Educators of the Tri-Cities

The Coquitlam School District is the third largest of B.C.'s 60 districts, and with over 4,000 full-time and part-time employees, it is the largest employer in each of the three municipalities of the Tri-Cities.

Host Nancy Furness sits down to speak with two award-winning secondary school educators who have been recognized for their efforts in educating youth here in the Tri-Cities ;

Edward Csuka, a physics instructor at Terry Fox Secondary School has recently been recognized by the Canadian Association of Physicists. Edward was the driving force behind "The Power of Ideas", an extremely successful regional high school science fair and is now interested in organizing a STEAM-related event. STEAM is an extension of the old STEM program ( Science, technology, engineering, and math ) which now incorporates the arts as well. Edward feels more effort should be made to encourage girls to enter the sciences as it has traditionally been a male-dominated field of work.

Steve Sainas is an accomplished musician in his own right who says he has enjoyed an incredibly rewarding 35-year career as a public school teacher in Port Coquitlam, B.C. He says his most inspiring years as an educator were during his 21 years as a contemporary music teacher and music education innovator as head of the Terry Fox Rocks program.

In 2015, Sainas won the Juno Award for MusiCounts Teacher of the Year for his groundbreaking Rock School and Recording Arts program that he founded in 2000/200

Sainas retired from public school teaching on January 31st, 2022 and now enjoys creating and performing music full-time both as a solo acoustic act and with his trio, SST.