ETOBICOKE: School portables declared unsafe

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ETOBICOKE: School portables declared unsafe

400 students relocated to another school while mould is removed

Inside Toronto - Toronto,Ontario,Canada*

BY CYNTHIA REASON

September 16, 2008

http://www.insidetoronto.ca/News/Etobicoke/article/55677

Tenth graders at Bishop Academy will be commuting to an

alternate site this semester after four of the school's portables

tested positive for " bad " mould late last week.

All classes were cancelled Sept. 12 as plans for addressing the

health risks posed by the mould, and for transferring the estimated

400 students impacted to St. 's Elementary (in the Bloor West

and Markham streets area) got underway, said Toronto Catholic

District School Board (TCDSB) spokesperson Jo Deighan.

" We have decided to move forward and address the issue head on.

We'll be replacing all 20 of the school's portables with brand new

ones, " she said.

While the original portables (which date back to 1989) were erected

on grass, the new plan is to lay down an asphalt base, Deighan said.

The new portables will also be equipped with air conditioning and

heating units.

" Our focus is the safety issues involved, " she said, adding that

students are expected to resume classes at the Bishop campus

by the start of the new semester in late January or early February.

Kwiatkowski, who has two daughters attending Bishop

(one in the tenth grade) and also serves as vice chair of the

school's Catholic School Advisory Council (CSAC), said he, like

other parents he's spoken to, is frustrated at the " panic plan "

response to the mould, given the school's ongoing over-crowding

problems.

" The school has been under-sized for years. The principal building

was originally designed for just 680 students, so we've been

lobbying for facilities for the 1,500 students (the school has

served) for a long time, " he said. " So, really, this is just a band-

aid solution... why wasn't this dealt with earlier? "

Kwiatkowski said this also isn't the first time Bishop has had

to deal with mould issues in their portables, but that in the

previous instance a clean-up was sufficient to remedy the problem -

at least temporarily.

Identified simply as " bad " mould, Deighan said student exposure to

the mould in this case was very limited, and that there were no

reported incidences of illness as a result.

This Monday, Sept. 15 served as a orientation day for tenth graders

to pick up their new timetables and adjust to their new schedules;

Tuesday, Sept. 16 was their first day at the new site.

The St. 's site, while not in the general vicinity of Bishop

, was a convenient choice, as it is right on the subway line

(just north of Bathurst station). Deighan said any family that comes

forward to express the additional transportation costs as a

financial hardship would be supplied with TTC tickets.