NWNA President's Letter to School Board Members

Dear School Board Members,

Hello, my name is John Jacobs and I am the President of the Northwest Cape Coral Neighborhood Association. I represent over 1200 members who are the taxpayers of the Northwest Cape area.

Considering recent events in the Cape regarding the safety of our school children, there are many changes being examined to improve their safety, including additional sidewalks, additional street lighting and adding benches at the school bus stops. These changes are currently being considered by the City of Cape Coral, which I commend them for.

Expecting Children to walk to the bus stops during pre-dawn times, in the streets with flashlights, is a complete disregard for their safety.

In the opinion of many of the Northwest Cape residents, there also needs to be changes adopted by the Lee County School Board.

The first change that we recommend is reducing the School of Choice offerings for the following reasons:

• It has created a logistics nightmare.
• It has created an unnecessary amount of school bus traffic.
• It has created an unnecessary amount of school bus stops. It has caused the schools to schedule pick-ups during pre-dawn times.
• It has created enormous budgetary costs for the School District of which could be better allocated to Teacher’s salaries.
• Some of the School offerings from the NW Cape area are a 13-15 mile bus trip each way.
• Offering 2-3 schools which are geographically closest to a student’s home, is more than reasonable.

The second change is figuring out how to stop the pre-dawn school bus pick-ups.

In the Cape, with a lack of sidewalks and streetlights, your scheduling methods are a major contribution to these unsafe conditions to our children.

Please seriously consider these recommendations from our Residents.

Sincerely,

John Jacobs, President
Northwest Cape Coral Neighborhood Association, Inc.