By Stephen J. Bronner
“Why wasn’t anyone concerned about this for the last 80 years?” asked Trustee Dr. Asher Mansdorf, who has been on the board since 2001. “As we became aware of it, we started working on it as soon as possible. ... What the Number Six School is doing for us is giving us enough funds to make buildings that have been ignored for 80 to 100 years accessible to all handicapped students, where previous boards have ignored these people.”
Because the district voted to close the Number Six School in March, it will be saving millions of dollars in operating costs.
District 15 Facilities Director Chris Milano announced at the June 23 Board of Education meeting that the district will send plans to the state this summer for the installation of elevators at the Number Four School, which houses the universal pre-K program, as well as the Number Five School. Milano said it usually takes 16 weeks for the state to approve such plans, at which point the project will be open for bids. District officials said that work can begin during the school year, but as of press time, a final decision on exactly when that would be had not been made.
The three other schools in the district — the Number Two School and Lawrence’s middle and high schools — are handicapped-accessible, according to officials. All five schools in the Hewlett-Woodmere school district are handicapped-accessible, according to the district's facilities director.
The Number Six School has a ramp leading into the building, but no elevator. Board President Murray Forman informed the other board members that he would do everything in his power to have a ramp built at the Number Five School by September. Even if ramps are installed at both the Number Four and Five schools, they will still not be truly handicapped-accessible, because disabled students, parents and faculty will not be able to access the lower or second floor. The district plans to purchase a portable lift to be deployed as needed, Milano added.
Vincent DiFede, a senior project architect at Wiedersum Associates Architects, which oversees Lawrence School District projects, pointed out that installing an elevator at both the Number Four and Five schools would be cheaper than one elevator would have been at the Number Six School. DiFede estimated that an elevator at Number Six would have cost between $350,000 and $400,000, while elevators at the Four and Five schools will cost $175,000 to $200,000.
“In the Four and Five Schools, we had the ability to utilize an existing stairwell,” DiFede said. “We don’t have the ability to do that at Six. At Four or Five, it’s more or less gutting out the stairwell — we have all the imposing walls. Basically it’s installing an elevator in an existing shaft. At Number Six that’s not the case. We’d have to put an addition on the building to house the elevator structure. Therefore, it’d be a lot more expensive.”
The intention of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is that all people have access to services within a building. If the district were to build a new school, it would have to meet ADA standards.
The Number Five School has one student who uses a walker, according to a district spokesperson. Lawrence Middle School has one disabled student, while the high school has two students who use walkers and one who uses a wheelchair. There are no disabled students set to attend the Number Two and Four schools in the fall.
Daniel Cornejo, who had to transfer out of the district when he became wheelchair bound in the 1998-99 school year, said that the elementary schools will benefit from making accommodations for the disabled. “I just think it’s a good thing, even if they just noticed it now,” said Cornejo, who came back to the district for middle school and graduated from Lawrence High School in 2007. “It’s not just for those in wheelchairs — other students can get hurt during the year. It’s hard enough to get around as it is, and it’d be much easier if there was an elevator.”
Every step the district’s architect takes must be reviewed by the Office of Facilities Planning in Albany. DiFede said that plans must include information on the electrical and structural components of a building, the soil must be analyzed and plans have to be reviewed by agencies like historical societies. “There are a lot of things that have to come together in planning,” DiFede said. “Contractors need to know very specific information when they submit a bid.” After months of planning, the bid process takes about two months.
Modifications to all five schools are being funded through a public referendum, which was approved in May 2008. “We’re dealing with five different buildings and the property around them,” said District 15 Trustee Rabbi Nahum Marcus, who was the first person to point out the lack of accessibility for the disabled at the Number Four and Five schools, according to board members. “That’s a lot of stuff. Once it does get set up, we’ll do everything in our power to push it through as fast as possible. We want to do it in a responsible and legal way.”
Parent Brett Goorland said the district can’t keep placing disabled children in the Number Two School, which is fully handicapped-accessible. “It’s great you’re going to get a ramp by September, but where’s the elevator?” Goorland asked. He also raised concerns about what happens if a student is injured and he or she goes to a school that doesn’t have an elevator, adding that he is happy his children will be going to the Number Two School, which has an elevator.
“If my kid breaks his ankle, my kid is back at school no matter what floor he’s on,” Goorland said. “Every building should have an elevator, because people need it.”
Comments about this story? SBronner@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 210.
