ELECTION day will this week be a bittersweet one for the Denham Town High School community, as they prepare for the institution to serve as a polling station in the 2025 Local Government by-election to replace their late deputy chairman and councillor for the Denham Town Division, Jermaine Hyatt.

Hyatt, a member of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), passed away last year after suffering a suspected heart attack. The JLP has put forward Dellon Gayle — community activist and past student of Denham Town High — as its candidate in the September 3 Local Government By-election.

School Principal Yvette Richards Thompson said the school is excited to have a past student vying to replace Hyatt, but still mourns the loss of a transformational figure.

“It is kind of bittersweet because this is now a memory of someone who has contributed so significantly to the development of the school and the transformation process that we are going through now, so it’s kind of a little bit emotional but, at the same time, due process must be done and we understand that life continues,” said Thompson.

Hyatt first won the division in the 2016 Local Government Election. He secured 2,580 votes to the People’s National Party’s (PNP’s) Patricia Taylor’s 333 votes. In the 2024 Local Government Election, Hyatt again had a landslide victory, amassing 2,745 votes to Taylor’s 546 votes. Independent candidate Alphanso George Lynch received nine votes in that contest. Less than a year after his victory, Hyatt died. Taylor also passed earlier this year.

“He was actually one of those who, with our Member of Parliament [Desmond McKenzie], would have pushed for…additional support for the school. He would have been integral to the literacy programme that we are now so known for; He would have been so integral in ensuring that that got off the ground and that the support that was needed, we got it. He was such an advocate for the school, and not just the school, but for education and transformation and for education being that vehicle to transform the community,” Thompson told the Jamaica Observer.

She added that Hyatt was a beacon of light that had a great passion for education and was highly respected within the community. As the division enters a new chapter with a new representative to be appointed when Jamaicans head to the polls this week, she said the school is excited to once again have a member of the institution as a candidate.

Gayle was officially nominated on August 18.

“I’m excited for it because I think both of them, as a matter of fact, they worked closely together, and so they share a lot of the same vision, the same passion, because they are both community-oriented,” said Thompson.

“Dellon Gayle, he’s a past student and he decided to come back and serve the school, which he would have given a lot of credit that fostered his development. An election has to take place, and we’re excited to know that it is someone else that is equally passionate about education and about the community, because the community does deserve a representative that cares about them, and that suits them,” she added.

The principal said the school is in full preparation mode as it seeks to welcome students as well as host the general and local government elections. She said the school’s administrators did anticipate that the election would coincide with the first week of school, and they have made the necessary adjustments.

Schools will open on September 1 and then close on September 2 and 3 to facilitate the election process. School will resume on September 4.

“For the most part, our orientation schedule is not affected, because we actually scheduled orientation for this week for our students, so we proceeded as planned. The only adjustment is [this] week we will continue to do our diagnostic tests, and we will do our professional development, and other activities will take place throughout the week, so we are not in any way impacted by the election announcements. Our staff members will proceed as normal,” Thompson told the Sunday Observer.

She further noted that teachers at the institution who are election day workers will be facilitated as best as possible to fulfil their national duties.

“We have nothing planned that would be impacted by the operations within the election,” said Thompson.

She added that the school anticipates the full cohort of students when school officially begins on September 8.

Dellon Gayle poses for a photo just moments before he was nominated as the Jamaica Labour Party candidate for the Denham Town Division on August 18.

THOMPSON…it is kind of bittersweet because this is now a memory of someone who has contributed so significantly to the development of the school and the transformation process that we are going through nowx