{"id":49782,"date":"2021-07-24T20:34:19","date_gmt":"2021-07-25T00:34:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=49782"},"modified":"2021-07-24T20:34:28","modified_gmt":"2021-07-25T00:34:28","slug":"varsity-lakes-middle-school-portables-receive-much-needed-improvements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2021\/07\/varsity-lakes-middle-school-portables-receive-much-needed-improvements\/","title":{"rendered":"Varsity Lakes Middle School portables receive much-needed improvements"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Lehigh Acres Gazette told you about the concern for&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2021\/04\/is-your-child-using-portable-classrooms-in-the-school-district-of-lee-county-are-they-in-danger-look-at-the-photos\/\">conditions of portable classrooms at Varsity Lakes Middle School<\/a>&nbsp;in April. The portables had chipped cinder blocks, supports were off-center, and window frames were rusted just to name a few things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen\" src=\"https:\/\/w3.cdn.anvato.net\/player\/prod\/v3\/anvload.html?key=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%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\"  width =\"640\" height=\"360\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p>Construction to fix those issues began in June and is set to finish before school starts on August 10. The improvements came in under budget, as the construction company did the work and will return $15,000 dollars to the district.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They expect that the money and the newly-renovated portables will do so much good for students and their education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2021\/04\/is-your-child-using-portable-classrooms-in-the-school-district-of-lee-county-are-they-in-danger-look-at-the-photos\/\">Pictures of portable classrooms at Varsity Lakes&nbsp;<\/a>made Lee County School Board member Gywn Gittens very upset. They made her sad as well, that\u2019s why she sent them to Lehigh Acres Gazette back in April.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhen I came and took those first pictures I was in tears, and when I came again yesterday. I was in tears again, because as I walked around to see what we can do and how much improvement we can make,\u201d Gittens said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The improvements can be seen as clear as day. The support beams are now realigned, there\u2019s new sod and new flowers, new doors, and the rust is gone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lerin Byrd is the president of GCG Construction which is the company responsible for the portables\u2019 facelifts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe first time seeing the conditions, we definitely understood the concerns and we really wanted the teachers and students to feel invited when they come to school every day,\u201d Byrd said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Their team added new piers, foundations, ramps, and new stairs in addition to new drainage systems. The company was also able to tackle some work inside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe were able to focus on some of the exterior and interior renovations to beautify what the kids are coming to every day, new smart boards, new whiteboards,\u201d said Byrd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gittens says that the improvements will help show students that the school district cares about them. \u201cWe have a lot of students that are in that level one and two-level and three-level, and trying to bring them up, and it\u2019s not that they can\u2019t learn, it\u2019s that we need to show them how to learn, and that it\u2019s fun to learn, and that we care about them learning,\u201d said Gittens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The School District of Lee County was already on top of it and had scheduled renovations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gittens believes that eventually, the renovations would\u2019ve taken place without the pictures but that taking the pictures put more eyes on the problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Varsity Lakes new principal, just six weeks into the job, also played a huge role in the renovations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lehigh Acres Gazette told you about the concern for&nbsp;conditions of portable classrooms at Varsity Lakes Middle School&nbsp;in April. The portables had chipped cinder blocks, supports were off-center, and window frames&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":49783,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,32],"tags":[521],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49782"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49782"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49782\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49784,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49782\/revisions\/49784"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}