Open races, acclamations and youth: Five things to watch as nominations are set for the next wave of school trustees

The nominations are in.

In total, 59 candidates have thrown their hats in the ring to run for Hamilton school board trustee.

Thirty-five candidates are vying for 11 spots at the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board (HWDSB). At the Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board (HWCDSB), 21 candidates are registered to fill nine seats.

There are two candidates for trustee to represent the French Catholic school board and one for the trustee role with the French public board.

Voters cast their ballots on Oct. 24.

Here are five things to watch for this election:

Open races

There are six open races where there is no incumbent running.

Four are at the public board: Ward 2 (previously combined with Ward 1); Wards 5 and 10 (Ward 5, previously its own seat, is currently held by Carole Paikin Miller, who is not seeking re-election); Wards 11 and 12 (held by former chair Alex Johnstone, who is running for city council); and Ward 15 (currently held by Penny Deathe, who has not registered to run again).

At the Catholic board, Wards 3 and 4 (current trustee Tyler Iorio is running for trustee in Wards 9 and 11 instead) and Ward 6 are open.

Acclamations

Two school-board trustee candidates are running unopposed, meaning they've won by default.

Acclaimed are Mark Valvasori in Wards 1, 2 and 15 at the English Catholic board and Pierre Gregory at the French public board.

Paul Bennett, a Nova Scotia-based education consultant and adjunct professor at Saint Mary's University, has coined the term acclamation disease" for the pervasive lack of candidates plaguing Canadian school boards.

It's increasingly difficult to get people to commit to run," he said. There has been a dramatic increase over time in the rate of acclamation."

There were seven acclaimed seats in 2018 and two in 2014.

And, for the first time in at least three terms, longtime Catholic board chair Pat Daly has competition. Two Ward 7 challengers, Michael Di Giacomo and Nick Agostino, were added to the list Friday afternoon.

At least two Hamilton incumbents, Daly, who has chaired the board for more than 30 years, and Ray Mulholland, a 50-year public-board trustee, are what Bennett calls trustees for life." Mulholland, who ran unopposed in 2018, has two competitors this term.

Youth movement

Four recent HWDSB grads - including three former student trustees - are in the election, a pattern experts have called an anomaly.

Elizabeth Wong, 22, and Cameron Prosic, 20, are facing off in Ward 1 in west Hamilton, Sabreina Dahab, 23, is running in downtown Ward 2, and Ahona Mehdi, 20, is running in Wards 8 and 14 on the central and west Mountain.

Racism probe

Former student trustee Mehdi is running against incumbent Becky Buck, one of the four trustees Mehdi accused of racism, in Wards 8 and 14.

Her allegations in 2020 prompted a third-party investigation resulting in sanctions against two trustees, then-chair Alex Johnstone and Paikin Miller. The investigation found no code of conduct breaches for Buck or Kathy Archer, the other trustee connected to the probe. Paikin Miller was asked to resign by the board, but did not. She has not registered to be a candidate again.

Returning faces

Former public board chair Todd White is vying once again for the job of Ward 5 trustee.

White, who helmed the HWDSB for several years, lost a tight race in the east Hamilton ward in 2018 to Paikin Miller - the wife of his former boss, Paul Miller, who fired him in August 2018 after he filed a complaint alleging the East Hamilton-Stoney Creek MPP bullied staff and made racist, sexist and homophobic comments.

White said at the time he believed the outcome of the election was linked to his dismissal in the lead up to the vote.

Also returning as a candidate is former trustee Larry Pattison, who was elected in Ward 3 in 2014, as part of a campaign where they tried to mobilize" to reform the board, Bennett said.

Trustee hopefuls

English public

Ward 1 Elizabeth Wong*, Cameron Prosic, Michael Kelly, Wendy Thrasher

Ward 2 Sabreina Dahab, Andrew Smyth, Tarek Jalbout, Michael Peters

Ward 3 Maria Felix Miller*, Fatima Baig, Larry Pattison

Ward 4 Ray Mulholland*, Shane Cunningham Boles, Davin Thornborrow

Ward 5 and 10 Nancy Silva Khan, Todd White, Marie Jackson, Zahid Butt, Joseph Szigeti

Ward 6 and 9 Jay Edington, Kathy Archer*

Ward 7 Dawn Danko*, Amy Cowling, Ryan Weinberger

Wards 8 and 14 Ahona Mehdi, Becky Buck*, Behrouz Bakhtiari, Ben O'Reilly

Wards 11 and 12 Tom Patterson, Amanda Fehrman

Ward 13 Paul Tut*, Larry Masters

Ward 15 Catherine Kronas, Graeme Noble, Syed Banoori

English Catholic

Ward 1, 2 and 15 Mark Valvasori*

Wards 3 and 4 Ralph Agostino, Josie Angelini

Ward 5 Aldo D'Intino*, Lucas Mascotto-Carbone

Ward 6 Ellen Agostino, Peter Mamer, Anthony Mari

Ward 7 Pat Daly*, Michael Di Giacomo, Nick Agostino

Wards 8 and 14 John Valvasori*, Wieslawa Chrapka, Francesco Capisciolto

Wards 9 and 11 Tyler Iorio, Louis Agro*, Jeanie Corner

Ward 10 Mary Nardini*, Andrea Di Nicola

Wards 12 and 13 Phil Homerski*, Ricky Tavares

Conseil Scolaire Catholique MonAvenir Marcel Levesque*, Joseph Gosselin

Conseil Scolaire Viamonde Pierre Gregory

* indicates an incumbent candidate. The list was updated Friday afternoon, the deadline to register, but the city has until Aug. 22 at 4 p.m. to certify the candidates. A final list of certified candidates will be available on Monday.

Kate McCullough is an education reporter at The Spectator. kmccullough@thespec.com