Why Did a Child Stop Asking to Play on the Shimek Playground?

Iowa's very own former Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), who grew up with a disabled brother, sponsored the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), enacted into law in 1990.

The Iowa City Community School District has discussed at length how to go about meeting ADA requirements in many of our schools. Some may question the district's priorities. The physical plant facilities were remodeled and are now ADA compliant while school staff and students continue to work and study in buildings not yet up to code.

Since 2012, ICCSD parent Melissa Krishnan was told that her child Isaiah, who gets around with a wheelchair or other mobility devices, could not access the old Shimek Elementary School playground due to insurance reasons. He has not been able to access his playground not only because he was told he couldn't but also because the surface was never adequately maintained to allow any child in a mobility device to get around the playground. He has attended Shimek for six years.

He used to ask to play on the playground, but as the years went by, his mother said he stopped asking. He's nine years old now.

He hasn't totally given up hope though. Just the other day (7/7/17), when Isaiah came home from soccer practice and he heard mom talking with this blogger, the first thing he asked his mom was, "What's up with the playground?"

The Parent-Teacher Organization (PTO) has been saving money and planned to replace the old playground with what Melissa was told would be more inclusive and accessible structures for children with mobility issues.

Shimek’s old wooden playground was demolished a week after the 2016-17 school year ended. Despite an Iowa City Police officer's report that the new playground should be located where the old one was for safety and visibility reasons, the school district decided to stick with the new site behind the school.

Over the past five months, Melissa took her concerns to the playground committee meetings, PTOboard, and the ICCSD board. On March 28, school board member Chris Liebig asked for a two-week continuance to look into the concerns, which included a request to put down a poured or rubber tiled surface for wheelchair traction versus the planned engineered wood fiber (EWF). This two week request was misconstrued by many as a request to delay the project. The district's response to this request was to threaten to have no playground for any child at Shimek for the coming school year.

Brian Kirschling, the board member who threatened a parent with legal action for complaining about the district's special education noncompliance, said: "I'm not supportive of halting this playground. I have grave concerns with what happens for next year with the Shimek community without a playground."

It seems impractical that a two-week delay would leave the community without a playground for a whole year, especially when the turn-around time for the order from start to delivery is listed as only four weeks. But again, retaliation has been a recognized way for our district to stop parents and staff from expressing their concerns.

The ICCSD equity director Kingsley Botchway, who is also the appointed ADA compliance officer, was made aware of the issues late in the process. Botchway told Melissa at the end of one meeting that he would get back to her by the end of the following week. Nine days later, he hadn't replied. She called and emailed only to be told they were working on it.

Melissa filed a civil rights complaint when she realized that the district was ignoring her.

Harry Olmstead, a civil rights advocate, offered to help Melissa try to get her playground concerns addressed by the district. Immediately, board members and equity director Kingsley Botchway reached out to acknowledge her concerns and called for a special work session on May 23rd. The ICCSD set up the session. Olmstead asked to have his ADA experts attend the work session, but they were denied a seat at the table. The district stated that they had their own experts coming to provide feedback. Olmstead's experts were allowed to sit in the public viewing area provided they did not speak.

When the work session began, none of the district’s three experts showed up. One of Olmstead's experts, John McGovern, an Americans with Disabilities Act attorney from Chicago, had planned to attend the session but cancelled when he learned he would not be allowed a seat at the table or allowed to speak.

According to Laura Westemeyer, who is running for the ICCSD school board, the ADA requires that all children be in the middle of play. Westemeyer said the surfaces on even the district's newest playgrounds are not ADA compliant.

The Iowa City police officer A. Hayes and board member Phil Hemingway are concerned about putting the new Shimek playground behind the school. The location makes it difficult for law enforcement officers to monitor unless they walk up and around the building; the site is also backed by a dark and wooded area. There are no windows from the school looking outside to this location, which raises many issues, especially from an active intruder perspective.

The new playground space does not provide the same elevations. The original site was built into a hillside and therefore allowed easier wheelchair access to elevated playground components and slides.

Laura Westemeyer made the point that doing it right the first time saves money, not to mention bringing children of all abilities together in play. She quoted a civil rights complaint that fined a school district $1,000 a day for noncompliance.

She stated, "We have to find a way to do things differently for the kids in special education. Our administration says one thing and does another. Then they retaliate when concerns are expressed."

She is referring to the Playground Policy manual as well as articles in the Iowa City Press-Citizen where the district staff and board express concerns about the minimal ADA compliance and share plans to improve the playgrounds and level the playing fields for kids with special needs.

I called John McGovern of the W-T Group, LLC, of Chicago. His firm does ADA accessibility work exclusively. He said, “The Shimek playground plan, as I understand it, barely meets the minimum playground requirements. Meeting minimum requirements is not adequate for all wheelchair-bound children.

"A playground surface of engineered wood fiber (EWF) is acceptable only if regularly inspected and regularly maintained. I told the district that regular maintenance means once a day. I think the district is leaning toward once every three to five days.

"Engineered wood fiber is the cheapest surface to buy and install. However it the most expensive surface over time. The school district does not appear to have factored in costs beyond the initial purchase and installation. Poured-in-place rubber, interlocking rubber tile, or other surfaces would provide safety and accessibility that the school district needs to provide accessibility to all children and would cost less over time in maintenance costs."

It's unfortunate, Westemeyer said, that these concerns have been shared by the district staff as Melissa's personal concerns. The district has already learned through this process that their most recent playground surfaces at Hoover, Horn, and Alexander are not ADA compliant. The district plans to fix their mistakes and at what cost to taxpayers?

Thankfully, IF we can get the Shimek playground done correctly, the district won't have to pay to install barriers and then also pay again to rip away what is not ADA compliant as is the situation with the other playgrounds.