The shadow of a new 33-storey apartment tower in midtown Toronto is looming over the century-old elementary school next door — and it’s happening before the project has even broken ground.

Parents of children attending John Fisher Public School in the high-density Yonge-Eglinton neighbourhood, where redevelopment is flourishing, are up in arms over the planned highrise, approved by the Ontario Municipal Board earlier this year and slated to get underway in 2017.

They’re worried about the health and safety of the 500 students from kindergarten through Grade 6 who will be learning and playing steps away from heavy construction for three to four years. They are anxious about the towering crane overhead and the dust, noise and vibrations generated by the new development on a relatively small lot that will abut the western boundary of the playground.

“All those big trucks on the street, the crane, it scares me because they will be right there,” says Sogol Shams, who has a son, 9, and a 4-year-old daughter at the French immersion school.

While the project is destined to proceed, parents are distressed that terms of an agreement being negotiated between the Toronto District School Board and the developer KG Group, which would give builders access to a fenced-off portion of the schoolyard to facilitate construction, won’t be made public. And they say they haven’t been adequately informed about what financial compensation the school would receive, and whether stringent health and safety measures would be part of a proposed deal.

“The lack of openness and transparency smacks in the face of a taxpayer-funded education system,” says Stavros Rougas, whose 7-year-old son Aristotelis is in Grade 2 at John Fisher.

He and other parents want the board to postpone approving any agreement until parents are given more information and a chance to weigh in.

TDSB spokesperson Ryan Bird said Friday an agreement has not yet been inked.

“Trustees have been listening and will continue to listen very carefully to what people have to say about this development,” he said.

As for making a deal public, “regulations state that real estate matters are private matters of the board,” Bird added.

The conflict is an example of colliding interests as cities try to balance urban growth with the need to respect longstanding structures like schools that lie at the heart of communities.

At a trustee committee meeting Wednesday where parents and other parties were invited to present their concerns, a lawyer representing KG Group indicated the project will go ahead with or without access to school property.

Zoning approvals have been granted and the company “has no choice but to proceed because of the demands of its financing,” said Michael Stewart.

“It would much prefer to do so with an agreement with TDSB,” Stewart added. “It feels that the arrangements it has negotiated with the board are very mutually beneficial and provide much-needed compensation to the school board for the school.”

Stewart said the project will be done in accordance with all applicable laws and any construction mitigation plan required by the city, and noted the builder, Tridel Corp., has worked on prior developments adjacent to schools.

That includes an innovative project just south of John Fisher which was completed in 2010 and saw North Toronto Collegiate’s crumbling building and land restructured into a new complex integrating the school with highrise condos.

Gerri Gershon, school trustee for John Fisher, notes the planned KG project is on “a very, very small plot of land” which is why the developer is seeking access to a portion of school property during construction.

She says while no agreement is in place yet, a deal would enable the board to hold the company accountable on health and safety concerns. Any financial return would be reinvested in the aging school, which is in need of repair to both its building and playground.

Gershon acknowledged parents’ worries.

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“I’m concerned that we haven’t communicated as effectively and as clearly as we should have,” she said. “The safety of our kids is paramount.”

Controversy over the adjacent land west of John Fisher has been brewing for four years since several lowrise structures on Erskine Ave. were first purchased by a real estate company for a condominium development. That proposal sparked extensive community consultations and a 35-page report from a John Fisher School Council committee in 2013, which detailed concerns ranging from how loss of sunshine would affect students’ mental and physical health, to the dust they would inhale, the impact of more traffic on the already congested street and of vibrations on the school foundation. Then in January the property changed hands and this fall came news that demolition and construction of an apartment building would begin in early 2017.

While there have been three meetings this fall between John Fisher families and board staff, parents say they were called with only a few days warning and no advance agendas.

It wasn’t until early November that they even learned a draft agreement for a “staging area” on school property was being worked out, and that it would be taken to the board for approval at its monthly meeting on Nov. 23.

After starting to raise a ruckus, they got a last-minute invitation to attend last Wednesday’s trustee meeting at the TDSB — their one chance to present arguments in person. On Tuesday, a school letter was sent to all families informing them the developer would hold a meeting to address concerns this week.

Stavros Rougas is among those who fear the board is seeking consultation “on a deal that is essentially in place” and who want any agreement made public so school staff, parents and the community understand the terms.

“Why is the TDSB rushing into an agreement with a private developer?” adds Mary Mowbray, who has a daughter in Grade 5. “This is construction of a massive building (that extends) to the lot line of an elementary school.”

At last Wednesday’s board meeting she said information provided to date “doesn’t come close to satisfying parents’ concerns about health and safety” and asked trustees to postpone the Nov. 23 vote. On Friday, a group of parents launched an online petition calling for a delay.

Sogol Shams says while the board cites city bylaws regulating safety, noise, air quality and other concerns, standards should be higher for young children exposed to major construction on a daily basis.

“I want details of how these children are going to be protected, and I want to know they are written down so we can hold them accountable,” she said. Once the project starts “we won’t have a voice anymore.”

Ryerson University urban planning expert Mitchell Kosny notes that while bylaws are in place, that doesn’t mean they are always properly enforced. The attitude that “it’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission” is still not uncommon, he says.

And while boosting density to capitalize on existing infrastructure makes sense, it requires careful consultation and sometimes extra costs when core neighbourhood fixtures like schools are directly affected, Kosny adds.

“Development is a privilege, it’s not a right,” he said. “And if you’re a developer, it’s a hell of lot cheaper and easier and better to bring the neighbourhood in, in terms of a consultative process, at the beginning.”