English Montreal School Board

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English Montreal School Board (EMSB or in French, CSEM, Commission scolaire English-Montréal) is the largest English-language school board in Québec. The EMSB is responsible for anglophone public schools in the centre and eastern sectors of Montréal Island. Public education in the western portion of Montréal Island is administered by the Lester B. Pearson School Board.

Antonio Lacroce is the current Director General of the school board and its chief administrative officer. He is assisted by Mario Tirelli, Assistant Director General, several department heads, coordinators and four regional directors. The school board has divided its territory into three regions for administrative purposes. The regional directors are the immediate superiors of elementary and high school principals.

Angela Mancini is the current chair of the school board. Silvia Lo Bianco is the vice chair. Twenty-one other commissioners representing different wards within the school board's territory and two non-voting parent representatives also sit on the Council of Commissioners. The Council sets school board policy and gives the board its political direction. It usually meets on the fourth Wednesday of every month. All members of the council are elected every four years. The next election is expected to take place on November 6, 2011.

The main offices of the board are at 6000, Fielding Avenue in the Notre-Dame-de-Grâce district of the borough of Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce. The building was formerly occupied by the Protestant School Board of Greater Montreal (PSBGM).

Contents 1 History 2 Current issues 3 English Montreal School Board Chairpersons 4 List of EMSB Schools 4.1 Elementary schools 4.2 High schools 4.3 Outreach schools 5 References 6 External links

[edit] History

The Government of Québec reorganized the province's public school boards in the mid-1990s. School boards in Quebec had been organized along confessional lines, Catholic and Protestant, since before Canadian Confederation. In fact, Québec was guaranteed a confessional public school system by the British North America Act, 1867, now known as the Constitution Act, 1867. The provincial government was therefore required to ask the federal government to amend the Canadian Constitution if it were to reorganize school boards along linguistic lines, English and French. The amendment was passed without much debate by both the House of Commons and the Senate, notwithstanding the unresolved constitutional debate between Québec and the rest of Canada.

The new board began operations on July 1, 1998. The Protestant School Board of Greater Montreal (PSBGM) and the English sectors of the Commission des écoles catholiques de Montréal (CECM), the Commission scolaire Jérôme-Le Royer and the Commission scolaire Sainte-Croix were amalgamated to form the EMSB.

[edit] Current issues

The political infighting among the board's commissioners has received significant coverage in Montreal's English-language media, most notably the Montreal Gazette. This fighting, for the most part, had previously pitted Catholics vs. Protestants. That division has recently become much less significant, however. The harmonization of the previous boards' administrative policies as well as the debate over school closings due to declining enrollment have been especially inflammatory. In 2005, both the Montreal Gazette and the French-language tabloid Le Journal de Montréal printed a special series of articles denouncing alleged nepotism and graft in the province's public school boards. The Gazette's investigation focused almost exclusively on the hiring practices of the English Montreal School Board. A recent Supreme Court of Canada ruling requiring provincial public bodies to hold open meetings will challenge its board of commissioners, which habitually meets behind closed doors.

Enrollment in the English Montréal School Board's schools and centres continues to decline as it does in most anglophone public school boards in Quebéc. This is a part of an ongoing decline which began with the enactment of the Charter of the French Language by René Lévesque's Parti Québécois government in 1977.

The EMSB recently announced its intention to create its own foundation. According to its website, the goal of a future EMSB foundation would be to "ensure funding for unique and creative projects by raising charitable funds from individuals, businesses, community service organizations, and other friends". A Montreal businessman had already made a first donation to the school board in the autumn of 2006. The board has also organized, for the past several years, an annual fundraising golf tournament ^[1].

[edit] English Montreal School Board Chairpersons

• George Vathilakis (1998-2001)
• John Simms (2001-2003)
• Dominic Spiridigliozzi (2003-2007)
• Angela Mancini (2007- )

[edit] List of EMSB Schools

This school board oversees 40 elementary schools, 17 secondary schools, 11 outreach schools, 10 social affairs institutions and 11 adult and vocational centres, in which over 38,000 students are enrolled.

[edit] Elementary schools

[edit] High schools

[edit] Outreach schools

[edit] References

1. ^ fundraising golf tournament
2. ^ Banting
3. ^ Hampstead
4. ^ John Caboto
5. ^ St. Brendan
6. ^ Lester B. Pearson
7. ^ Marymount Academy
8. ^ Rosemount High School
9. ^ Vincent Massey Collegiate
10. ^ Westmount High School
11. ^ [1]

[edit] External links

• EMSB website (French - English)