Parents upset after kindergarten class relocated to school’s basement

TORONTO — Mother Bianca Fetros feels her son Riley, and fellow senior kindergarten students at Bowmore Road Junior and Senior Public School, are being sent to the back of the class.

“Unfortunately he’s getting the shaft. That’s how I feel,” she said, after she learned her son’s class would be relocated to the basement of the school.

“Basically there is no running water in the classroom. And this promotes poor hand hygiene.”

There’s also no bathroom within the room which “means we’re going to have three and four year olds, possibly unsupervised, going outside the classroom to use the bathroom,” she said.

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Parent Susan Stewart also shares Fetros’ concerns.

“Any child that’s in junior kindergarten and senior kindergarten needs to have proper working facilities,” said Stewart. “It would not be a sanitary environment for them otherwise.”

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The room has been used as a kindergarten classroom in the past according to the TDSB.

“There is a washroom near this classroom. And I think they’re looking at possibly retrofitting the area to provide a sink,” said Ryan Bird, spokesperson for the TDSB.

“As far as safety, this classroom is absolutely safe for our students, or they wouldn’t be down there in the first place.”

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Increased enrollment has forced the school to rely on the basement classroom, which is currently being used as a parenting centre.

Students are expected to move in to their new classroom on Monday, but Fetros says she’s contemplating a move of another kind.

“I’m so upset about it that I think I might pull my son from this school despite the fact that I love this school, I love the teachers, I love this community,” she said.

“Bowmore is a fantastic school, but they have bad planning when it comes to kindergarten.”