You're watching Southwest Florida in focus.

Coming up.

The busses are rolling out as a new school year is set to begin.

We learn about the changes parents need to know about before kids return to class from a new cell phone policy for students to teacher staffing.

A preview of a documentary on the American Revolution that only filmmaker Ken Burns could do.

Plus, a look at the role Florida played in the battle for independence and taking recycling to the next level.

By some women are upcycling plastics and paper and turning them into unforgettable fashions, all for a good purpose.

Hello, I'm Sandra Victorova.

Thank you for joining us.

Across southwest Florida, students are gearing up for the return to school for the first time in years.

The school district of Lee County says there will be a certified school teacher for every single classroom.

There are approximately 45 vacant teaching positions in Lee County, compared to 235 vacancies at this time last year.

This increase will help the workforce catch up to the steady growth in student enrollment seen in recent years in Southwest Florida.

In Collier County, district leaders celebrated a ribbon cutting at Bear Creek Elementary, a new school that should relieve overcrowding at neighboring schools.

WGCU News Julie Perez got a first look at the future home of the Cubs.

321.

Community members and Collier County officials put their paws together to celebrate the opening of Bear Creek Elementary School.

It's located on a Markley Road about three miles east of Collier Boulevard.

Over the years, population growth in Collier County has revealed a need for more schools.

Laurel Oak Elementary, located just down the road from Bear Creek, requires 27 portable classrooms to accommodate its student population.

Superintendent Doctor Leslie Ricardo Lee says Bear Creek will provide relief for these crowded schools, while also keeping students secure with updated safety measures.

This school is second to none, right?

It's the top of everything.

It's the newest of everything.

It's a safe building.

It will also serve as a hurricane shelter.

If any hurricanes come that we need shelters.

And anytime you can offload schools where it's not so overcrowded, it's better for everyone.

Rick Orderly says this relief won't be felt just in the classroom, but on the roads as well.

The way it's been built and the way this traffic pattern is, all of that cars will be off of Immokalee Road, so people won't be stuck in that back up every morning and afternoon.

Bear Creek Elementary will begin the school year with approximately 600 students, but has the capacity to serve up to a thousand early childhood education programs such as voluntary pre-K and headstart will be offered at the school.

Bear Creek becomes the 32nd elementary school to open in Collier County, with Harvey Maria Elementary expected to join the list next year.

For WGCU news, I'm Julie Perez.

In Lee County, Doctor Denise Karlan will begin her first full academic year as superintendent.

One of the first major changes adopted are new school start times in elementary schools.

All high schools are set to begin at 7 a.m. K through eight.

And two elementary schools.

Skyline and Hector, a caf.

Harada start at 730.

All other elementary schools begin at 845.

Middle schools will start at 945.

WGCUs Jennifer Crawford sat down with Doctor Carlin to learn what other changes will impact students and their families.

get to zero.

What's the biggest challenge that you feel you face?

One of our biggest challenges has been filling our teacher vacancies.

When I was sworn into office, we had over 200 teacher vacancies and that was the 19th of November.

And so the advantage of coming in, kind of like heading into the second semester was we got to fill those vacancies in the second semester, right?

So we had over 200 teacher vacancies.

I challenged our team and I said, we have to get to zero because 200 teacher vacancies in the middle of the year.

We should have zero at that point.

But we didn't.

So it is what it is, right?

Came in.

I set the goal of zero.

We got to 17.

We almost got there.

Then we had the new school year coming up.

Typically, Lee County School District has about 600 teachers that either retire, resign, move, what have you.

That in my opinion, that's way too many.

But again, you can't fix everything.

Rome wasn't fixed in a day.

So we had 575 teacher vacancies going into this school year.

I'm very proud to tell you right now, as of today, 45 teacher vacancies.

So we have been effective in recruiting, our new teachers.

But I'm going to share with you the major issue we we need to work on is retention of teachers.

So that's what we're focused on.

We had a project called Project Believe.

Project believe was filling our teacher vacancies.

Project thrive is keeping our best teachers.

And that's what we're working on now.

Project thrive is all about retention.

So on the campaign trail, one of the opportunities I had was to talk with teachers.

I met with them in small groups, like at a coffee place after work during the summer, and I asked them, why are teachers leaving the profession?

Obviously salary came up and we all agreed at the table.

Nobody got into teaching to be rich.

I know I didn't.

And many of our teachers didn't as well, but they need a livable wage.

And so right now we're in bargaining with our teachers union.

And so I can't talk a lot about compensation at this point because they're in bargaining.

So that prohibits me from doing that.

But I can also tell you about another strategy to retain our teachers and to recruit.

And that had to do with our teacher incentives.

So in the spring, we had some of these schools I declared an educational emergency, which is allowed by statute.

That was passed by the legislature in 2022 and allows if I declare an educational emergency, I can initiate an incentive program for our teachers to teach at our highest risk schools.

And I can pay up to $9,000, which we are going to do this year for our teachers that teach in tested areas.

So like English language arts, math, science, social studies, we have tests that the children receive.

So if I teach in that tested area and I'm at a high risk school, I can earn up to $9,000 as an incentive.

We thought it would help us recruit teachers.

And I think to some degree, it did.

But what we were delighted about was so many of our teachers chose to stay.

What is being done to make sure that kids are safe in school?

I have to give a shout out to our Sheriff's department as well as our municipalities, our police chiefs, because they help us support the school resource Officer program.

So that's very important.

We also have guardians, so we continue to expand our Guardian program, and that is school staff members who have had extensive training from the Sheriff's department.

They have the opportunity to carry a firearm.

And that is only for the purpose of stopping.

And an assailant, somebody who may come into our school and have, the wrong intentions.

Right.

They're out to, take lives.

Our guardians and our school resource officers are set up to stop that intruder.

The other thing we have is at the entrance to all of our schools.

We have open gate weapons detection systems.

So if you try to come on to our campus, it's going to stop you because it's going to show the school resource officer that you have something that is a weapon.

You will not be able to get inside of our school.

The resource officer will come search you.

And if you do have a weapon, then you're under arrest.

Can you touch on the school bus safety?

We will have stop arm cameras that will be installed on our busses.

And basically what that means is when the bus gets ready to stop, you see the little arm come out, the little stop sign.

And we expect all of our community members to stop when they see that.

Why?

Because children are either entering the bus or they're exiting the bus and they're walking home.

The law says you must stop.

If you do not stop, then there is going to be a fine levied.

We will have a huge public awareness campaign that will go out.

So all the community members will know.

All the busses have cameras.

They've been checked, double checked.

They're ready to roll.

We're going to do a 30 to 60 day rollout, where we give parents and and community members opportunities to know we're out there.

We're we're trialing them.

We're checking them.

But please, make sure you stop for those stop arms.

And then we will give the public an update on whatever date.

This is where it goes live.

And when it goes live, there will then be fines levied.

So we want to make sure we give people fair warning.

What is the cell phone policy?

Major kudos to our board.

In the spring, they passed a, cell phone free policy for our schools.

All schools, pre-K through 12.

Instruct your child to turn their phone off.

They may put it in their backpack, and they may keep it with them on their in their backpack.

But it must be in the off position from bell to bell.

The first bell to the last bell.

What would you like?

If you have a message, that critical message you want to get out to, to parents.

As we look forward to the new school year, what would that be?

Stay engaged with your child.

Be our partners in education.

Engagement is being engaged in your child's education.

Turning off the TV, giving them a quiet place to do their homework.

Insisting that they read for an hour a day.

Those types of things, those are meaningful when a parent or a teacher sends home a note.

Respond to it.

If there's a text or an email, respond to it.

Reach out to us if there's ever a question.

Our teachers stand ready to help.

We really want to be partners when we have that tight partnership home in school working together.

Guess what happens?

Children are wildly successful and that's what we want.

And to see that full conversation with Doctor Carlin you can go to the WGCU news YouTube channel.

Well the American Revolution was more than just a fight for independence.

Coming up, we preview a new documentary that details the global ramifications this war had outside of the 13 original colonies.

It has been 250 years since the first shots of the American Revolution were fired in the battles of Lexington and Concord.

Now, a new documentary from acclaimed filmmaker Ken Burns and his team will take an expansive look at the virtues and contradictions of the war and the birth of the United States in an event that turned the world upside down.

This coming Tuesday, you can get a preview of this epic six part documentary right here on PBS.

A shot rings out.

No one knows where the shot came from.

That leads to promiscuous shooting, mostly by the British.

It's not a battle.

It's not a skirmish.

It's a massacre.

To learn more about this production, we're joined by the film's co-director, David Schmidt.

David, welcome.

Hi, Sandra.

It's great to be here.

Great to have you.

So most of us think that we know a lot about the American Revolution.

We learned about it in school.

What do you think this film will teach us that we wouldn't find in a history book?

Yeah.

You know, I think, I grew up in Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia, so I thought I knew a thing or two about the American Revolution.

And really, that's that's all it was.

I knew a thing or two.

You know, we know, all Americans know.

July 4th, 1776.

A lot of us know that the war started in Massachusetts.

There's Lexington and Concord, Bunker Hill.

We might know that, George Washington had his surprise victory at Trenton on Christmas Day, 1776.

We might know that it ended at Yorktown, but there's eight years of a war, and there's ten years or more, leading into that war of political, strife that led to it.

And there's a lot that came out of that war that I think we just aren't really familiar with.

We aren't really familiar with why the armies were where they were, what the issues really were.

You know, I think we understand that the United States came out of this war, that it was in a war for independence, but I didn't even know that it didn't start that way.

You know, it's right now as the 250th anniversary of the start of the war.

And we all know that the July 4th, 1776 is the Declaration of Independence.

There's a year plus of war before there even is that war aim of winning independence?

It's about something else to start.

And, it just became what it became and became the creation of the United States through the course of what it took to win that war.

And I think it's a really compelling story that, I didn't know anything about.

And I don't think a lot of people know a lot about.

So reading some of the promotional information from PBS, seeing that this revolution wasn't, you know, just a fight for independence, it was a civil war and a world war, and millions were impacted beyond.

And folks who lived in the colonies explain, the weekend likes to talk about it.

And he's absolutely right.

Is that our American Civil War, as we understand it, the one of the 1860s was a more of a sectional war.

It was states against states more than it was brother against brother.

There were instances of that.

But it was really the case in almost every family and certainly every community and different churches, the congregation, the congregations were split, in the case of, for instance, Benjamin Franklin's family, he completely disowned his son, who was, an arch loyalist, and, and was the royal governor of new Jersey and sided with the king, as a result, Ben Franklin, of course, signed the Declaration of Independence and was one of the the key founding fathers winning American independence.

It became a war for independence, as I mentioned, through, through the declaration and and you know, it turns out we don't want to be a part of the British Empire anymore.

But in order to win that war for independence, the Americans had to, through Ben Franklin's work, get the French in on their side.

And the French brought the Spanish in as well.

So Florida is actually a really great example of both the Civil War and the global war aspect.

I didn't realize that, up through Canada and the Caribbean in the Revolutionary War had had significant impact.

Yeah.

So the Americans invaded Canada in 1775.

On the last day of 1775, they lost the battle for Quebec City.

But they stayed in Canada and tried to take Quebec for another few months until they were chased out.

Then after the French entered the war, there were battles all over the Caribbean.

As I mentioned, the Gulf Coast, there were battles at Gibraltar, in the Mediterranean.

It even extended as far as India, when the French and, and, and British were vying for colonial control over the subcontinent there.

So it really was in itself, World War.

But then, of course, as we all know, the principles of the Declaration of Independence that all men are created equal became a rallying cry for colonial, anti-colonial movements around the world for for centuries.

Really, these thoughts are world spanning and, have an impact.

This is a moment that is a moment that really changes the world.

And it does turn the world upside down.

It's not just the United States, it's future.

It's not just North America, it's Trump.

Immensely upsetting, for native communities in North America, what will happen to them?

During this war and as a result of this war?

But it's also a moment of tremendous change the world over.

David Schmidt, we so thank you for your time, and we thank you for your hard work on this project.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Sarah.

For an inside look at Ken Burns The American Revolution, tune in to WGCU.

Tuesday, August 12th at 8 p.m.. Florida's role in the Revolutionary War is often forgotten.

In 1776, East Florida and West Florida were the only two southern colonies that remained loyal to King George the Third.

That year, American forces launched an invasion into Florida to try to take the oldest settlement in the US, Saint Augustine.

One year later, the southernmost conflict took place in present day Jacksonville.

These are just some of the stories explored in an upcoming book, The Florida Campaign, and we are joined now by one of the authors, Carter Schneier, to learn more.

Kartik, welcome.

Thank you for having me.

So when we think of the American Revolution, we think of cities like Boston and Philadelphia.

But Saint Augustine was a critical location for the British war effort.

Explain.

So Saint Augustine was the capital of the British colony of East Florida.

And once the rebellion started in 1775, the British started stockpiling lots of weaponry in Saint Augustine, weaponry that potentially could be used against, the, the American colonial forces in the South and also naval stores.

It was an important port, even though the Port of Saint Augustine is a little tough to navigate.

That's a that's a whole other story.

And I think people in Florida now know that, in this area, which is why Jacksonville's become the more important port.

But, from a naval standpoint, from a military standpoint, and also from the, standpoint of the fact that East Florida had remained loyal to the Crown because the population of East Florida and their experience were significantly different than the colony.

So the north of us.

So that means that then Saint Augustine was a critical area, I assume, to attack by the Americans.

Absolutely.

So there are three different efforts, between 1776 and 1778 for the colonial, for the Continental Army, which George Washington was the commander in chief of, to attack and take Saint Augustine.

So in 1776, the Continental Congress in Philadelphia approved war plans for an American invasion.

But it there were some skirmishes along the border, but that invasion was abandoned.

But a year later, augmented by the Georgia militia invaded Florida.

And, they got as deep as Thomas Creek, which is in northern Duval County.

In fact, it's about two miles north of Jacksonville International Airport.

Today.

And there's a there's a marker and there's a battle site there.

And that was the deepest the Americans got there.

Their plan was to come up through that area across the Saint Johns River and capture Saint Augustine.

They're met by British troops.

At that point, the British had, that after that first invasion had failed, the British had retreated back to Saint Augustine.

So then they met the invading American force there at Thomas Creek, and they defeated them.

And then there was a third invasion attempt a year later.

So the Continental Army keeps trying.

Washington is convinced this whole time we have to capture Saint Augustine because of its strategic importance.

We have to capture Saint Augustine because the British have all of these, all this ammunition stored.

And basically the third attempt is rebuffed.

Also at a place called Alligator Creek Bridge, which is in modern day Callahan, Nassau County.

And, that was the last, that was the last actual invasion.

Now, Washington continued to want to invade East Florida, but the Continental Congress in Philadelphia said, no more.

We're not funding this anymore.

The political support for future invasions of Florida.

Or East Florida, I should say, died out at that point.

So I want to turn to at the time, Southwest Florida was home to mostly indigenous tribes.

I assume Calusa, Seminole.

Can you talk to me about the role that Native Americans played in the Revolutionary War?

Yeah, massive role here in Florida.

They aligned with the British, and were a big part of, I just mentioned these Florida Rangers, a big part of the East Florida Rangers was getting indigenous people, native peoples, to fight on behalf of the British and then be integrated in what was, this quasi militia.

Right?

It was, you had some, British regulars as commanders, but the, East Florida Rangers, like the Queen's Rangers, who fought in Virginia and points further north, where this kind of mixture of of of militia, indigenous people, runaway slaves, and, they fought very effectively.

So in 1775, immediately after the conflict begins, the British realize, they need to cultivate the Seminole.

They need to keep them on their side, because if the Seminole are either neutral or side with the Patriots, then that's that's basically having an enemy within.

So, the British, who typically historically had not wanted to give, the sorts of goods like, rum and meat and potatoes and gifts to, native tribes were very generous.

He invited them to a summit on a boat in the Saint John's River.

And, and they gave them all of these things with just one, one obligation in mind.

You, you you stay loyal to us.

You fight on our side against the Patriots.

And they did.

So they were very important in East Florida, in West Florida, the creeks and the Cherokee, and the Choctaws, were were all fighting on the British side.

So there were very few native allies, at least in this part of the country, that, the American patriots were able to cultivate.

Now, I think further north there still, most of the natives fought on the British side, but there were some tribes that that fought on the American side.

Kartik, we so appreciate you sharing your story with us and we look forward to the book.

Great.

Thank you so much.

After the break, trading in diamonds and pearls for newspapers and cola cans.

High fashion goes funky for a very good cause.

Telling a story through the art of design.

That's one of the goals of the annual funky fashion show.

A benefit for the Pace Center for girls.

This year, contestants gave repurposed materials a second chance, using everything from paper plates to plastic cups to create some truly original fashion statements.

Two weeks Elizabeth and RJ and Amanda and Score Whitmore hit the runway to see the upcycled creations.

A recent Tuesday night on Chico's corporate campus witnessed multiple fashion shows Soma, Chico's and White House Black Market featured their latest collection.

But the real showstopper was the Fashion Show, a fundraiser brought by a collective effort between local community members to raise funds for Peace Center for girls.

Now, this dress was inspired by the Growth and Change program at Pace and Jasmine Lee's love of ball gowns and clothes.

The dress, by 13 year old Jasmine Mendez, is made of yarn from donation bins, painted plastic cups and pieces, point shoots which are handed out weekly for positive behavior.

Mendez is a student at Pace Center for girls, a school that combines instruction and counseling for middle and high school girls who have struggled in traditional schools.

I feel like I made a lot of progress in my mental health, and it really helped me focus on my mental health instead of getting stressed over every little thing.

Jennifer Salemi, executive director of Pace Center for girls, says the fundraising event is about more than just fashion.

Having the girls involved and actually creating a dress and having the therapists work with her is actually therapeutic in itself, because they can kind of work on it and talk through things, but also be creating this really cool masterpiece for the funky fashion show.

Community partners like Chico's and the American Heart Association also created eye catching designs using unique materials.

Alicia Martin from the Suncoast Credit Union made a design from hand-cut paper plates.

The inspiration behind the gown was kind of related to the pace girls, you know, a lot of times it's their second time around trying to get folks attention.

It's a great piece that shows you can be beautiful, you can stop traffic and be amazing despite where you started or what you've been through.

Other showstopping designs include a dress made from aluminum cans and an upside down gown, both taking home trophies, including the Funkiest Fashion award and the Runway Ready award.

But that's not all.

Just Millie was also highlighted the honor of the Female Spirit Award.

Congratulations to Jasmine.

I am strong, I am an expert on dance, and I am one for me.

The Pace Center serves about 150 girls through their day school and reach therapy programs.

The funky fashion show has become their signature fundraising event.

And in the past ten years, has raised nearly $20,000 for the center.

Well, tucked away in Hendry County is the unassuming community of Harlem.

Coming up next week, we stroll through this overlooked Southwest Florida town and its rich history.

We thank you so much for joining us today.

Don't forget to like and subscribe to our WGCU YouTube channel where you can find all of these stories and our extended interviews.

We hope you have a great day and we will see you next week.