The celebration is over.

What looked like a gift -- belated though it was -- is starting to look more like another cruel gag, said one of the plaintiffs who sued over handicap accessibility in Richmond schools.

In late May, it looked like the school system was finally ready to begin serious work on accessibility issues when officials announced an aggressive work plan for the summer. The system released a list of 97 projects in 33 schools that would kick off a 2½-year-old court-ordered lawsuit settlement to make all city schools completely accessible.

Two months later, there's little evidence any of that work is under way.

Until late last week, only a single work permit had been applied for.While the list now includes 11 applications, no work can begin until the permits are actually issued, a process that can take a month or more. With school scheduled to start Sept. 2, that could leave a window of less than two weeks to complete work before students return from summer vacation.

Aisha Shamburger, the school system's coordinator for the settlement, said the intent was never to complete those projects this summer and that judging progress by the number of permits on file isn't fair.

"We don't apply for the permits," she said. "The contractors do that."

When asked why the projects were announced, she said, "I can't speak to that."

But an e-mailed message to principals of the 33 schools -- written by Shamburger and released by Felicia Cosby, the system's public information officer -- says, "As a result of these upcoming projects, you may begin to see more individuals from Plant Services as well as outside contractors reporting to your building in upcoming weeks and months."

That hasn't happened.

Shamburger said the work that has to be done before the physical labor begins --designing projects and soliciting bids for the work -- is time-intensive and not conducive to quick results.

In several interviews since May, she has said repeatedly that she won't even think about a project until the money for it is on hand.

That approach doesn't sit well with Vicki Beatty, one of the parents who sued the school system over accessibility, or with Carol A.O. Wolf, a School Board member who has worked to find money for the projects.

"You'd think we'd be on second base by now, but we're still waiting for the rain delay to end," said Beatty, who sued the school system in June 2005 because her neighborhood school couldn't accommodate both of her sons, one of whom uses a wheelchair. "I'm concerned they're not capable of fulfilling this."

Since the settlement was signed on Jan. 17, 2006, school officials have said delays were likely because funding for the projects wasn't available.

But the system has more than $6 million on hand now. It has had more than $1 million since January. It received $5 million from the city on July 1.

With money in hand and a court-ordered plan of action to follow, the plaintiffs expected to see action.

But there appears to be little correlation between the five-year plan of action that ended the court case and the actual work done and planned so far.

Since January 2006, the system has spent about $500,000 on accessibility projects, but the bulk of the money appears to have gone to projects that pre-date the court case, according to details in a statement about settlement account activity provided by the school system after a Freedom of Information Act request by the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Of the roughly $25 million worth of work dictated by the settlement agreement -- projects range from the placement of signs to the installation of elevators -- nothing appears to have been done until this calendar year. Since January, the school system has spent about $50,000 at the four schools specifically listed for projects in the first year of the settlement.

"[Shamburger] has been on deck long enough to get this thing rolling," said Wolf. "It makes me really frustrated that they have $7 million and they aren't doing anything with it."

"They can't not do it," said Beatty. "Now you have the money. What's your excuse?"

Shamburger declined to say if she thought the pace of the work was in the spirit of the agreement.

"Because we are so lawyered up, you'd have to ask their attorney or ours," she said.

Neither the attorneys nor School Board Chairman George P. Braxton II would comment.

An assistant to M. Hannah Lauck, the U.S. District Court magistrate judge overseeing the settlement, said the judge wouldn't comment.
Contact Zachary Reid at (804) 775-8179 or zreid@timesdispatch.com.