With a Rainbow District School Board trustee seat about to be vacant, Anita Gibson should be the first choice to replace Tyler Campbell, says a trustee with the school board.
Rainbow District School Board trustee Larry Killens said Gibson is the most obvious choice to take over Campbell's seat because she came in second against him in the 2014 election.
“The second person that ran against Mr. Campbell obviously is all about the kids as well,” Killens said. “That should be a consideration.”
According to Ontario's Education Act, the school board can either choose to hold a byelection or appoint a new trustee to fill a vacant seat.
Rainbow District School Board chair Doreen Dewar told Sudbury.com she prefers the appointment option because it would be less costly. But the board would vote on the preferred option.
During the 2014 municipal election, Campbell and Gibson were the only two people to run for the position of Rainbow District School Board trustee in Area 2, which covers Levack, Dowling, Chelmsford, Azilda and parts of the Donovan.
Campbell received 1,711 votes, or 57.5 per cent of the vote, while Gibson received 1,265 votes, or 42.5 per cent of the vote.
Sudbury.com has reached out to Gibson, but our messages have not been returned.
Campbell announced Dec. 2 he would be stepping down from his position as trustee. He will attend his final school board meeting on Dec. 13.
Campbell, who is the City of Greater Sudbury's director of leisure services, said he was resigning due to the demands of that job.
However, his resignation came within days of a conflict of interest accusation by a Rainbow School Board parent. Emails obtained by the parent, Chantelle Gorham, show Campbell discussing school board assets with Ward 8 Coun. Al Sizer, as part of an email exchange over plans for a potential soccer turf or dome to be located at Lasalle Secondary School.
Gorham has taken to social media where she has thrown her support behind Gibson to fill the vacant trustee position ahead of an important vote on the school board's accommodation review.
“Anita Gibson has been a beacon of wisdom throughout this process,” she wrote. “She is absolutely the right candidate for the position, and with 42 per cent of the vote, a qualified candidate in the eyes of our community. We will not accept an unknown appointee to represent us.”
In 2012, Gibson and her husband were banned from attending Rainbow District School Board meetings, and from certain school board property, after making several presentations before the board and recording the meetings.
The school board banned electronic recordings of its meetings – with some exceptions for media and people with approval from the director of education – in 2012. In 2013 trustees voted against electronically recording their own meetings and posting them on the board's website, citing cost issues.
