HAVERHILL — This fall's city election is shaping up to be a lively contest.
Raymond Sierpina, who retired as principal of Tilton School last year, took out papers to run for School Committee late last week. If elected, he would be the third retired Haverhill school administrator to serve on the committee in recent years.
Thomas Behan, who led several Haverhill schools, including Hunking Middle, Moody and Silver Hill, and Robert Gilman, a veteran social studies teacher who retired as assistant principal of Haverhill High School, both served on the committee in the last decade.
Sierpina is one of eight candidates who have so far announced that they are running for the three open seats on the School Committee.
Two of the incumbents, Joseph Bevilacqua and Kerry Fitzgerald, have already taken out papers. So far, the third committee member whose term expires next January, Erin Francescone, has not pulled nomination papers or announced if she is running.
Former City Councilor Krystine Hetel, who served one term on the council but lost her seat two years ago, also has taken out papers for School Committee. Others running for that board include attorney Paul Magliocchetti, William Evans, Fred Simmons and Katherine Kaczor.
The City Council race also is shaping up to be a hotly contested one, with 21 people having pulled papers for the nine seats on the board.
Former Councilor John Curtin took out papers last week looking to regain a seat on that board. A retired state trooper, he was first elected to the council in 1995.
City Council President Michael Hart, as well as city councilors William Macek, Robert Scatamacchia, Kenneth Quimby, William Ryan, Mary Ellen Daly O'Brien, Michael McGonagle and David Hall have all taken out papers.
City Councilor James Donahue announced several weeks ago he was not running for re-election.
Besides Curtin, other challengers include Malcolm Kimball Jr., Anastasia Papaefthemiou, Christian Miller, James Jardine, Michael Young, Lewis Poore, Norman Milhendler, Colin LePage, David Langlois, Carlos Maldonado, Sven Amirian and Stephen Iannalfo.
Poore is a deputy fire chief in Haverhill, Jardine is a firefighter and Iannalfo is a patrolman.
So far, the race for mayor continues to look like a two-man fight between the incumbent, James Fiorentini, and former City Council President John Michitson, an electrical engineer. Michitson announced his candidacy shortly after Fiorentini was re-elected to his third term in 2007.
Both Fiorentini and Michitson have taken out papers. So far, no one else has taken out papers for the city's top job, and there has been no talk about a possible third candidate thus far.
Unless a third candidate emerges, at this point there would not be a primary for mayor.
But if all of the candidates who have pulled nomination papers to run for City Council and School Committee return their papers, preliminary elections will be held for both of those offices in September.
Nineteen candidates are needed to trigger a preliminary contest on the council side, and seven are required for a preliminary election on the school side.
The deadline for pulling papers for mayor, councilor or School Committee is July 24, at 5 p.m. Candidates have until 5 p.m. on July 28, to return nomination papers with the required 50 valid signatures.
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