Six Lawrence elementary schools fail to meet standards set by the Americans with Disabilities Act, according to a new report submitted to the school district.

The Lawrence school board on Monday is expected to approve a list of improvements totaling $150,000 to get the buildings up to code.

“We’re going to do whatever we need to do,” said Rick Gammill, director of special operations, transportation and safety. “Our dedication is to do what’s right, even in times of fiscal constraint.”

The study, done by Independence Inc., was the result of an agreement signed last fall with the federal Office of Civil Rights. The agreement came after Brent Garner, a parent and former school board candidate, filed two complaints with the office.

The Office of Civil Rights closed its investigations but required the Lawrence district to complete the study.

Garner and a spokeswoman for the Office of Civil Rights were not available for comment Friday. A spokesman for Independence Inc. did not return a phone message.

The violations were found at Cordley, Prairie Park, Deerfield, Sunflower, Quail Run and Langston Hughes schools.

Gammill said each school needed improvements in four categories:

Felicia Miller, left, and Cheshire Fletcher, both 8 and students at Prairie Park School, exit school together. Prairie Park and five other elementary schools in the district need to make some facility upgrades to comply with the American Disabilities Act. Prairie Park added a new automatic, wheel-chair-accessible door this school year to help meet ADA requirements. Miller and Fletcher were leaving school through the new exit Friday.

• Doorways that are too narrow for some wheelchairs.
• Restrooms that aren’t accessible. Issues include mirrors and paper towel dispensers that are too high and stalls that aren’t built for wheelchairs.
• Parking lots that don’t have enough handicap spaces or don’t have proper cut-outs in the curbs for wheelchairs.
• Lack of playground equipment for people with mobility impairments.

Gammill said none of the findings came as a surprise to administrators. Nearly all were included in the district’s $59 million bond issue defeated by voters last April.

He said the district probably would build the projects into its capital improvements budget during the next 18 months to two years.

“Any time you start doing modifications to schools, it becomes expensive,” he said. “We’ll be utilizing our own facilities and operations group as much as we can in an attempt to do the work properly and to save as much money for the district and the taxpayers.”

School board member Sue Morgan said she wanted to hear the district’s options regarding the ADA projects but said she figured the district would need to follow through with all the recommendations.

“I would think we’d need to pay attention to all those items,” she said. “We want to be in compliance.”

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