Teacher firings and suspensions at Bowmore Road school have parents, local trustee concerned

By ALAN SHACKLETON

Eight teachers at Bowmore Road Junior and Senior Public School are the latest staff members to have had action taken against them by the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) in the wake of ongoing controversies at the East Toronto school.

All eight are Grade 7 or Grade 8 teachers, and this action comes after two Grade 7/8 teachers being fired at the school last week and the principal and a vice-principal transferred out.

There has been no clear explanation from the TDSB regarding the reasons for the firings, suspensions and transfers.

“We are committed to ensuring all our schools are safe places to learn and work,” said Ryan Bird, Executive Officer Communications and Public Affairs with the TDSB in response to a request from Beach Metro Community News for information on the staffing actions taken at Bowmore Road school.

“We are actively working to address parents’ concerns, including bringing additional supports to the school. With regard to questions about staff changes, we are very limited in what we can share about personnel matters for both private and legal reasons,” said Bird in a statement sent to Beach Metro Community News of Jan. 30.

The Bowmore Road school has been in the Gerrard Street East and Coxwell Avenue community for more than 100 years, and has more than 1,000 students from Kindergarten to Grade 8. The school also has French immersion, a gifted intensive support and a learning disability intensive support programs for students.

For a number of years, many parents of Bowmore Road students have been expressing concerns regarding incidents of violence and the school administration’s approach to discipline. At the start of this year, many parents also became frustrated with a change in teaching models for Grade 7 and 8 students.

The change in teaching model for those students has played a major part in the recent events at the school, said Beaches-East York TDSB Trustee Michelle Aarts.

“Someone within TDSB leadership decided to change the teaching model at Bowmore, which mostly impacted Grade 7 and 8,” said Aarts in a statement to Beach Metro Community News on Jan. 30. “The change was poorly communicated and did not involve collaboration or consultation with the community.”

Aarts said the school’s administration took a “hard line” on the teaching model change despite parents protesting it at the start of this school year. 

The teaching model change moved the Grade 7 and 8 students away from a “co-teaching” model to one in which a single teacher was responsible for most of the subjects being taught.

Grade 7 and 8 teachers impacted were also against the changes, and discussions in online Bowmore Road parent groups have suggested that those teachers’ decisions to protest the changes by refusing to take part in extra-curricular activities is at the heart of the TDSB’s actions. The fact that the teachers “collectively” decided to stop participating in extra-curriculars instead of presenting those decisions as an “individual” choice led to the disciplinary actions taken by the TDSB, the parent groups implied.

Aarts said the TDSB’s communication with parents regarding the staffing actions at the school must be improved. She noted the board’s actions have impacted 10 classes and at least 250 students at the school.

Though she is the elected trustee for the area, Aarts and other TDSB trustees are now operating under provincial Ministry of Education control since the end of June of last year and have little input on board decisions. The TDSB is now under the guidance of Rohil Gupta who was appointed as Supervisor by the province.

“I have been a parent at Bowmore for 16 years and trustee for seven years, and I have never seen anything like what is happening at Bowmore right now,” said Aarts in her statement.

“We should not have gotten to this state of chaos. I have never seen the TDSB cause so many disruptions in staffing, let alone for no apparent reason. I am hearing from many friends who feel the TDSB under provincial supervision has shifted to compliance and silencing voices, rather than honouring parent voices and community.”

In an earlier story in Toronto Today, the Elementary Teachers of Toronto (ETT) Federation said it would file grievances over the firings of the two teachers and work to get them re-instated. Beach Metro Community News has reached out to the ETT for comment on what response it will have to the firings and suspensions of the Bowmore Road school teachers.

In the meantime, parents have set up a GoFundMe page as a show of support for the two teachers who were fired and so far it has collected more than $14,500.

“We can only assume, given these teachers’ exemplary records and years of experience, that their removal from Bowmore is related to their co-teaching last fall,” said the GoFund Me Page. “On that basis, we believe that the TDSB has, in effect, penalized the two teachers for continuing to employ a teaching model that, at the time of its sudden, unilateral and poorly executed revocation, was standard, proven, and well supported by the community. In our view, this is an egregious overreach that not only unfairly targets these teachers but also exacts a needless cost on grade 7 and 8 students, who now face the abrupt mid-year loss of their dedicated educators, as well as loss of key staff sponsors of important extracurricular activities that students love and benefit from.”

The GoFundMe page for the teachers can be visited at https://www.gofundme.com/f/please-help-support-two-beloved-bowmore-educators