Cape Coral City Council discussed its master lease agreement with the Cape Coral Charter School Authority Wednesday.

The agreement, as amended, includes a lease term from July 1, 2024, through June 30, 2029, which would automatically renew every five years.

The minimum rent is $1,500,000 a year, or $125,000 a month. This also includes maintenance, repairs and improvements within the lease.

Interim Assistant City Manager Mark Mason said the lease came before Council because, over the next several years, the authority will receive Local Capital Improvement funding through the School District of Lee County as per a new state law put into place last year.

According to the presentation, the capital outlay funding will begin in school fiscal year 2024 with “20% of the calculated amount shall be distributed with an annual increase of 20% until fiscal year 2028 when the capital outlay funding will reach 100%.

Mason said the city built all of the facilities its municipal charter system currently uses.

When they build a new school, the lease is amended, and the basic rent of the facilities comes from the charter schools to pay for the debt services of the school, he said.

The next step is presenting the master lease with the Oasis Charter Schools Charter School Authority.

Oasis Charter Schools is comprised of four school campuses — Oasis Elementary North, Oasis Elementary South, Oasis Middle and Oasis High.