Lake County Library System

Start looking for other venues where groups of students can get together with teachers.

I know the Villages has a lot of private book clubs. Why not private learning clubs for various subjects? No government involvement really if the library just supplies a meeting room. None at all if this is a group that meets in a church or private home.

The loss, of course, is in the income to the teachers which is sad.

And many of the Great Courses also have subtitles. The Great Courses Learning Spanish: How to Understand and Speak a New Language

The old adage about smoke indicating the presence of fire might apply here.
Seems like this issue has been percolating in the courts for 8 years before finally surfacing.
I wonder how many other issues there are that we haven't heard about yet.

Bull! Unless the structure is changed the developer will be exposed to a barrage of future ADA litigation.

Perhaps. How many other lawsuits have possibly been filed, maybe for years, that we don't know about???

I agree
 

I agree Golfing Eagles the defendant in the lawsuit is not the Developer but The Village Charter School (VCS). Perhaps shutting down the LLLC the Developer is in some way "protecting" the VCS.

Of course, all speculation as usual for us who know nothing of the details. Reminds me of the "midnight wall".

While this is certainly a laudable and compassionate goal, what doesn't make any sense is the implied coda, NO MATTER THE COST.
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Bob C

The other coda is also important----IF POSSIBLE. It is not possible for an armless person to be on a basketball team or a blind person to be in a skeet shooting tournament. The very term DISability implies limitations

The problem with those alternatives is that there is no way to duplicate the huge array of courses that have been offered by the LLLC. Its closure is tragic. I hope that it is not too late for the plaintiffs and Developer to reach an accord that results in the LLLC's remaining open.

To answer a question raised by another poster: The Villages Charter School (which runs the LLLC as part of its operation) is a nonprofit corporation, legally separate from the developer. However, it is controlled by the developer-- so it is really the developer who will be making the call about whether to close the LLLC or keep it open.

As to the developer: Although we refer to the developer as a "he", the developer is really an "it"-- a corporation called The Villages of Lake-Sumter, Inc. That corporation is part of a spaghetti-plate conglomeration of corporations controlled by the Morse family. If you have an appetite for complexity, you can find an ownership chart at corporationwiki.com.

Well, duh, of course it is. What's insane is that apparently these regulations require that such accommodations be provided NO MATTER THE COST. That's just wrong (but sadly all too typical).
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Bob C

And requiring interpreters for each and every class be paid for by everyone is reasonable? No matter the cost? Sorry, that's where I part ways with you.
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Bob C

The developer (or whomever) had no fiscally-sensible choice in my view. Others will no doubt conclude its just another example of the heartlessness of the evil rich.
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Bob C

It does not have to be EVERY class. I believe ADA requires it only for those individuals who are disabled due to hearing loss and are fluent in ASL. Then the interpreter has to be provided upon request. So we are only talking those classes that these 32 or so individuals take AND request an interpreter, NOT all classes. Simply having a hearing aid or trouble hearing is NOT the criteria.

I'm making my third lifestyle visit next month, wanted to see season at the Villages. The learning center was a big plus for me. Now that it has gone away I have to pause and think what's next. I'll make the trip next month but will start looking at other retirement communities whereas I was only looking at TV

Our many years of hard work led us to the villages - a place we wish to retire. We are here in ny packing up to settle in tv, once our home is sold. However, the closing of the lifelong learning college and the lack of community knowledge and participation in discussions regarding continuance of this school is most disturbing. I have been unable to find further information on-line to help me understand. What happened in the friendliest hometown that the powers that be, apparently, was unable to negotiate a positive outcome for all.

The developer drew the line when Schwarz was also suing for damages. Can you imagine. You all need to check out his Facebook page. It looks to me that in his crusade our community was targeted as fertile ground for his lawsuits. He jumped right in with them after he got here. Everything... our news channel (which I can't get anymore because I switched from Comcast) to our movie theaters to the emergency broadcast system (bothersome to me because my cell phone brings it to me in text), and on and on. Fortunately the developers fended him off up until the LLC... but the damages clause (I wish I knew how much he was asking) was the bitter end. I don't blame the developer one bit for bringing an end to the "beating down" of The Villages. It was nothing more than a ploy for "winning the lottery"... My feeling is that "to what extent is accommodation acceptable" was never the question. It was about money, as we all know.