On October 22nd, there was a meeting at Secord Elementary attended by the School Council, concerned parents, our Trustee Sheila Cary-Meaghar, Superintendent Vicki Branco, and TDSB Facilities representatives, engineers, and an outside contractor.
They reported on the repairs made so far to the Port-a-pac and the mould tests that were conducted earlier in the year. All findings show that the Port-a-pac meets TDSB Health and Safety standards, and is thus safe.
We do however, have continued concerns as these tests were conducted before the water damaged discovered on Friday Oct. 17 and there are still active leaks are occurring.
The solution from the TDSB to our Port-a-pack problems seems to be a complete roof repair, to begin this week. This is an expensive option to repair portables that we would much rather see replaced with a permanent structure.
Regardless of repairs and tests, we do not feel the ports-pac is a safe or acceptable long-term facility for school staff and our students. We want to know that our appeal for a replacement structure has been heard. We are tired of waiting for the TDSB to prioritize our school's needs. Actions must be taken, decisions need to be made.
Some parents pulled their children out of school on Friday October 24th in protest over the continued inaction. We are beyond frustrated by this continuing situation, and tired of being stuck in the middle of this fight between the Province and the TDSB....
They reported on the repairs made so far to the Port-a-pac and the mould tests that were conducted earlier in the year. All findings show that the Port-a-pac meets TDSB Health and Safety standards, and is thus safe.
We do however, have continued concerns as these tests were conducted before the water damaged discovered on Friday Oct. 17 and there are still active leaks are occurring.
The solution from the TDSB to our Port-a-pack problems seems to be a complete roof repair, to begin this week. This is an expensive option to repair portables that we would much rather see replaced with a permanent structure.
Regardless of repairs and tests, we do not feel the ports-pac is a safe or acceptable long-term facility for school staff and our students. We want to know that our appeal for a replacement structure has been heard. We are tired of waiting for the TDSB to prioritize our school's needs. Actions must be taken, decisions need to be made.
Some parents pulled their children out of school on Friday October 24th in protest over the continued inaction. We are beyond frustrated by this continuing situation, and tired of being stuck in the middle of this fight between the Province and the TDSB....
We want the failing porta-pac at Secord Elementary School replaced with a bricks-and-mortar building that will not only accommodate the already over-capacity student population, but allow room for growth as the community's wishes for Secord to transition to a K-8 school are honoured.
We plan to attend and to speak to this goal at the Wednesday November 5th meeting of the facilities and Operations committee at the TDSB building at 5050 Yonge Street. Please join us at this meeting so we can show the TDSB how important this is to our community.
Repairs will not make Secord's Porta-pac safe, please e-mail your concerns to:
Vicky.Branco@tdsb.on.ca (Superintendent)
Sheila.Cary-Meagher@tdsb.on.ca (Trustee)
apotts.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org (MPP)
minister.edu@ontario.ca (Minister of Education)
