The report from the town’s Commission on Disabilities, which was issued last December, showed all the public buildings in Harvard need a good many fixes, large or small, to bring them into full compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA. But school officials were dismayed to see the lengthy list of problems the report identified in the new Hildreth Elementary School.
School Committee members discussed the problems at their Feb. 6 meeting. And this week, at Monday’s School Committee meeting, Superintendent Linda Dwight presented a list of the issues identified in the report, along with proposed fixes for each. “We were a bit shocked about the number of findings,” Dwight said.
Some issues can be resolved fairly simply. For example, two handicapped parking spaces need signs to show they are sized for vans. The curb ramp must be kept clear of debris. And, like most other town buildings, the school needs many more tactile signs—that is, signs with Braille characters—mounted at specific heights. Many of these straightforward jobs, Dwight said, can be done by school maintenance staff.
For other problems, however, the school district plans to discuss repairs with Shawmut Construction, the company that built the new school. Dwight and School Committee member SusanMary Redinger have sent a report of the problems to the building’s architects at Arrowstreet. Arrowstreet, in turn, has identified cases where the builder or its subcontractors did not meet specifications. Together with Tom Murphy of NV5 project management, Dwight and Redinger expect to ask Shawmut to make such cases right.
Shawmut could be asked to move grab bars that were placed too high or too low and toilets that were set too close to the wall. Some automatic doors don’t operate according to specs, either requiring too much force to open or closing too fast; Shawmut could be asked to adjust the doors so they comply with ADA requirements. (Other town buildings have similar problems with their automatic doors.)
“There are a lot of conversations that need to happen,” Redinger said, about who will pay for this work.
“I’m glad we are pushing back,” School Committee member Shannon Molloy said at the close of the discussion.
The Bromfield School, parts of which date back to the 1960s, also has its share of accessibility issues. The school district plans to request $75,000 in fiscal 2025 from the Capital Planning and Investment Committee to deal with ADA compliance issues as a whole.
The complete 190-page report on accessibility issues in town is available on the town website, under the Commission on Disabilities. Its full title is “Town of Harvard Self-Evaluation and Transition Plan.”
