The man behind a controversial tower being erected beside John Fisher Public School says he’s so confident about safety measures for the project that he’d be content if his own grandson attended the school while construction goes on next door.

“We have said from the outset our priority is safety,” KG Group founder Marvin Katz said in an interview Wednesday, days after the Toronto District School Board released a third-party risk assessment of the 35-storey apartment project.

Katz said he understands concerns raised by parents over the past six months who say they are worried about how construction will affect the health and safety of the 500 kids attending the French immersion elementary school.

“Of course I do. I’m a parent, I’m a grandparent,” said Katz. “I think it’s always distressing when change comes about.”

But he blamed “misinformation” for the backlash, said the project has gone through all necessary approvals and that the company has the experience, expertise and technology to ensure the highest safety standards.

Outrage over the project prompted the TDSB to propose temporarily relocating the school next fall to Vaughan Road Academy, a high school seven kilometres away and slated to close in June.

But Katz says the company never believed it was necessary to relocate the school. Local politicians have called the development unprecedented because of its size and proximity to students, Katz reiterated the company’s message that it is not the first high-rise to be built next to a school.

According to the risk assessment report released last week by the TDSB, “risks can and should be mitigated to a level where students can remain in the school during construction.”

However, “diligent monitoring and enforcement will be needed to ensure adherence to all mitigation measures,” concluded the report by ECOH, an environmental and occupational health consulting firm. And failure to do so “can have serious consequences.”

Those measures include 14 major recommendations to reduce hazards associated with traffic, noise, air quality, cranes, falling debris, and lead and asbestos present in the building, which is more than a century old.

Stavros Rougas, who has a son in Grade 2 at John Fisher, called the risk assessment “a positive step” but says parents are waiting for a commitment from the developer and school board that recommendations will be put in place, and to see a convincing sign they are working together.

“The really big question is the enforcement mechanism,” said Rougas, adding he believes more time is needed to resolve parents’ concerns and resolve potential risks flagged in the report.

KG Group is seeking a permit to begin demolition of the existing low-rises on the site this summer.

Rougas said he and other parents are eager to hear more details from the developer at a public forum hosted by the TDSB and including participants from KG, the school board and its outside consultants, and the city, who will field questions from parents, staff and local residents.

The TDSB has also hired an engineering company to conduct a peer review of the ECOH report because “we want to make sure the information is correct, given the concerns raised by the community,” said spokesperson Ryan Bird.

The question of how much the mitigation measures will cost and who will pay remains unclear. While steps like moving the playground to the other side of the school are a direct result of the project and in the works, Katz notes the school was already badly in need of repairs and upgrades.

Recommendations in the report include replacing old windows, putting in air conditioning units and removing asbestos and lead paint prior to construction.

Under an agreement negotiated with the city and approved by the Ontario Municipal Board, which gave the project the go-ahead in early 2016, KG Group provided $1.1 million in funds for improvements in the community to be used at the discretion of local city councillor Jaye Robinson and the city planner.

Katz now says that money should go directly towards John Fisher.

Robinson was not available to comment Tuesday, but a spokesperson said changing the terms and designating the money for the school would require council approval.

Meanwhile, the uncertainty continues for Rougas and other families of kids at the school who still don’t know where they will be in the fall.

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The final decision on whether to stay at the current site or move to Vaughan Road will be left to parents, who will be surveyed following the forum and the peer review of the risk assessment, Bird said.

Many are already lining up to have their kids switch to the English stream and attend their neighbourhood home schools, only to learn there are few spaces available and that they have to go out of district.

Last month, the board took the unusual step of developing a “special placement process” to determine who goes where. Details of how those decisions are made will be provided to families by May 12, said Bird.