least for now,” Reichenbacher said. “This, right now, is in flux until I get the study and approved for a design concept for the county.”

There was also an update for the Riverdale High School campus remodel. Staff has a first conceptual drawing issued, which they are currently reviewing. There is a tentative completion date of 2025.

“We did have some budgetary review and estimates from the architectural team. Right now we are about $5 million over what the budgeted cost, allowable cost, which was about $41.5 million,” he said. “We are going to review that and look into that. Those numbers can change, that is just a conceptual budget estimate. So, as we move further into the design and we get some more valued engineering and input from the construction manager we will see where those numbers are going and I will provide you with additional information as we move forward.

Fort Myers Technical College also was a project discussed during the meeting. Based on the design, there is about a $1 million increase to the cost of the job. Reichenbacher said originally it was $10 million with a $2 million roof project. Right now the renovation of the campus is a little more extensive.

“We have some potential of grants that can help provide this project funding,” he said.

Maintenance Assistant Director Barbara Cedeno also provided an update regarding the larger scale project at Varsity Lakes Middle School and Lehigh Senior High School. She said concrete barriers on the northside of the Varsity Lakes campus have been added to protect students out on the street. In addition, Cedeno said they are also recreating another entrance of buses coming into the northern portion of Lehigh Senior High School.