Eighteen schools, out of initially 23, are currently not meeting class size compliance in the School District of Lee County.

“Lee County is still growing, just busting at the seams,” Budget Director Kelly Letcher said. “Lee County is still growing, just busting at the scenes.”

Those from the initial list that are compliant as or Jan. 31 are Orange River Elementary School, Gulf Middle School, Spring Creek Elementary, Gateway Elementary School and Diplomat Elementary School.

Schools out of compliance are The Alva School; Edison Park Creative and Expressive Arts; Franklin Park Elementary; Lehigh Elementary School; Orangewood Elementary School; Lexington Middle School; Pinewoods Elementary School; Patriot Elementary School; Treeline Elementary School; Tanglewood Elementary School; North Fort Myers Academy for the Arts; Pelican Elementary School; Gulf Elementary School; Sunshine Elementary School; Hector A. Cafferata Jr. Elementary School; Three Oaks Elementary School; Hancock Creek Elementary School and Veterans Park Academy for the Arts.

Letcher said the district has grown by 1,600 students from October to October.

“We just keep putting students in their classrooms,” she said. “They (teachers) are taking on bigger classes in order to make sure those students have a qualified teacher in there. That does affect our class size.”

In addition, the district has lost more than 900 instructional staff since July 2020 and January of this school year.

To be in compliance, elementary classes should have no more than 18 students, middle school 22 and high school 25 students for class sizes.

“We are still trying to meet it. We are doing our best,” Letcher said.

The school board approved a 2021-2022 Class Size Reduction Compliance Plan, which is a template used to provide a brief explanation of the school’s plan to meet class size requirements for the FTE student survey in October, at its Tuesday night meeting.

“Lee County will continue to work to assure that we have qualified teachers in our classrooms. We will continue offering our teachers the option to work through their planning periods to create more class sections for students. We are also continuing initiatives for recruiting new teachers, such as ‘becoming a teacher’ workshops, advertising via social media and paid ads, early release of college interns, etc.,” the 2021-2022 Class Size Reduction Compliance Plan states.

If the schools do not meet compliance, Letcher said the district will lose money “per student in the class size reduction dollars,” which has yet to be calculated by the state.

She said the district filed an appeal about a month ago for the state for the schools that are out of compliance. The appeal explained the district’s growth, difficulty in recruiting and retaining teachers, as well as some of the ways they are trying to keep class size down.