Edmunds Elevator Carries First Passengers!

Speeches were made, thanks shared, a ribbon cut, and rides were gladly taken on the new first-ever elevator in 111-year-old Edmunds Middle School today!

While many people have worked and wished for this day for decades, the current effort started two years ago, January 2009. It took one year to convince the school and city leadership to make this project a priority and to locate funds, and one year to design and build it. Amazing!

Congratulations and thanks to all involved!!

Spread the Word... Edmunds Elevator Celebration Poster

Download this poster and share it around Burlington before Jan. 19, 2011!

Newspaper Covers Edmunds Elevator Progress

In today's Free Press...

Burlington school renovations make progress
By Molly Walsh
Burlington Free Press
Thursday, January 6, 2011

The ribbon-cutting ceremony planned for a new elevator at Edmunds Middle School on Jan. 19 will wrap up a wave of improvements at city schools over the past 18 months and be followed by another round, school officials said.

The $1.5 million elevator project will improve handicap access in the century-old, multi-story structure whose many stairs are an obstacle for people with mobility problems.

Michael Wood-Lewis, a South End parent who led the campaign to make the building more accessible, said the elevator means one of the most prominent public school buildings in Vermont -- located on Main Street in Vermont's most populous city -- will finally be open to all.

"It's very significant. It means that people who use wheelchairs or have other mobility issues will now be able to work in the building or be a student in the building or attend events or vote," Wood-Lewis said.

The elevator will allow 11-year-old Ben Wood-Lewis, a fifth-grader at Champlain School who has cerebral palsy, to attend Edmunds Middle next year with his current classmates rather than being assigned to the one-story Hunt Middle School across the city in the New North End.

Until now, it has been district practice to assign South End students who use wheelchairs to attend Hunt because Hunt is handicapped accessible. Michael Wood-Lewis argued that this practice was unfair for many reasons, including the way it separated students from their grade school peers.

Ben Wood-Lewis, who was recently in the hospital, came home to find 30 get-well cards from buddies at Champlain -- underscoring the importance of friendship, his father said.

"These are his classmates and these are the folks he's going to middle school with now," Michael Wood-Lewis said.

The elevator project is just one item on an ambitious list of renovations, including some that cost significantly more than anticipated. Voters approved a $9.7 million bond in 2009 that was supposed to pay for overhauls at three schools but will come up short. Costs for some projects exceeded estimates:

-- Work at the Sustainability Academy at Lawrence Barnes was expected to cost $2.5 million when the bond went to voters, was estimated at $3 million last year after a kitchen renovation was added and will cost about $3.27 million.

-- Work at C.P. Smith School was estimated at $3.1 million but will cost about $4 million, said Chris Giard, property services director for Burlington Schools.

-- The reminder of the $9.7 million bond will not be enough to cover the third renovation project, at J.J. Flynn School, which was projected to cost $3.96 million initially but is now pegged at $4.7 million.

The district plans to move forward with the renovations at Flynn and cover costs above the $9.7 million bond through an annual $2 million bonding authority that city voters approved in 2009. This bonding authority and about $300,000 in federal stimulus funds helped pay for the Edmunds elevator.

Burlington Superintendent Jeanne Collins said a number of factors contributed to higher than anticipated costs at Smith and the Sustainability Academy, including the difficulty of making accurate estimates more than 18 months before construction begins. She thanked Burlington voters for their generosity and said she was pleased that so much work has been done in the district, which operates nine schools and owns more than 20 buildings. The recent round of improvements are significant, she said.

"I don't think the district has seen that much work in about 50 years," she said.

Contact Molly Walsh at 660-1874 or mwalsh@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com.

Edmunds Elevator Ribbon-Cutting Jan. 19, 2011

Burlington School District Superintendent Jeanné Collins announced on CCTV that the Edmunds elevator ribbon-cutting celebration will occur...

January 19, 2011 (Jan. 20 snow date)
3:30 PM
Edmunds cafeteria
Details to follow!

The following video clip is a compelling discussion of inclusion and accessibility in Burlington schools that aired December 2, 2010...

Ribbon cutting for new Edmunds elevator?

Rumor has it that a ribbon-cutting event is in the works for the latter half of January 2011 for the almost-completed Edmunds Middle School elevator! Very exciting. Stay tuned for details.

Edmunds Update

From Burlington School Board Chair, Fred Lane, about the school board meeting this week...

One of the final items that the Board dealt with was approval of the bid for the installation of the elevator at Edmunds Middle School. Site work will start in the basement of the building before the end of the month, and intensive work will get underway as soon as school is finished in mid-June. The project is scheduled to finish before the start of school in September and I am looking forward to a ribbon-cutting, button-pushing ceremony. We will continue to work to improve accessibility in the Edmunds complex, but this is a great milestone.

Source: Front Porch Forum

Edmunds Accessibility Effort Wins Award

Today the effort to make Edmunds schools accessible garnered some lovely recognition. The Vermont Family Network presented one of the leaders of the Edmunds campaign, Michael Wood-Lewis, with it's first annual Nancy DiVenere Award for Outstanding Parent or Caregiver.

Parent to Parent of Vermont founder, Nancy DiVenere, herself made the presentation and outlined the struggle to open up this school to all students and community members. Wood-Lewis said in accepting the award on behalf of the team who worked on the effort...

... about the Edmunds school accessibility project... wow! We went from a solid "no way" to our request to open up the most prominent school in the state... to one year later hearing a big fat "yes!" In fact, the school board just approved a contractor this week and construction on a five-stop elevator and bathroom modifications should be completed by fall of this year. Amazing.

So thanks to Superintendent Jeanne Collins and the Burlington School Commissioners for being open to this progress and making it real. And thanks to the hundreds of Vermonters who weighed in through Front Porch Forum, letters and calls, button-holing officials on the sidewalk, etc... your grassroots push made all the difference.

And that team I mentioned... a fantastic group of persistent professionals, politicians and parents, including: Suzy Comerford, City Councilor Karen Paul, Peggy Owen Sands, Connie Curtin, Deborah Lisi-Baker, Kim Brittenham, Sarah Launderville, Sam Abel-Palmer, Patrick Halladay, Jessica Oski, and others.

One last point... this accessibility campaign would not have happened without the inspiration provided by our ten-year-old son, Benjamin Wood-Lewis, and his younger siblings, Madeline, Henry and Isaac. I'm one proud papa. And my beautiful wife, Valerie, played an active and critical role throughout this project.

And since I'm up here to receive an "outstanding parent award," let me accept it in honor of my parenting mentor, my partner and my inspiration... the best parent I know... Valerie Wood-Lewis. Thank you.