No Love Lost on Kids in Post-Valentine's Letdown

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Feb. 15, 2012) - Jilted parents of Brooks Road Public School, Scarborough need a little love. Their grievance with Trustees of the Toronto District School Board has been brewing for more than 15 months.

After a succession of appeals area parents are preparing to converge at their neighbourhood school Wednesday afternoon. They insist on drawing attention to their demands for an 11th hour reconsideration of a June 2012 decision to close their children's school.

Locking the doors of Brooks Road this fall will split resources between two other schools in the ward and mean that children will transfer to Highcastle Public School - a move requiring a dangerous crossing of the major thoroughfare, Neilson Road.

Declining enrolment was cited by the board as the reason for closure but parents challenge the figures.

"Yes, our school has a capacity for 417 students. But our utilization rate is well over 90%" says Peter Boutros, parent of two Brooks Rd. pupils.

Parents of this Scarborough East neighbourhood believe a provincially regulated review process which is used to reallocate resources and shutter schools was unfairly run.

Said spokesperson Janet Botji, of the Toronto advocacy group, Campaign for Public Education, "It was a total sham!"

School location map:

http://maps.google.ca/maps?q=Brooks+Road+Public+School,+Toronto,+ON&hl=en&ll=43.791327,-79.209495&spn=0.01645,0.033817&sll=43.652224,-79.369783&sspn=0.016488,0.033817&oq=brooks+road&hq=Brooks+Road+Public+School,+Toronto,+ON&t=h&z=15