The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

a -------- § » k 8 » 8 E, nuary'¥, 2018 20 4: : * " 3 Ten teams of public high school students and teachers are preparing to build robots for an Sa competition. 2 The Halton District Sehool Board will be host- --ing its 2018 For Inspiration and Recognition in Science and Technology (FIRST) robotics | kickoff on Saturday (Jan. 6) at New Street Edu- cation Centre in Burlington. & Approximately 500 students, teachers, .com- munity mentors and parents are > expected to 0 attend the kickoff. : Students and mentors received this year's robotic challenge via a virtual feed -- along with hundreds of thousands of students from around the world. They have six weeks to build their team's ro- bot before taking it to competitions across North America. Work on the bots will begin immediately after the kickoff event. Among the 10 Halton public high schools participating in the 2018 FIRST robotics com- petition are Milton District and Craig Kiel- burger. r "Students on each of the 10 Halton teams, along with guidance from their mentors and | teachers, aim to build an impressive robot | "in six short weeks," said Veronica Kleinsmith, instructional program leader-technological education, for the Halton District School Board. - "These student- designed, Built and pro- grammed robots compete in challenging competitions that truly engage students in subjects such as science, technological education and mathematics to help prepare 'them for the careers of tomorrow." More than 1,000 students, volunteers, parents and sponsors attended the 2017 FIRST Robot- ics:Canada district competition at McMaster University. Competitors included students from Halton high schools. Scott Gardner / Metroland { Cullen reflects on career, looks forward to more time with family 5 a» have one year to design and obtain ap- 5 provals followed by one year of construction. That school was done from start to finish in 2 10 months --. design, approval and construc-, : tion -- (it) should have been:impossible. "The other (challenging project) would be _Hayden (high school) a joint project with the City of Burlington. Seven years in the making but a good outcome at the end" The day-to-day challenges are just as impor- tant and are perhaps harder to overcome, he said. "The new schools everyone likes is an ac- complishment so you can't understate that, but keeping 100 schools open every day and More Content, More Credibility, More Customers. FAR Cutest Coy Garr cise. - . er -- Si th _-- hl ome -- -- v too -- - . : or h-- ee i y ' he --~ ---- . - ---- ew _--- «i . ron Yr a : -- i Qe a dh we -- -- ge . , -- goldbook.ca Contact us today and Get YOUR BUSINESS FOUND! Call us at: 1-877-646-6701 or email: myupdates@metroland.com * : keeping kids and schools safe and warm is probably a harder thing to do," he said. He interacted with parents on a regular basis answering a multitude lof questions over the years, often about concerns with local school issues like parking and driver/student safety. Cullen admits he wasn't planning to have a long career with a schoof board. "| hadn't really planned to stay (long). | worked in the private sector for five years be- fore | came here and | was looking to go back to the private sector," he said. Cullen was born and raised in east Hamil- ton. He attended McMaster University and Mohawk College. He started with the Halton . rh otrolndriedia community" Connected to your 'public board in 1987, was appointed assistant " superintendent in 1991 and then superinten- dent of facility services in 1994. Cullen was involved in provincial issues through Ontarid Association of School Busi- " ness Officials serving as its committee chair, a board director and president. He participated on several provincial panels and gave Bigsenations related to education and facilities. He said the board is in the process of finding . his replacement and noted the board is in good hands currently as three managers who worked under him all have many years of ex- perience in facilities management. From a personal standpoint, Cullen says he married "my high school sweetheart', Linda, 34 years ago. They have two daughters, both mar- ried. Meaghan Hammond, 30, is an elementary teacher at Bruce Trail PS. in Milton. Kat Cullen, 28, is in promotions and on'air at Hamilton ra- dio station KX 94.7 FM New Country. Cullen said there isn't a thing he would change about his career. "It's been a good ride. There isn't one day of . tive 30 years.' His plans now are to relax a little. "My wife is retiring at the same time so we hope to spend more time at the cottage and home." [eV Jee flyers. coupons. shopping lists. Shop Get coupons fo Print c8upons instantly or Download on the i RB Ap Store Fear [ag(e)1= at roducts Smart sou-use and love receive oy ma TN3JOI Jelailer Save. ca/ mobile REE it | would undo. It's been a very busy and ac-