LABELLE- The Hendry County School Board heard from concerned members of the public after it was learned that the district will be cutting the fire academy program at LaBelle High School due to budget cuts.
At the May 6 meeting, multiple students and parents voiced their support of the fire academy in LaBelle.
“We hire graduates from the class,” said LaBelle Mayor Julie Wilkins to the School Board. “We have high turnover. People are going to other areas. My fire chief said he would rather hire hometown kids who know our streets know and know our area. We need to find a way to fund this. I’m not condemning you for not continuing it. I’m saying let’s find an option to make it work.”
The City of LaBelle is currently moving toward a full-time fire department, having just recently hired their first full time firefighters back in February 2024.
A petition to save the Fire Academy Program at LaBelle High School currently has over 1,000 signatures on change.org. Former students spoke to the board during their May 6 meeting about the positive impact the program has had on their lives.
“I agree with you wholeheartedly," said Board Chairman Jon Basquin. “Not everyone goes to college, and these programs keep kids coming to school. I’m going to ask them to look really hard to see if there’s any way we can do something financially to keep it. My heart’s with you. I don’t want to see any program cut from our school.”
Board member Stephanie Busin echoed Basquin’s comments and explained the process that led the district to consider cutting the program.
“There’s a lot of misconception on how decisions are made,” explained Busin. “The board collectively says this is what we want, and the administration’s job is to figure out how to do that. What the board wants is a balanced budget. I want to see if we can go back and figure out the exact dollar amount every year for this to be sustainable.”
Hendry superintendent Michael Swindle said that because his background is in CTE, he understands what kind of impact the fire academy program has on people’s lives. But, he explained, it ultimately comes down to a financial issue.
“We’re also a business and when you’re a business you have to make sure you don’t spend more than you can afford to pay,” said Swindle. “Ultimately what we look at is a number called student load. Classes must maintain a minimum student load of a certain amount to sustain the break even point of the funds we get from the state. And simply in this situation the fire academy number got below the breakeven point in what we were receiving and has been there for a couple years.”
“We’ve been working with them and hoping that it would get better,” continued Swindle. “There’s a ton of success there, but simply the quantity of them does not make it sustainable as a business.”
Board members stated they would review the program and the decision to cut the class from the budget. Swindle says that there is a possibility the school district could work with the city of LaBelle to find funding.
