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Safer access to playground doesn't top agenda

Lachine school to get new bathrooms, though

Max Harrold
The Gazette
Thursday, April 3, 2008

Max Harrold
The Gazette
There will finally be separate bathrooms for boys and girls at École Philippe Morin in Lachine, but a proposal for safer access to the school’s playground will have to wait.
The governing board of the French elementary school on Provost St. between 18th and 19th Aves. decided March 17 not to act on a proposal to move the school staff parking lot to the other side of the playground.
Parents have complained that traffic on 19th Ave. can be dangerous. Students now cross 19th Ave. to access the playground on a path that cuts through the parking lot.
Relocating the parking lot is an issue that neither the school’s governing board, nor the school board, wants to handle right now.
Governing board president Helene Poirier said moving the parking lot is up to the school board.
“That will cost $65,000 and that’s a lot of money. So now it’s with the school board. It’s out of our hands,” Poirier said.
In September, a student was nearly hit by a teacher’s car backing out of the parking lot. In a separate incident, a small dog was killed when its owner, a student’s mother, tripped and fell on it on the crowded sidewalk.
The Commission Scolaire Marguerite Bourgeouis cannot move the parking lot unless it has an official request from the governing board, which includes five parents and five school staff, said board spokesperson Brigitte Gauvreau. The topic will be on the agenda again at the governing board’s next meeting May 5, she said.
Parent Cynthia St. Onge said officials should do whatever it takes to move the parking lot.
“It’s not just because there’s never been an accident there that it’s OK,” she said.
“Plenty of kids pass behind those cars (backing out of the parking lot) everyday.”
Also of concern is a lack of crossing guards, she said. There are currently no guards when the lunch period starts and right after school lets out for the day.
“It's not safe,” said St. Onge, whose 6-year-old son attends the school.
The renovations to section off the bathrooms, which is expected to cost $20,000, will be covered by the provincial Department of Education’s building maintenance program.
The school has had a common bathroom since it was built in 1955 as a boys’ only school. It has been co-ed for many years now.