Four Memphis Schools To Become ADA Compliant
ROSALIND GUY - The Daily News
Oakhaven
High School is one of four Memphis-area schools slated for ADA upgrades this
coming school year. Critics say the upgrades are long overdue and that Memphis
is still segregated when it comes to accommodations for disabled students. --
PHOTO BY ROSALIND GUY
As children enjoy their summer vacations, Memphis Board of Education officials
are planning to make some needed repairs to their schools.
Bids are being accepted for upgrades on alternative classrooms at Oakhaven High
School on Ladbrook Avenue and are part of a package that will make four city
schools Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliant, according to The Daily
News Online, www.memphisdailynews.com.
The price tag for the Oakhaven project is about $208,000.
The upgrades will include making changes to bathrooms, walkways, signs,
elevators and installing wheel chair lifts at Oakhaven and Ross Elementary, John
P. Freeman Optional School and Georgian Hills Middle School.
"The plans for these ADA upgrades are about 80 percent done right now," said
Memphis City Schools (MCS) spokesman Shawn Pachuki. "(Workers) expect to begin
somewhere around September or October with completion within about a year of
that time."
'Long overdue'
ADA is a national civil rights law passed in 1990. Legislation outlining
accessibility guidelines for the disabled was passed in 1992.
ADA prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in employment, state and
local services, public transportation, public accommodations, commercial
facilities and telecommunications.
Randy Alexander, community organizer for the Memphis Center for Independent
Living (MCIL), said that while it's a good thing to see city officials moving
ahead with ADA compliance at these schools, the changes actually are long
overdue.
"We're glad they're finally doing this, but it's 17 years past when the ADA
legislation was passed," Alexander said. "They should have had a plan in the
1990s after the legislation passed.
"We still have a segregated school system as far as kids with disabilities in
Memphis are concerned. We're one of the last segregated school systems, so while
we're glad that they're finally having to deal with the regulations of access,
we're still very appalled at their lack of civil rights and desegregation for
students with disabilities."
About 150 schools still require ADA upgrades, Pachuki said. Each year, the MCS
district receives $42 million from Shelby County that goes toward deferred
maintenance, renovations, ADA upgrades, regularly scheduled maintenance and new
construction. So Pachucki said the total outstanding cost of all deferred
maintenance and ADA upgrades is somewhere in the range of $400 million to $500
million.
Nuts and bolts
A mandatory pre-bid conference was held at Oakhaven last month for companies
interested in bidding on the project. Those who didn't attend the meeting won't
be able to bid on it.
The proposed plan for Oakhaven shows a concrete ramp to be installed on the
parking lot fronting the area of the school where the upgrades will be made. An
ADA compliant toilet to be installed near a conference room and a new concrete
ramp with guardrail are among other changes.
Barry Frost is the project facilitator for the Oakhaven ADA upgrades.
Frost said once all the bids are turned in, they will be sent to him, where a
decision will be made about a contractor. Once Frost has selected the lowest bid
proposal, it will be sent back to the purchasing department and will be voted on
at the next scheduled school board meeting.
MCIL board member Louis Patrick said many schools in the system remain
inaccessible for people with disabilities.
"So many of (the schools) are so old," Patrick said. "So, it's a real problem,
both for students in the area who would normally be using the schools. Also,
schools are typically used for a number of other public uses, particularly
voting."
Representatives from the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights
in Washington visited some of the city schools that have had upgrades and those
that are scheduled to receive upgrades within the next year.
"They commended them highly," Pachuki said, "and said they were making such
significant progress they will not be back next year to do inspections because
they're confident we will continue the progress."
