Thompson schools face $91.8 million in ADA work, with funding identified only for first phase

Thompson School District's ADA transition plan estimates $91.8 million in accessibility work across 25 older school sites, and the board heard that only the $7.65 million first phase has identified funding.

The district's estimated cost for the first-priority work is $7,650,000, with completion planned within five years. The listed funding sources are bond funds, PILO and the General Fund.

The superintendent said $2.5 million in bond proceeds had already been allocated and staff planned to recommend using that money, bond premium and PILO to cover the approximately $7.6 million cost. Some of that work was already being folded into bond projects at Ivy Stockwell and Berthoud Elementary, he said, and the district intended to finish it within five years.

The district's accessibility assessment covered 17 elementary schools, four middle schools and four high schools, focusing on academic buildings built before 2012. Its database held slightly more than 2,000 entries, and 10% were Priority 1 items, the consultant Mara Peterson said. Nearly 60% of the issues involved toilet and locker rooms, she said.

Priority 1 recommendations included accessible parking and an accessible exterior route at each site, an interior route to at least one standard classroom and one assembly area, and at least one wheelchair-accessible toilet room at each school. Peterson said 47% of the Priority 1 dollar amount was for Big Thompson Elementary.

The plan's estimated costs for all four priorities are:

• Priority 1: $7,650,000, within five years
• Priority 2: $8,090,000, within seven years
• Priority 3: $29,960,000, within 15 years
• Priority 4: $46,110,000, with no timeline listed

The budget for the plan was pending board approval. The listed funding covers only Priority 1, and additional funding will be needed for priorities 2 through 4.

A board member who sits on the master plan and bond oversight committees worried the costs could overlap with schools being considered for consolidation. The member asked staff to share information with both committees. "What I don't want to do is have us allocate time and money having Wald work on solutions for schools that potentially may, may be closed," the member said.

The superintendent said the district's ADA cost estimate was included in the facility costs presented to the master plan committee. He said the district had $700 million in building-maintenance needs over the next 10 years, alongside growth and consolidation needs that compete for funding.

The superintendent said the board was not being asked to approve specific budget recommendations at this meeting. He said staff would return with project-level funding recommendations, including for Big Thompson and Ray Patterson Field.

A board member asked whether a future vote would accept the plan and recommendations rather than approve separate dollar amounts for each priority. The superintendent said the board would commit to completing the work while retaining control over funding decisions. He said the board would decide how to fund it and the transition plan would be made public after the board accepted it.

Big Thompson Elementary was the only school with a red rating for overall accessibility. Peterson said some items identified there had already been addressed since the site visit.

A representative of the architecture firm that helped inventory the sites said historic designation at Big Thompson would likely apply only to the building's original southern section. The representative said historic funding might be only a few hundred thousand dollars and would not address all of the school's accessibility needs. Designation could also add review requirements and direct upgrades toward priorities that do not fully align with the district's project priorities, the representative said.

Consultant Jennifer Skolsky said two public listening sessions, a focus group with the executive team and SEAC, and a voluntary online survey that received 40 responses were part of the community engagement. She said some respondents felt they had not received the accommodations they expected or that accommodations were not provided consistently.

A board member said 71% of survey respondents rated district programs as inclusive only sometimes, rarely or never. "I think we need to know what we're doing wrong so we can figure out what we need to do right," the member said.

The consultants recommended an appointed advisory group of students, staff members and community members with disabilities to give input on accessibility issues and proposed solutions. A board member said the Special Education Advisory Committee, known as SEAC, had not presented to the board for several years and asked whether it could play a larger role in outreach and reporting.

Skolsky said SEAC's existing makeup was not suited to that role, citing a reported perception of "us versus them," and recommended a separate appointed group.

Skolsky said entities with 50 or more employees were required to develop a transition plan by July 1992 to identify structural or communication barriers and set a schedule for removing them. A board member said the plan should have been in place then, and welcomed the assessment. "I'm sort of embarrassed that this is happening right now in 2026 when it was supposed to happen in 1992," the member said.

The ADA action plan contains 94 compliance tasks, including 23 identified as required to achieve program access. The consultants' goal was to assign leads for the 23 within 30 days and have staff work on them during days 30 to 60. Further policy priorities and progress reporting would be addressed during days 61 to 120.

Skolsky asked the board to endorse the required-task baseline and establish reporting at least quarterly, or every 90 days.

The district had posted an ADA coordinator job, Director Mike Scholl said. The superintendent said the coordinator would oversee the work while Superintendent Bret Heller remained the final decision-maker. Skolsky said Heller had agreed to that role.

The superintendent said the district planned to report progress to the board every 90 days and make progress visible on the website.