EDUCATION
“As an educator in public schools, you always wish you had more resources. When you take administrator courses, one of the things they ask is if you could design the perfect school, what would it be? For me to have the opportunity to exercise that, to experience it, that was just good For more than a decade, Cimolini had a winter home in Anthem. Thirty years after last seeing his high school sweetheart, they reconnected in Alberta and married. He and wife Debra have a blended family of four children and eight grandchildren. After returning from China in 2017, “We were looking for more of an active retirement community,” he said. The search ended with Province and its slogan, “Retire like you mean it.” luck. I was so fortunate.” Home in Maricopa The couple enjoys playing pickleball and attending dances and shows. Ray sings in both the Province Chorale and Barbershop Quartet. “We are really grateful for how beautiful it is here.”
component. “I ended up staying four years. We built three schools,” he stated. “I learned about the culture and the people, saw some breathtaking landscapes and had some of the best food I’ve ever eaten.” He added he was impressed by how moral and ethical the Chinese people were despite very limited exposure to religion. There was also a deep appreciation of family. In the classroom, the initial class of 12 students who entered in grade 10 all were accepted into Canadian universities. “The Chinese were also respectful of education,” Cimolini said. “But they were very strict and didn’t ask questions. They had to adjust to our style where we wanted to hear what they thought.” The school still operates but more stringent government regulations, like the amount of coursework and time mandated for Chinese art, culture and language, have impacted its operations. Cimolini summarized his final two experiences in the UAE and China:
“The students were so attentive and respectful,” Cimolini added. “The culture there encouraged students to respect education.” The culture also meant camel parades and competitions, some of his favorite memories, along with a Ferrari museum where Arab sheikhs stored their vehicles before taking them out for a casual Sunday drive. China connection The final and longest stop for Cimolini was Guangzhou, China, where a woman who administrated several pre-kindergartens wanted to develop an elementary school for those students with a Canadian curriculum. “There was a relaxation on entrepreneurship and the government was endorsing such projects,” Cimolini said of the late 2013 project. “This time I was given a blank piece of land and finances were not a restraint. We built a level of openness and incorporated aspects of nature.” What started as a planned K-6 school turned into K-12. There was an Olympic-sized swimming pool, a beautiful theater and state- of-the-art technology with a virtual reality
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