School board contests shrink

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This article was published 22/09/2010 (4573 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Six acclamations, 10 retirements, and the fewest candidates since amalgamation.

Winnipeg’s school boards are a mixed bag, with all four incumbents in Ward 3 of Seven Oaks acclaimed and eight candidates for four seats in Ward 2.

There’s a looming seismic shift in St. James-Assiniboia School Division, where 16 candidates contest nine seats, only five now held by incumbents.

Four trustees are retiring in St. James-Assiniboia, where Bruce Alexander, Linda Archer, Peter Carney, and Sandra Paterson-Greene represent many decades of service and institutional knowledge now lost to the division.

“There’s going to be quite a change. There’s a steep learning curve,” said Archer.

St. James-Assiniboia has closed 16 schools because of steadily declining enrolment — there’d be more, if not for the province’s moratorium on school closures — and while it still has the city’s lowest school taxes, the mill rate margin between SJA and other divisions is now narrow.

The biggest field is in River East Transcona, 21 contenders challenging for eight seats within the city.

There are 14 candidates for nine seats in both Pembina Trails and Louis Riel, each with only one retiring incumbent.

Hugh Coburn and Tom Parker were unchallenged for the two Ward 4 seats in Louis Riel when nominations closed at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Acclamations are rare within the city.

Winnipeg School Division has 19 candidates for its nine seats.

There are 52 seats in the city — Seven Oaks and River East Transcona each has one rural seat

Residents of the St. Norbert neighbourhood in Winnipeg are eligible for the three seats in Ward 1 of Seine River S.D., where long-time Seine River chair Wendy Bloomfield and fellow-incumbent Greg Reid are facing two rural candidates.

There were 122 candidates for the 52 seats in 2002, the first post-amalgamation election, and 98 in 2006. There are 96 this year.

Keeping with a recent pattern, most unsuccessful candidates rarely try again, and almost all previously-defeated incumbents have called it a career. An exception is former River East Transcona board chair Wayne Ritcher, ousted in 2006, and back for another try.

Two previously-retired trustees and former school board chairs are trying to make a comeback, Scott Johnston in St. James-Assiniboia and Ric Dela Cruz in Seven Oaks.

Former city councillor Shirley Timm-Rudolph is running in River East Transcona.

The entire list of candidates is available at: http://www.winnipeg.ca/clerks/pdfs/elections/2010Election/List%20of%20Nominated%20Candidates.pdf

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca