ROGERS — An employee grievance drew accessibility into the spotlight Tuesday night at the Rogers School Board meeting.
Mike Price, master plumber for the Rogers School District, said he’s complained about building conditions, including improving accessibility for years, and recently his complaints have created friction with his supervisor.
Price requested a change in supervision, an increase in pay and a rewritten job description because of new job responsibilities he has assumed. He also asked work orders be prioritized so buildings come into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
At A Glance
In A Nutshell
In a grievance filed Oct. 22 with the Rogers School District and advanced to a board appeal on Tuesday, Mike Price, master plumber, requested:
Work orders be prioritized for Americans with Disabilities Act compliance.
District leadership rewrite his job description and salary scale.
A change in supervisor.
Price’s grievance will be deliberated on by the Rogers School Board at 5 p.m. Jan. 30 at the Joye R. Kelley Administration building, 500 W. Walnut St. A decision in the level 4 grievance is required by or at the Feb. 18 board meeting.
Source: Staff Report
Roger Hill, assistant superintendent for human resources, said he and Jim White, chief operations officer, will discuss a revised job description for Price.
Hill, representing the district, countered Price’s other claims saying buildings aren't out of compliance, the pay schedule is being followed and Price and Dan Caley, facilities director and Price’s supervisor, have had a communication breakdown.
“All that is needed is a cooperative attitude and a willingness to be a team player,” Hill said. “Mr. Price is a very good plumber. Nobody is arguing that.”
Leadership changed during July 2013 in the district. White supervised Price before his promotion and Caley, formerly energy manager, took over White’s job.
Price was represented during the grievance hearing by Marlo James, Arkansas Education Association UniServe director for Zone 1. He wasn't allowed to do the work he needs to do to make restrooms more wheelchair friendly, James said.
“He is an advocate for people with disabilities,” James said.
Price said he started to make a bathroom wheelchair accessible, but the district didn't follow through. He showed a photo of a bathroom at Eastside Elementary School. Two of the stalls had been combined as one, but the space is too small, has no grab bars, and the sink has no knee space.
A second photo of a kindergarten classroom at the same school showed a narrow room with a door that swings in. Children have to pass a drinking fountain to reach the sink in the classroom, which Price said is unsanitary. A person with a disability couldn't use that bathroom, Price said.
“When people have this small of a space, a person has to get off their wheelchair and drag themselves across a dirty floor to perform their bodily functions,” he said.
There's one handicapped accessible restroom in Eastside in the 400 wing, Price said. Children need to leave the main building to enter the wing which is covered by a breezeway in order to use the restroom. White confirmed it's the only accessible restroom at Eastside.
Hill said the rooms were discussed, but no photographs were presented during earlier grievance hearings.
Hill called Mike Rouse, building official for Rogers, as a witness. If there's a question about the necessity of a repair, administrators check with Rouse, Hill said.
Schools were inspected when they were built, but repair work that has been done to them since is out of his purview, Rouse said.
“Codes change,” Rouse said.
He inspects the buildings when there's a remodel or a change of occupancy and that's when an update to current standards would come into play, Rouse said. The city uses American National Standards Institute and International Building Code standards for construction. Americans with Disabilities Act provisions are contained inside those standards, he said.
“We do not enforce ADA,” Rouse said.
Buildings that existed before 1991 were grandfathered in to the Americans with Disabilities provisions if reasonable accommodations are provided, said Ronnie Wheeler, board president of the Arkansas Disability Coalition.
Wheeler said without seeing the arrangement at Eastside he couldn’t comment on whether or not it's reasonable, but distance of a restroom from the main building, and if it's accessible during school functions, would play into that decision, as would the difficulty in making the necessary changes. Cost is a part of the equation, but a public school has to accommodate children, staff and members of the public, he said.
In older buildings, a restroom wouldn't need to be built to Americans with Disabilities Act standards unless it's the only one in the building, but to be usable, it would need a grab bar, enough space to transfer from the chair to the toilet and a sink, soap and towels a person seated in a wheelchair can reach. Refitting a restroom for access benefits more than one child, Wheeler said.
Advocacy groups could help the district perform an inventory of reasonable accommodations, Wheeler said.
“You’ve never been required to fix every bathroom,” he said.
Many schools are older and face the same issues, Wheeler said, although technically schools may still be held to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 which included American with Disabilities Act provisions.
Price requested proof of a transition plan, called for in Americans with Disabilities Act guidelines. If there is no plan, he said he would like to see Rogers set up a 10-year timeline to move toward the standard.
Wheeler, who uses a wheelchair, said anyone who wants to know how accessible a room is should try sitting at wheelchair height and see if they can push or pull open a door or reach a sink or towels in a restroom.
“Go try it for yourself and tell me that you still feel that it’s not needed,” he said.