Giving a lift to those who need more access

When Daniel Cornejo, 21, was in kindergarten at the Number Four School in Lawrence 16 years ago, he fractured his legs and remembered how his kindergarten teacher and now principal, Ann Pedersen, came to his house to home school him because at the time, the school wasn’t handicapped accessible.

Pedersen called Cornejo last year informing him that the school was planning to install an elevator and asked him to come cut the ribbon at the installation ceremony. “It’s an honor to come back,” Cornejo said. “It’s a great thing to have an elevator for everyone else who comes here.”

The Feb. 16 ribbon cutting ceremony also fell on the 101st birthday of the Number Four School. “It seemed like the perfect moment to celebrate 101 years and the new elevator,” Pederson said.

Cornejo, who suffers from brittle bone disorder, transferred to the Henry Viscardi School in Albertson, a school for those with physical disabilities and health impairments, for the remainder of elementary school. “It was tough because all my friends went to the same school and I had to go to another school,” he said.

Cornejo returned to his home district to attend middle school and graduated from Lawrence High School in 2007. After high school, he entered Nassau Community College and graduated last year with a degree in retail business management.

Number Four School nurse Pat Boland said the new elevator means all the buildings in Lawrence School District are now handicapped accessible. “It’s important to have physical mobility, especially in school because kids want to do what the other kids are doing,” she said. “The new elevator opens the school up to students with other disabilities that may not have been able to come here.”

The decision to install an elevator came out of the Lawrence School District’s Capital Renovation Project that included $17 million for all building repair projects and was divided based on individual school needs. At first, the project did not include elevators, according to Director of Facilities Chris Milano. “There were many more pressing things that needed to be addressed before elevators,” Milano said.