Sutro School getting makeover

by Ed Moy

The Sutro Elementary School on 12th Avenue will have a $3.6 million Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) upgrade completed over the next year.

The construction work will bring Sutro into compliance with an ADA mandate that schools be accessible to disabled and handicapped students.

According to San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) Project Manager Ryan Henderson, the ADA mandate came about following a nearly 10-year-old lawsuit, "Lopez vs. SFUSD," which resulted in a court ruling that the district must make certain schools ADA compliant.

"The impact is minimal other than relocation to portable classrooms during the various phases of construction," Henderson stated. "Students are separated from the construction area with hard barrier walls that are sound insulated. Any noisy or excessively disruptive work is performed either off hours or during the holiday and summer breaks."

Funded through Proposition A, a $450 million bond measure approved by San Francisco voters in 2006, the ADA upgrades at Sutro will include renovating bathrooms, with some new fixtures to make them more accessible, widening doorways, improving classroom accessibility with the addition of a second level balcony connecting classrooms, a new elevator, the installation of new access ramps, improved railing around the campus and the building of a new playground structure.

Henderson stated that Cal Pacific Construction officially began the upgrades in August. The project is currently on schedule and slated to be completed in time for the beginning of the 2009-2010 school year.

This past summer, Sutro's old stairwells were removed and replaced with a new ADA-compliant ramp.

For now, abatement work continues, including the isolating and removing of hazardous or toxic materials, like lead paint or asbestos.

With school still in session, the work has been done in the late afternoons and evenings.

Abatement work is currently taking place in the school's multi-purpose room and administrative offices, which has forced the school's administrative staff to move into a temporary bungalow in the schoolyard.

The temporary offices and construction work have taken away one-third of the schoolyard's usable area.

"Teachers are coming up with innovative ideas to keep kids busy," said Andrew Poon, the principal at Sutro.

According to Poon, the school's nearly 260 students in grades kindergarten through fifth grade have adapted well to the space constraints.

"It has been tight losing one-third of the schoolyard, but students are managing with organized games and activities," he said. "The teachers have helped by setting up board games on benches and offering various clubs during lunch recess, e.g. knitting club, choir, etc."

When the project is completed, Sutro will have a new classroom, renovated offices and cafeteria area. The new cafeteria will feature an indoor kitchen area, rather than the antiquated outdoor kitchen serving area that often had students waiting in line outside under a canopy during cold winter storm months.

Abatement work is scheduled to be completed by January 2009, at which time the renovation of bathrooms will begin.

"As for the administration, we feel like a downtown office working in cubicles," Poon said. "There are no doors for privacy and you can hear everybody's conversations. But, everyone has been very professional during this first phase of the ADA project. We're just glad to be moving (into our new offices) in January 2009."

Henderson added that ADA upgrade work is also being completed at other Richmond District SFUSD campuses, including George Washington High School and Alamo and Cabrillo elementary schools. Funding for Washington's upgrades came from a 2003 proposition.