Toronto District School Board officials say weeds that are threatening to take over a playground at a North York elementary school will be cleared on Wednesday.

Parents say they were shocked on the first day of school when they saw the profusion of plant life at Joyce Public School, a kindergarten to Grade 6 school near Lawrence Avenue West and Caledonia Road. The playground is covered with weeds, they say.

One described it as a "really big mess," while others say the growth is symbolic of the neglect that occurs when the public school system is facing cutbacks to provincial education funding.

The weeds are sharp, prickly and unsafe, parents say.

In a statement to CBC Toronto on Tuesday, the TDSB said the weeds will be gone shortly.

"Unfortunately, we had hoped that this would have been cleaned up prior to the start of the school year. However, we weren't able to complete it in time," Ryan Bird, spokesperson for the TDSB, said in the statement.

"Staff will be at the school first thing tomorrow morning to clean up the area so that students can enjoy it once again."

Parents say the weeds are sharp, prickly and unsafe. (Grant Linton/CBC)

Sana Ziauddin, a parent of a Grade 5 student, said the playground cannot be used in its current condition and it's disappointing because the children deserve better. It is unsafe, she said.

"It was a shock that nothing has been done here. And looking back, you can see overgrown weeds, really sharp plants. Just nothing has been taken care of. It's a really big mess," she said.

Ziauddin blames the province's funding cuts, announced last March, for the state of the playground.

While the Ford government says its budget increases total funding for the education system, the per-student amount actually shrinks in the 2019-20 school year due to rising enrolment.

Ziauddin said she has a message for the province: "My message would be please find somewhere else to make these cuts. This is not the right place. These are our children. This is our educational system."

Parents say they were shocked to see this profusion of plant life on the first day of school. (CBC)

But Bird later told CBC Toronto the situation has nothing to do with a lack of funding, and other parents say it's really more of a gardening problem than a political issue.

"It needs a little bit of grass cutting and all," says Nikhilesh Sharma, another parent.

Resident next door not impressed

Gabriella Dimarco, a resident who lives beside the school, says the weeds are filthy and not just in the playground area. She says she took it upon herself to clear some of the unwanted plants and tries to keep the area near her house free of them. She has complained to the principal.

"So filthy. They don't clean at all. On the sides, along the fence over here, it is a mess. Fifty bags of garbage, I cleaned. I took my time to clean the side of the school.

"I've been here 30 years, and the first five years, oh my god, perfect, beautiful, but after five years, that's it, they stopped taking care of it," she said.

"We had a bad storm, and there were some branches that were just hanging. I go, can you imagine if another big wind would come? Kids would get hurt," she added. "I never saw them clean over here."

The TDSB says it believes Joyce is the only school that has this problem.