Included in the facilities that now must be modified within 14 months to comply with the ADA are 10 public schools, including the recently modernized Walter Johnson High School. These public schools were included in the DOJ review because they can be used as emergency shelters.
Remember that the WJ construction project had a $413,577 "surplus" in the construction fund that was used by the Board of Education to buy a temporary natural grass football field with underground sprinkler, and then the grass was replaced with an artificial turf football field at the school in the same year.
Why weren't the ADA requirements taken care of when the the WJ project had the funds to do so?
Here is the list of MCPS buildings that were cited for ADA violations in the DOJ Settlement Agreement:
Springbrook High School
John F. Kennedy High School
Sherwood High School
Watkins Mill High School
Walt Whitman High School
Damascus High School
Seneca Valley High School
Walter Johnson High School
Rockville High School
Gaithersburg High School
This Settlement Agreement explains why Superintendent Joshua Starr has created a new Capital Budget priority list and put ADA compliance in the #1 position!
MCPS finally has to make these ADA mandated modifications at these specific schools to comply with a DOJ Settlement Agreement.
What about the rest of the MCPS facilities? Will it take action on the part of DOJ, or will all MCPS facilities finally be brought into compliance with the American's with Disabilities Act?
So Pat O'Neill, the most experienced BOE member and a former Walter Johnson student herself, overlooked the ADA requirements when WJ went through a major renovation recently.
ReplyDeleteHow much is it going to cost to fix this oversight?
Also -- Rockville HS is almost new. How did James Song overlook the ADA requirements when the school was designed?
ReplyDeleteHow much is this oversight going to fix?
Rockville High School was modernized in 2004 according to MCPS Capital Budget documents.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/planning/PDF/CIP13_Ch4_Rockville.pdf
See page 4-101
Rockville High School was the site of the big $2.2 million construction "oops"
ReplyDeletehttp://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/boe/meetings/agenda/2005-06/2005-0926/5.1.3rockville.pdf
Hold on...the Board of Education accepted the Rockville High School modernization project as all done in October of 2005.
ReplyDeleteWhy? Did the Board really inspect the building? Did MCPS staff say the building was "all done?"
http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/boe/meetings/agenda/2005-06/2005-1024/rockville.pdf
Remember when the Walter Johnson HS modernization budget went $2.5 million over budget in 2006?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/content/council/pdf/res/2006/20060627res_15-1508.pdf
So how did the WJ modernization end up with a $413,577 "surplus" for artificial turf a few years later?
HOW ABOUT ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS??
ReplyDeleteWhat? Slow negative news day for MCPS? From reading the Agreement it states, "The Department also conducted a program access review of the following facilities that are designated as emergency shelters:[school list follows]"
ReplyDeleteBecause the schools listed are used as emergency shelters, they came under review. The Agreement does not state that any of the schools listed had any violations of the ADA, as Ms. Sartucci claims in the posting.
If you have a complaint related to the Title II of the ADA should be addressed to Nancy Greene, ADA Compliance Officer. Ms. Greene is responsible for County-wide ADA compliance.
@ MCPS 205.222.248.8 comment at 6:51
ReplyDeleteThanks for another great example of MCPS PR department's inability to read.
All of the ADA violations that were found at these schools are listed on Attachment G (linked in blog post):
http://www.ada.gov/montgomery_co_pca/montgomery_attg.htm
The County has 14 months to make these corrections and this issue was discussed at the last County Council Education Committee meeting.
Yes, ADA violations are not important to MCPS administrators, we get that. But fortunately the Department of Justice takes these violations seriously and at least these 10 schools will be forced to be brought into compliance on the cited violations through this Settlement Agreement.
ADA violations are not important to anyone in MoCo government, not just MCPS administrators. Take a walk down any street. fire hydrants in the middle of sidewalks. telephone poles in the middle of sidewalks. Then, take your life in your hands and try to cross that street. ADA requires a pedestrian signal of 3.5 feet per second. In MoCo we still have 4 feet per second. Why? Because here in Montgomery County, we can ignore the law. We are way, way too progressive to obey those old laws, why, ADA is over 20 years old now.
ReplyDeleteWJ modernization over budget? no way. Why, WJ had so much money left over in their modernization coffers that they had the luxury of installing a computerized flying gizmo in their theatre, just in case the kids wanted to put on 'Peter Pan' some day. Hey, you never know.
ReplyDelete