{"id":8613,"date":"2014-10-22T16:24:10","date_gmt":"2014-10-22T20:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=8613"},"modified":"2014-10-29T17:47:06","modified_gmt":"2014-10-29T21:47:06","slug":"schools-should-focus-on-nurturing-tomorrows-builders-says-trustee-candidate-usvat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/schools-should-focus-on-nurturing-tomorrows-builders-says-trustee-candidate-usvat\/","title":{"rendered":"Schools should focus on nurturing tomorrow\u2019s builders, says trustee candidate Usvat"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"2014-10-23-12\"
\nBy Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

As a woman who trained as a power plant engineer in her native Romania, Aurora\u2019s Liliana Usvat knows firsthand the importance of a technical education. <\/p>\n

As one of three candidates running to be Aurora and King\u2019s trustee on the York Region District School Board this Monday, Ms. Usvat says all students would benefit from an increased emphasis on math and science both in the classroom and in afterschool programs. <\/p>\n

\u201cKids are good, but the environment a school provides should be an expectation of the future,\u201d she says. \u201cWe have to build a generation that will build the buildings we are going to live in. We don\u2019t want to live in buildings that are built by people who don\u2019t understand enough math or physics. We want to have a good transportation system and we want people to have good, logical thinking and good management ability to build at a lower price and higher quality.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor those that travel around the world, I think the GTA subway system should be as good as the Paris Metro. We need to prepare the technical people in this school system that will be able to produce such systems for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

It might be a tall order, but Ms. Usvat, who has contributed to math text books and maintains a website dedicated to mathematics, says this could be achieved through fostering technical clubs in schools from the Board level, as well as clubs for math and physics.<\/p>\n

More artsy-minded students shouldn\u2019t be left behind either, she says, stressing the importance art can play in architecture, as well as pure human enjoyment. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur students need to have their arts exposed in a way that would be beneficial to them and their community,\u201d she says. \u201cThose that are inclined towards English, publishing or television, the Board can build a YouTube channel that will promote their talent, and allow each school the chance to provide shows with these very talented kids. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe school system, I believe, is a model for a good community. Parents want to come to communities where their kids can come to a good school.\u201d
\nThat is what brought she and her family to Aurora in the first place over 14 years ago. She says she had heard a lot of positive things about the area, and the York Region District School Board, which made her realise that this is where she wanted to raise her daughter. Looking back, she says she was happy with her choice \u2013 as is her daughter, who now works in the area of risk management for ScotiaBank. <\/p>\n

\u201cBuilding good schools with kids who are high achievers means not only do they understand the curriculum, but I want more kids to be good at the international level, to participate in international competitions, and anything we can help these kids participate in and prepare for. I would like to see [increase focus on technical education in arts] in all high schools because I know there are good teachers but I would like the average level of education to be higher. The subjects should be greater than it is right now.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I have ideas that will appeal to people, I will be very happy to work as Aurora and King\u2019s trustee.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a woman who trained as a power plant engineer in her native Romania, Aurora\u2019s Liliana Usvat knows firsthand the importance of a technical education. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vote-2014"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-2eV","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-21 20:11:47","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8613\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}