For several years, a growing number of concerned residents from East Lee County have urged the Lee County School District to adopt more responsible and transparent decision-making, particularly regarding the placement of new schools. Despite ongoing efforts — including emails, public testimony, and direct outreach to school board members — many feel their voices have been ignored.
The controversy has come to a head with the recent approval of the 2025AB Certificate of Participation (COPS) bond, a $400 million financial instrument to borrow and fund construction of two school renovations and one new school: Hector Cafferata Jr. K-8, Cypress Lake Middle, and the yet-to-be-built ”School NNN” in rural Alva near two-lane Joel Boulevard and Tuckahoe Road (21700 Tuckahoe Road). While the first two renovation projects are widely supported, the proposed Alva location for School NNN has sparked intense community backlash, raising serious educational, fiscal, environmental, and legal concerns.
According to district data, Lehigh Acres is home to nearly 8,000 public school students, compared to just 732 students across all grades in Alva — a sprawling, low-density area better known for cattle than classrooms. Despite this disparity, the District has prioritized the construction of a new high school in Alva rather than in Lehigh, where the student population and infrastructure already exist.Critics say the move flies in the face of the District’s own “Neighborhood School Model,” which aims to reduce busing and promote community-centered schools. A formal Title VI civil rights complaint has been filed with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR Case #04-25-1677), alleging potential discriminatory practices by redirecting critical educational resources away from racially and economically diverse areas like Lehigh Acres…