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13 candidates vying for vacant Rainbow board seat

Trustees will vote on to appoint new member on March 21
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Rainbow District School Board has released the names of the 13 people vying for the empty seat on the board. File photo

Rainbow District School Board has released the list of candidates vying for seat at the boardroom table since trustee Tyler Campbell’s resignation on Jan. 9.

The board voted Dec. 13 to appoint a candidate to replace outgoing trustee Tyler Campbell, rather than have a costly byelection

Campbell, a manager with the City of Greater Sudbury, announced his resignation as trustee late last year after he faced allegations of a conflict of interest around a proposed soccer dome or artificial turf on school board property.

Trustees had 90 days to replace Campbell as of Jan. 9, the effective date of his resignation. 

According to information published on the board’s website, on March 21 a Committee of the Whole Board will consider the applications received and bring forward a motion to appoint a candidate from the list.

The chosen applicant will be sworn in on March 29.

So who are the candidates, you’re likely wondering? Some of the candidates are familiar to Sudbury.com. Where that is the case, we’ve provided additional information beyond the person’s name. 

Here’s the list:

  • Allan Boyd: Recently retired after 35 years as an OPP officer on Manitoulin Island, Allan Boyd served 15 years as school resource officer, teaching community safety programs in the schools from elementary to high school levels, and working closely with school administrators and teachers, while helping students and parents with school-related issues. He was the officer who introduced V.I.P. Values Influences and Peer, and DARE Drug Abuse Resistance Education to the schools he visited. For the past 20 years, he has served as vice-chair for the Manitoulin Island and North Shore Victim Services. His retirement from policing gives him more time for public service on behalf of the people of Rainbow District School Board.
  • Stephanie Cooke
  • Richard Eberhardt: Eberhardt is the program manager at Rethink Green and president of the Social Planning Council of Sudbury. He is a former teacher and a former organizer for the NDP in Sudbury, and once served as the constituency assistant Glenn Thibeault, when Thibeault was the NDP MP for Sudbury.
  • Gordon Ewin: A retired teacher who ran for trustee position in the past. Ewin is also the namesake of the Gord Ewin Centre for Education at Lo-Ellen Park Secondary School.
  • Felicia Fahey: Is a Rainbow board parent and a resident of Dowling, who manages the LCBO in Onaping Falls and is an executive board member with OPSEU Region 6.
  • Anita Gibson: Gibson is a Rainbow board parent who ran for trustee in the last election and is the subject of a long-standing dispute with the board. She and her husband Dylan have been vocal opponent of accommodation reviews, and have been under a no trespass order for the Rainbow board office downtown and its high schools since 2012.
  • Kelly Levesque: Levesque is an engineer and project manager for Hatch. Her interest in STEM education, particularly for girls, led to her role in helping establish the Sudbury-based FIRST Robotics Team. A mother of two girls, she sits on the board of the Laurentian Child and Family Centre.
  • Joanne Ross: Ross has a doctorate in Audiology and was in clinical practice in Sudbury for many years.  She had experience in finance, education, and health care, and has authored numerous policy papers and practice statements.  In
    addition, she has served as chair of elementary and secondary parent
    councils in the rainbow board, and was the vice-chair of the board's special
    education advisory committee.  Ross continues to volunteer in the classroom,
    and has for nearly two decades.
  • Dahnja Schoengen
  • Peter Spadzinski
  • Thomas Trainor: Trainor ran for city council in Ward 1 in the 2014 municipal election.
  • Ruth Ward: Ward is a former Rainbow board trustee, whose last term ended in 2010.
  • Mel Young

If you are a candidate and would like to provide Sudbury.com with biographical information to share with readers, please email your information to [email protected].


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