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p6 weekender february 15 1986 schools at capacity overcrowding a fact of life by greg coates staff reporter lot levies and relocatable and multipurpose buildings were among the solutions to school overcrowding suggested at a pub lic meeting tuesday sponsored by the parent- teacher association at parkview public school in unionville the meeting was the first of several public forums on the overcrowd ing issue rapid growth in markham un ionville and milliken has officials and parents concerned about overcrowding in the schools both at the elementary and secondary levels approximatley 100 resi dents turned out for the meeting area 4 superintendent dr pe ter ross explained that of the 27 schools he administers there are no empty classrooms were in a situation where we have to plan one year at a time he said its very frustrating unless ministry funds are re ceived for additional schools dr ross said there are three ways to deal with the problem of over crowding portables boundary changes and extended hours peter ross no empty classrooms i forsee a combination of the three he said some portables some boundary changes and some kind of extended day projections he added the problem is height- uhs emergency evacuation plan carole bell calls for lot levies ened because the school board and the ministry are always deal ing with projections when in markham were con stantly dealing with people that arent here yet thats where the problem comes in said dr ross the numbers are critical and we dont know how fast new subdivisions will grow other guests at tuesdays meeting included markham mayor carole bell mpp don cousens ministry of education representative malcolm shiner and trustees anne atkins and joanna french while mr shiner didnt make any promises about upcoming funding he stressed the ministry of education is well aware of the situation in york region ministry experience has been cautious dont be hasty see the students first dont just go on projections he said a lot of funny things can happen to pro jections ministry cautious so yes the ministry is cau tious and yes were nervous ab out moving on just projections mr shiner added the bad news is theres never enough dollars it is a time of concern a tjme of res traint the good news though is we do recognize the rapid growth in this area the regional office is very sympathetic and supportive to whats going on here he noted that of the 563 million allocated by the ministry last year york region received approximately 16 per cent of it this is probably at the top said mr shiner the ministry of education has been listening and has been doing something markham mayor carole bell suggested that if sufficient funds arent received from the minis try perhaps residents should lob by for a change in legislation enabling communities to receive lot levies from developers to help put up more schools community schools what i pledge to do is to assist the trustees to get into some of the provincial offices to try and im press upon the ministry the im portance of community hools said mayor bell not tak g our children to stouff ville or metropo litan toronto or richmond hill but community schools where your children can go to school where you live anticipating a question on why the town continues to approve housing units when children have no place to go school mayor bell pointed out that not approving un its is a totally illegal act addressing the possible prob lem of having unused schools in the future if student enrolments start declining several panel members suggested that more flexible buildings be constructed multipurpose buildings that could be used for more than just schools another public meeting is sche duled for 8 pm thursday in the library at unionville high school rapid growth in unionville and how it will affect unionville high school will be the focus of discus sion in case of emergency unionvil le high school students would be evacuated to either william berc- zy public school or the markham hydro building according to a new plan the emergency plan prepared by the schools viceprincipal chris collins also details how stu dents would leave the school and outlines the staffs responsibilites during a crisis its basically an evacuation plan mrs collins said its an extension of our fire-drillproce- dure mrs collins said it was neces sary to find locations that were within walking distance of the school markham hydro officially con sented to the plan at its meeting monday unionville high school re quested it and we reciprocated be cause its so workable with us said hydro commisioner don cockburn the hydro building to be used in case william berczy public school is not available was chosen because of its size and its close proximity to the school mr cockburn said he said the large sheltered gar age for hydro equipment could also be used by the school if needed every york region school is re quired to have this kind of plan according to mrs collins this isnt anything new or unusual she said coupon brings good response unionville resident dennis seeley has reported good response to a coupon published in the weekender on feb 1 in regards to tougher sent ences for drinking drivers we have received responses from all areas that your newspaper covers and they continue to arrive daily he said because of the response the coupon is re printed below i care about the the gerrards and the grunerts who lost their lives in a tragic accident i sup port our governments recent actions against impaired driving and i urge further actions be taken to make us all realize there is no place for impaired driving in this country name address phone mail to dennis seeley 11 eckardt ave unionville ont l3r 1p1 economist and sun 9 heritage rd markham ontario l3p 1m3 cbc film crew at musselmans lake by erkki pohjolainen a cbc crew spent tuesday on musselmans lake filming a scene for the last season a network special truckloads of equipment ar rived at 7 am and within an hour 45 technicians and actors were on the ice they were shoot ing one of the early parts of the threehour drama based on roy macgregors book by the same name the story follows the life of fic tional felix battcrinski from his younger years in a small north ern ontario town through his nhl career as a defenceman and finally as a coach in finland unit manager bing kwan told the weekender in an interview on location the drama goes through some of felixs esca pades of trying to put together a winning team and how hes able to get the players hypedup musselmans lake was chosen mr kwan ssa to depict the rink on which felix played hock ey as a child in his home town pomerania the cbc crew cleared the snow and created two hockey rinks common to lakeside communi ties 20 years ago the set was complete with several cars from the early- 1960s even the skates used are of the era when felix was nine the climax in the musselmans lake scene is when felixs uncle com es to the rink and tells him his grandfather has died mr kwan said filming will take several months because last season includes scenes from win ter spring and summer the telecast date is not yet known mr kwan said but i think itll probably be aired close to christmas because it includes a christmas scene the cast of this robert sherrin production includes booth sav age as the adult felix and john calicos as his father mr sherrin produced love and larceny and a long list of series and specials aired on the cbc network booth savage played the role of bruce in the cbc series home fires and a variety of roles in more recent shows in cluding a killer in seeing things john calicos previous work in cludes the role of the evil clingon commander koor in the long- running series star trek and more recently a character in the national dream both actors are also familiar to stratford audiences for various roles played on stage a cbc crew was filming at musselmans lake this week for a television special called the last season based on a book by roy mcgregor shooting involved clearing the snow to make a skating rink on the lake erkki pohjolaincn