The lift in the dome broke during the Titan Stars basketball game on March 13, so the Fall Sports and Spirit Assembly is postponed until Oct. 9, when the lift will work again.

Over $70,000 was spent on replacing the lift in the dome, Eileen Dillon, Instructional Assistant for the Special Education Department, said. Construction was set to be finished in July, but due to a requirement for specialty parts, there was a long waiting period before receiving the parts, Principal Dr. Barbara Georges said.

“Construction is always up to parts and labor,” Georges said.

The dome was built in the 1960s and was not built with accessibility in mind, Jean-Louis Henriot, Building and Grounds Manager, said, so a lift was installed later to make the dome accessible. A lift is not an elevator; the main difference is the capacity and the hydraulic pit used by the lift to raise and lower it, Henriot said.

The entire wall around the lift had to be removed to get the old lift out, resulting in a mason, someone who builds with stone, brick, or concrete, being hired to repair the drywall and brick, Henriot said.

“Everything built had to be specially designed and made,” Henriot said. “They busted out the wall, and then they put the new frames in. Once they had that out, the old lift carriage came out easily. Then they just took down all the guts and everything else.”

The Individuals with Disabilities Educational Act (IDEA) grant paid for the lift, which the Special Education Department applies for every year to better support students with disabilities, Dr. Kim Ptak, Director of Operations, said. The grant had enough money to cover the $65,000 cost of the lift, but was unable to cover the $7,000 cost of the masonry, which was covered by the school board’s allotted maintenance funds, Ptak said.

The IDEA grant provides funding to support special education and early intervention services, Lauren Bonner, Assistant Superintendent of Operations and Student Experiences, said.

“There are restrictions for how you can use grant funds,” Bonner said. “To make sure that we were able to fund the project, it was a combination of the grant funds and operating funds.”

Not having the dome lift in use affected students in wheelchairs, injured students, and people attending sporting events, Dillon said. Dillon works closely with senior Evi Karones, who uses the lift, and not having the lift prevents Karones and others from being able to attend school-wide events, Dillon said.

“It makes me feel frustrated because I miss out on whatever is happening in the Titan Dome,” Karones said.

The final step of the construction process is getting it certified, Ptak said. The lift passed an inspection conducted on Sept. 22, meaning it is now ready for use, Henriot said.

“I am so happy that the lift is working,” Henriot said.