LEE COUNTY — Emotions boiled to the surface Tuesday at the Lee County School Board meeting.
One board member accused another of violating policy, but at the center of it all is a multi-million dollar decision.
“Miss Gittens, this is not a forum for attacking other board members," said Board Chair Mary Fischer to her colleague Gwen Gittens.
"I am not attacking, will you please let me finish," said Gittens.
Gittens is accusing her colleague Chris Patricca of attending a virtual meeting of the Estero Village Council and discussing plans for a new middle and elementary school.
“The problem here is not so much that, as a citizen of the Village that Ms. Patricca is involved in her hometown area. The problem is representing, as being a representative of the board, and we have policies and procedures that prohibit that," said Gittens.
The school board had previously discussed building a new middle and elementary school off of Block Ln. in Estero, but the Estero Village Council voted instead that it would support the new schools on a different property off of Three Oaks Pkwy. That vote came after Patricca discussed options with Village Council members that Gittens said she hadn’t heard about.
“We certainly again have reasons to prefer the Williams Rd. site. We can live with the Three Oaks site, and if neither of those is going to work for the council, our backup plan is to look further east off Corkscrew," said Patricca in the virtual meeting with the Estero Village Council.
But Patricca said she does not feel like she violated board policy.
“I’m an elected official who was invited by the Mayor of the Village of Estero to appear at one of their workshops to discuss the location of schools. I accepted that invitation. I believe that is an appropriate function of a school board member," said Patricca.
But Patricca went a step farther, saying this accusation may not have been about board policy, or the millions hanging on the decision of the site for the new schools.
“I am running for reelection, and Ms. Gittens is supporting my opponent, and I think she’s taking every opportunity she has to speak negatively about me in public," said Patricca.
Gittens flatly denied that allegation.
"I find that offensive. I have said from day one that I am not politicking," said Gittens.
Meanwhile, the board has not set a date for when it will vote on the site for the new middle and elementary school. If the school board does end up choosing the Three Oaks site, it will mean the board spent more than $2 million on the site off of Block Ln. which will now sit empty. But Patricca argues that it’s not a total loss, saying the schools can use that site for other projects in the future.
