22 economist suntribune education saturday june 15 2002 dickson hill public school plans proper ending by chrissie obrien and hannelore volpe special dickson hill public school the areas french immersion school since 1985 is closing at least temporarily but not without a proper sendoff the hwy 48 school hosts an open house on wednesday from 3 to 5 pm all former teachers stu dents parents and staff members are invited during the day pupils and staff will share a huge cake dec orated with a photo of lire entire current student body noted princi pal suzanne tordjman in 1997 the school was sold to the french language public south west district school board the immersion program continued to be delivered by public board staff next year the 300 students from the dickson hill french immersion program will attend glad park public school in stouffville as well as franklin and buttonville schools in markham an addition is being built at glad park we are continuing to see a steady demand for french immer sion moving the program to a big ger school is part of the growth strategy said ross virgo spokesperson for the york region district school board dickson hill has had english language junior and senior kinder gartens with french immersion from grades 1 to 8 departing students are compiling a time capsule of yearbooks writings photos and other memorabilia they hope it will eventually be stored at black creek pioneer village where the original dickson hill school house was moved to in the 1950s the current dickson hill build ing opened in 1959 according to trustee randev jaimini there is no concern that the school will be demolished after the public board moves out if the french board was going to dispose of the property it would have to go through certain chan nels it has to be offered to other edu cational institutions first only when theyve refused it can it go to private channels he said mr jaimini says there is no move in that direction at this time and the school will remain as an educa tional institution under the french board something the public board is happy about as its area office is on the dickson hill property representatives for the french board say no decisions have yet been made about the dickson hill property the school will be french lan guage as opposed to french immersion meaning at least one parent has to be francophone said jean luc bernard director of education i holy trinity school congratulates the class of 2002 stephanie anderson prefect ryan baker neha bhatia lucia cesaroni irefxl andrea charbonneau william cheung jessica chiu graham coll rebecca craig ashleieh culham mark dcsnoycr ruhallah dharsi prefect prefect prefect prefect amanda dickinson michellercnee divers elizabeth dyer coutrney ferguson mike ferguson stephanie fitch kent foster danny georgi jamie ciddings christopher gill ircfcct prefect erin grant jonathan gutman prefect stephen hamilton andrew ileuckcndorit mark innamorato tyler jeflery kiankashani amyklcncrt melissa lai mik d ilk raymond lau eric mces zachary read anish rcbcllo arniin riemer jonathan rlina jackysin prefect shaan singha stephanie smith jason sukhraj prefect frances sun jeffrey taylor mlchele tenki ncclan tharmaratnam morgan topps laurcn varonc prefect jennifer virro judson whiteside gilbert wong kevin wong kevin wong yvonne yamauchl victoria zank prefect headprefecl rhoio not available christopher dunphy dominic wong 114 scholarships awarded to 76 students 57 graduates obtained academic honours 11300 bayview avenue richmond hill ontario l4s 1l4 905 7371114 fax 905 7375187 website wwwhtsonca residents served weir despite shortage of doctors from page 1 report which looked at 22 indicators to rank communities health indicators include life expectancy heart attack survival stroke survival low birth weights hip fractures hip replacements knee replacements pneumonia and flu mammograms pap smears hysterectomies prostatec tomy admissions physicians per capita and specialists per capita centres were divided into three groups 15 areas that benefit from the advantages associated with being home to a medical school such as toronto and montreal other major communities including markhamrichmond hill and rural areas the results for other major com munities show that affluent suburbs and satellite communities remain among the best places to get sick the magazine concluded many have impressive healthcare centres of their own bolstered by the services available in large urban facili ties just a short ambulance ride away northwest vancouver led the pack this year retaining its top ranking with first place scores in a number of areas such as life expectancy hip replace ment preventable hospital admissions and physicians per capita in the greater toronto area the area identified as mississaugabrampton burlington was tops coming in fourth overall in canada meanwhile markhamrichmond hill was listed as fifth in life expectancy 17 in heart attack survival eighth in stroke survival 28 in low birth weights 31 in caesarean sections 46 in hip frac tures fourth in mammograms 18 in pap smears first in knee replacements 12 in asthma hospital admissions 46 in physicians per capita and 42 in special ists per capita dr maclean said the report high lights areas that need improvement such as ensuring babies arent born at low birth weights but given the physi cian shortage he said residents are receiving quality health services what we do we do pretty well dr maclean wasnt surprised peel region municipalities outperformed markhamrichmond hill arguing york has traditionally fared poorly in govern ment funding compared to its neigh bouring regions the facts are the facts we know peel compared to york region has sig nificantly higher spending on health services he said were lowest of per capita healthcare and hospital spend ing by a significant amount