A dad with a background in education is the new president of the Tri-Cities' District Parent Advisory Council.
Chuck Dennison spent his first weekend in the new post at a BC Confederation of Parent Advisory Councils meeting hopeful that a teachers' agreement will be reached.
But he said he's concerned underfunding is hurting education and he hopes to continue to raise parents' concerns at the district level.
"The education system, as you know, has received fairly constant funding of the last several years but the costs have gone up so there is less money in the education system to accomplish the same things," said Dennison, the father of a daughter in middle school.
Dennison said he first trained as an educator but left his high school teaching job to work in the private sector. His wife is an educator in the Surrey school district and said he understands the difficulties teachers face in the classroom.
To educate himself about current concerns, Dennison said he has attended every board meeting in recent months and attended district advisory groups. He replaces outgoing president Heidi Gable, who served six years on DPAC and who spoke at a recent parent rally as well as at board meetings to focus concerns on the impact of $13.4-million in job and program cuts on students.
