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weekender july 19 1986 p3 rtrfm 1 m 1s8s1s fe new markham district high school principal john nikifork pre pares for the upcoming school year mr nikifork comes to markham from stouffville where he served as principal of stouffville district secondary school for three years greg coates doctor opposes towns control doctor harry brown and col league larry freemont have vowed to fight for development rights on land they own near the markham stouffville hospital site an application by the pair for exemption to a temporary bylaw that controls uses on the land was turned down by council tuesday lawyer brian bucknall on be half of the doctors will bring the issue before the ontario municip al board for judgment dr brown purchased the 9th line land last year with the inten tion of constructing a medical cli nic there because of its proximity to the future hospital however the town passed the interim control bylaw two days after his application was re ceived leaving the proposed medical clinic in limbo expansion of urban uses in this area is a commitment of this council already said mr buck nall our application is simply in accordance with that councils passage of the bylaw was an attempt to study land issues around undeveloped boundaries mayor bell said it allowed council a little bit of a breathing space regional councillor ron moran raised concerns about the prop osed 24000 sq ft clinic and the lack of sewage hookups in the area when you talk about a proposi tion as big as this on a septic tank it gives me a lot to worry about remarked mr moran ed and claudette aif56 im not too keen on the sound of your new cuckoo clock claudy new principal believes in open communication by greg coates staff reporter after 25 years of schooling john nikifork has graduated to markham district high school mr nikifork however is not going into grade 9 hes starting at the top as principal the aurora resident and for mer principal of stouffville dis trict secondary school was re cently named as successor to wayne houston mr nikifork 46 has worked in the education field for 25 years and has a variety of experience he served as viceprincipal at woodbridge and bayview high schools before going to stouffville as principal mr nikifork advocates open communication and wants stu dents to be involved in their school as much as possible i want students to look for ward to and enjoy school he said i want them to look at school as their home away from home participation a strong believer in collegial decision making mr nikifork plans to involve staff students and the community in school acti vities i feel this led to my success in stouffville he said people like to be active in some way the more involved they are the more committed they become with a teaching staff of 139 and a student body of about 2200 pickering airport mdhs is considerably larger than the other schools mr niki fork has worked in but he views this as a challenge a challenge he noted that hes looking for ward to admitting that he believes schools really shouldnt be as large as mdhs mr nikifork said communication will play a key role in maintaining the schools high calibre its hard to bring about a homey atmosphere when you have 2200 kids but im looking forward to the challenge he said im certainly pleased to come to a school like this when it comes to discipline mr nikifork again believes in open communication lines i prefer preventative and sup portive means of discipline as opposed to punitive he said lets sit down and discuss it find out what the problem is clear expectations he added however that stu dent expectations will be clear as long as theyre realistic we expect that theyll be met said mr nikifork and if theyre not realistic well have to examine them and see that theyre changed mr nikifork noted that one advantage of having a large school is the wide variety of prog rams both academic and non- academic that can be offered my philosophy is that there should be a nice blend between academic and nonacademic en deavours said mr nikifork nonacademics are just as im portant in their students learning to show his support the new principal plans to attend as many student functions as possible he also enjoys taking time to talk to students early in the school year mr nikifork plans to have both staff and students fill out a short two- answer questionnaire he wants them to name two things they like most about the school and two things they would do to improve the school very helpful a questionnaire like this can be very helpful he explained staff and students have a diffe rent perspective you get a lot of good ideas having just been at the mar kham school for two weeks mr nikifork is still getting orien tated im just trying to get to know the school staff and procedures he said i have a lot to learn mr nikifork said hell miss stouffville but is very happy to be in markham stouffville was just great he said the staff and students were super i couldnt have asked for a better place to start as a principal mr nikifork and his wife eve have two children rob 16 and kim 15 and live in aurora squatters rights refused by federal government by steve houston staff reporter markham resident doug cook has no home to bring his newborn child into the 21yearold apprentice block layer was recently threatened with eviction from a vacant 17th ave house on the pickering airport lands only days after he moved in with his expec tant wife she has since given birth to a boy and now the trio ha vc no home to call their own despite his efforts to claim squatters rights at the house he found himself up against a for midable foe in remaining there the federal government the young couple moved out on their own last week after the evic tion threat from the public works branch of the government and into a trailer in a gormlcy friends backyard and in all his efforts to meet halfway with landowners he still found himself trying to see through the smokescreen he said officials left him with he cut the grass around the vacant house did some work in side and tried to make the house home to no avail i found out there were no places to live affordably in mar kham said mr cook ontario housing has nothing and no one wanted to accept any responsibil ity for us he went through due process originally with landowner trans port canada and entered his name on the obligatory waiting list after six months and no answers he decided to challenge the land administrators and move in the public works branch is sympathetic to mr cooks situa tion but adamant that he wait for an available house in the same manner as other applicants on the list a spokesman said there are twoyear waiting periods in some cases if we have something that comes available that fits his needs we will get in touch with him said public works site manager murray richardson it is unfortunate but we cant bend the rules for one or we have to bend them for all mr richardson estimated it would cost his department 5000 to properly renovate the house for occupancy and said it could be come available as soon as the end of august however that house may not be the one offered to the cook family in the meantime hell commute to his job from the backyard trail er his family currently resides in basically the government is throwing us out into the street i think its negligent on their part said mr cook if money is the issue why dont they just sell the houses back to the original owners if that were to happen he said his family would be the first occu pants the previous owner prom ised them the house if he became landlord again in the eyes of public works the entire matter was an open and shut case doug cook moved into the home illegally he just moved in premature ly said mr richardson we have lots of applicants that we screen for occupancy he had ap plied with us but decided to move in on his own wc deliver wo can deliver your flyers for as lillle as 35c each call advertising ai 2942200 or distribution at 2948244 1986 fljtrs delhttcd do 11 economist suntribune 5760900 mdroland djslribuling 147147400 r flyers with weekender slage centre productions pascals village shoppes canadian tire cracious living sunday kmart paul main