Several school board trustee candidates who put their names in to stand in the Oct. 24 election have been acclaimed for the 2022-26 period.
While the mayoral and city council elections that take place across Ontario in October typically receive the most attention, school board trustees are also elected on the same day. The nomination period for the upcoming municipal election closed on Friday.
The Rainbow District School Board has five trustees who have been acclaimed for this election cycle.
That includes David Farrow in Area 1 (Wards 1 and 2). Farrow is a retired Rainbow board school principal who ran unsuccessfully for the Liberals provincially in the Sudbury riding in this spring’s election.
Kerrie St. Jean, currently the trustee in that area, did not put her name forward for the RDSB for this election.
Anita Gibson was also acclaimed in Area 2 (Wards 3 and 4), ensuring her a RDSB trustee seat for a second term.
Veteran RDSB trustees Dena Morrison, Judy Hunda and Bob Clement (the board’s current chair, who represents the Espanola area) have also all been acclaimed in their respective areas.
There is some competition for the trustee seats in a couple of electoral regions.
In Area 3 (Wards 5 and 6), incumbent Judy Kosmerly is being challenged by Matthew Morris. In Area 5 (Wards 9 and 10), incumbent Doreen Dewar is being challenged by Dylan Gibson (the husband of RDSB trustee Anita Gibson) and Javier Rico Paez.
Incumbent Margaret Stringer is being challenged for the Manitoulin Island RDSB trustee seat by Lisa Corbiere-Addison, according to information provided to Sudbury.com on Monday morning by the clerk with the Town of Northeastern Manitoulin and the Islands.
Several trustees were also acclaimed for seats on the Sudbury Catholic District School Board.
That includes incumbents Raymond Desjardins, Michael Bellmore (the board’s current chair) and Jody Cameron. All are veteran trustees with the board.
In Zone 1 (Wards 1 and 2), incumbent trustee Estelle Scappatura is being challenged by Shirley McKnight.
Nancy Deni, the current trustee in Zone 4 (Wards 7 and 8, as well as the municipalities of St. Charles and Markstay-Warren), did not put her name forward for re-election.
Three candidates have stepped up for the SCDSB in this area, all of them having filed last week. These candidates are Sherry Jordan, Stefano Presenza and Kevin Roy.
Incumbent Alex Cimino is being challenged in Zone 5 by Claire Morrison. Zone 5 covers Wards 9 and 10, plus the municipalities of Killarney and French River, and several unorganized townships.
Like its English counterparts, Conseil scolaire public Grand Nord de l’Ontario (CSPGNO) has several trustee candidates who have been acclaimed.
That includes Robert Boileau in Region 8 (Wards 2 and 3), Julie Olivier in Region 9 (Wards 5 and 7), Andréane Chénier in Region 10 (Ward 6), Francine Vaillancourt in Region 11 (Wards 8 and 12) and Francois Boudreau in Region 12 (Wards 9, 10 and 11).
There are two people running for the CSPGNO in Region 7, Carole G. Anderson and Gouled Hassan. In May, Hassan was appointed as CSPGNO trustee until the fall elections, replacing a trustee who had moved away.
Conseil scolaire catholique Nouvelon’s board is structured differently from others in the area, in that more than one trustee can be elected in an area. This means several trustees have also been acclaimed to this board.
Claude Berthiaume (you may remember him as a former Greater Sudbury city councillor) and Marcel Montpellier are the incumbents for Nouvelon in Zone 4 (Wards 1 and 4), and they are the only candidates to have put their names forward in this area.
It’s the same situation in Zone 6 (Wards 5 and 6), where incumbents Louise Essiembre and Marcel Legault were the only candidates to register for the upcoming election.
In Zone 5, where there are three trustee spots, there are five people running. Incumbents Monique Aubin-Gagné and Josée Bisson return to the ballot, accompanied by Raymond Joanisse, Shawn Rossi and Stacy Sathaseevan.
In June, Aubin-Gagné was appointed as a Nouvelon trustee until the fall elections, filling a position left vacant after the passing of veteran trustee André Bidal.
Zone 5 incumbent Marc Larochelle is not running this time around.
The local French-language school boards also have candidates running in other regions of Northern Ontario, who have not been included in this article.
The full list of municipal election candidates running in the Greater Sudbury region is available here.
Heidi Ulrichsen is the associate content editor at Sudbury.com. She also covers education and the arts scene.
