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Ken Denike: Vancouver First

Candidate: Vancouver School Board
ken denike
Ken Denike.

Ken was first elected to the Vancouver School Board in 1984 and is running for another term as trustee.

He served until recently at the provincial level in teacher and staff bargaining. He provides sound advice on managing the school system, and advocating through action.

During his term as chair of the Vancouver Board of Education in 2005/2006, Ken successfully lobbied the Federal government to fund settlement workers in schools in BC. He argued that it was inequitable for Ontario to be the only province to have the program while the situation the program addresses was being experienced in other provinces.

He is an advocate of high quality public education and represents the Board at Employment Equity Advisory and Gifted Education Advisory Committees

Ken has served on off since the inception of Metro English Language Learners Consortium, It’s role is to share best practices across Metro and exchange information

In 1998 he was elected as Director for the BCPSEA, which he chaired from 2000-02 and was a director until 2013.

He represented BCPSEA on the BC Education Advisory Council until 2013 and was liaison trustee to metro boards of education. In 2006 he served as trustee representative during negotiations with BC Teachers Federation which led to the mutually agreed 2006 – 2011, contract.

He is committed to improving the Board’s relationship with the provincial government.

Ken was one of only two trustees on the Board who supported reaching a mutually agreed contract between teachers and boards during negotiations this year which they reached in September. Otherwise, he argued, it would be difficult to reach harmony and a sustainable contract over the long run.

Ken has a Masters degree in Community and Regional Planning. He has specialized in Transportation planning. He represented City of Vancouver on provincial committee that determined Cambie alignment of Canada line.

Ken has a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business with thesis in public finance.

Professionally he is faculty emeritus at UBC and UBC transportation reference to media.

Ken is recognized as a good listener, strong advocate for high-quality public education for students and fair funding for public schools.

Twitter: twitter.com/ubcken

Website: www.kendenike.ca