{"id":52695,"date":"2022-03-23T11:36:04","date_gmt":"2022-03-23T15:36:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=52695"},"modified":"2022-03-23T16:04:07","modified_gmt":"2022-03-23T20:04:07","slug":"school-board-member-dissatisfied-with-the-expansion-of-premier-veterans-park-academy-for-the-arts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2022\/03\/school-board-member-dissatisfied-with-the-expansion-of-premier-veterans-park-academy-for-the-arts\/","title":{"rendered":"School board member dissatisfied with the expansion of Premier Veterans Park Academy for the Arts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A school in Lee County has a renovation project with an $18 million price tag. The campus of Veterans Park Academy for the Arts is expanding. Countless students between sixth grade and eighth grade will now have permanent stations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Do we need a Premier school with rooms for dance, theater, and music at the middle school level in Lehigh Acres? This renovation project with an $18 million price tag will cost closer to $50 million dollars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Lee County school board member Gwyn Gittens<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

But not everyone is satisfied by this expansion. Lee County school board member Gwyn Gittens represents Lehigh Acres, where Veterans Park is located. You would think she would be thrilled by renovations, but she isn\u2019t, as these improvements don\u2019t address her number one priority: Putting more students in more classroom seats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gittens is nothing if not consistent. \u201cSince 2018, when I joined this board, I have said, \u2018We need schools,’\u201d Gittens said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Four years later, she\u2019s still saying Lehigh Acres needs more schools. On Tuesday, Lee County schools unveiled that they\u2019re renovating the buildings once used at the old Lehigh Acres Middle School, to become part of the Veterans Park Academy for the Arts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steve Hanna is the project manager for the School District of Lee County. \u201cOne goal is to make it the greatest learning experience you can have for a student. Another goal is to make it a place students want to go,\u201d Hanna said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The district is adding new classrooms, rooms for dance, theater, and music. But, Gittens isn\u2019t satisfied. \u201cIn the meantime, you\u2019ve got students 30 or 40 students in a math and science and reading class, because the classes are so full,\u201d Gittens said. \u201cAnd you add to that the shortage of teachers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gittens says the renovations should be on hold until the immediate needs of the school district are addressed meaning more seats for students and more teachers on the job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen we don\u2019t have the schools and we\u2019re crowded in certain schools. And teachers don\u2019t want to come here,\u201d said Gittens. \u201cAnd who wants to come and teach in a portable when you could teach and a bright new shiny school.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She says she won\u2019t stop until her voice is heard. \u201cI cannot fathom how other board members can sit and see the details, see the data. Listen to my impassioned pleas to just build the schools we need and I will stop. But I can\u2019t,\u201d Gittens said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gittens told Lehigh Acres Gazette that she has watched Lehigh Acres and the rest of the east zone of the district grow. She knows how long it takes to build a school from scratch. As a quicker, less costly alternative, she wants the district to add on to existing schools.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A school in Lee County has a renovation project with an $18 million price tag. The campus of Veterans Park Academy for the Arts is expanding. Countless students between sixth… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":52035,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,32],"tags":[1171],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52695"}],"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=52695"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52695\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52701,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52695\/revisions\/52701"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}