School Subcommittee Meets to Discuss ADA Transition Plan

It has been the main topic around town, as numerous committees meet to figure out how to best handle the Americans with Disabilities (ADA) Transition Plan.

On Thursday night, the School Subcommittee, which was formed about a month ago to discuss the plan's possible effects on the local schools, held its second meeting.

There a few concerns regarding the ADA transition draft that the subcommittee had regarding the ADA draft. According to subcommittee and school committee member, Chris Nixon, the draft brings up problems with ramps at a number of the schools, but is not specific with the problem. He doesn't know whether or not the ramps need to be completely redone or just altered.

The subcommittee also brought up the possible differences in services needed for younger children, as opposed to older (and bigger) children in the same building.

"When you are dealing with these very young children with neurological or muscle delay or other type of disability, the ability for them to use something that's their size may very well make a difference in what is recommended," subcommittee member Sarah Swiger said, describing children from three-years-old up to the second grade. "It is really important that we follow the ADA rules, but as a school system with children, who are not miniature adults, who have a wide-range of disabilities, we need to be sure that what we are doing is practical and functional.

"It doesn't do any good to pay $300 and then spend thousands of dollars over the years and not have the child function as well."

Swiger also brought up a concern she had over suggestions the draft made regarding some of the facilities. Swiger believes that for some of the recommended changes, the existing school building can't meet those needs and received a waver from the state.

The example she gave was the elevator at the Lynch School. The elevator, which is only three or four years old, was deemed as being too small, even though it was professionally designed.

According to the Chair of the Disability Access Commission, Jean Batty, it was her understanding that the elevator was designed for a specific student.

"These are the things that are lost by not having an ADA Coordinator to monitor these activities," Batty said.

"There are things that are usable, but they don't meet all the requirements," Swiger said. "I'm not sure when we get into this space versus function issue, I'm not sure we have someone at the policy level thinking through as to what some of the steps that should be taken are in regards to wavers or different solutions."

There were a number of issues raised by the committee. Some of which involved rebuilding or fixing ramps that were recently built, but built incorrectly. There was also a brief discussion regarding the future of the Vinson-Owen school and the need to make sure the new school is completely up to code.

Besides elevator and ramp access, Batty also mentioned that they should also look at the surfaces at the schools, specifically the cobblestone entrance-way in front of Ambrose. The surface makes it difficult for students with walkers  or crutches to cross over.

To simplify their recommendations to the Board of Selectmen, Nixon divided the problems that need to be fixed into three categories: life-safety, easier access and transportation and lastly, convenience. And have those three categories determine the town's plan.

"My preference is to filter this, not just tally this all out and say, 'what's the total and over that much time, how can I spend that much money,' but instead continue to go through this and figure out what categories these go in," Nixon said. "And let those drive the plan. It may be the case that we spend more money up front because we have more critical needs and we spend less money in the out-years."

Even though the plan is spread out over 10 years in order to ease the cost burden on the town, the subcommittee is hopeful that the Board will decide to take care of the urgent matters in these schools first, regardless of the up-front cost.

But regardless of their decision, the ADA plan will be on the top of many committees agendas over the foreseeable future.