English Montreal School Board
The English Montreal School Board (official name: Commission scolaire English-Montréal — English-Montréal School Board) is one of five public school boards on the island of Montreal.
English Montreal School Board Commission scolaire English-Montréal | |
---|---|
Location | |
Canada | |
District information | |
Schools | 30 Elementary Schools 3 Elementary/Secondary Schools 21 Secondary Schools 7 Social Affairs Schools 10 Adult and Vocational Education Centres[1] |
Students and staff | |
Students | 44,000[2] |
Other information | |
Website | www |
At 92.4 percent, the English Montreal School Board has the highest rate of students who earn a high school diploma among all public school boards in Quebec. This success rate is considerably higher than the provincewide average of 81.8 percent, and is only slightly lower than the 92.9 percent success rate for private schools.[3]
The EMSB is one of two English-language school boards on the island of Montreal. Its territory consists of 14 of Montreal's 19 boroughs (Anjou, Montréal-Nord, Outremont, Saint-Laurent, Saint-Léonard, Ville-Marie, Ahuntsic-Cartierville, Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie, Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension, Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, Rivière-des-Prairies–Pointe-aux-Trembles, Plateau-Mont-Royal and Sud-Ouest) as well as the municipalities of Côte-Saint-Luc, Hampstead, Montréal-Est, Montréal-Ouest, Mont-Royal and Westmount.[4]
The Director General of the EMSB is Nick Katalifos,[5] who is the school board's chief administrative officer.
Structurally, the EMSB has two Assistant Directors General: Jack H. Chadirdjian and Pela Nickoletopoulos. The school board also has three regional directors: Demetrios Giannacopoulos (west sector), Nathalie Lacroix-Maillette (east sector), and Angela Spagnolo (adult education and vocational services). The school board also has a secretary-general: Me Nathalie Lauzière, who has a key role in the board's functioning. [6]
The Administration Building of the EMSB is located at 6000 Fielding Avenue[7] in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce. The building was formerly occupied by the Protestant School Board of Greater Montreal (PSBGM).[8]
History
The Government of Quebec reorganized the province's public school boards in the mid-1990s. School boards in Quebec had been organized along religious confessional lines, Catholic and Protestant, since before Canadian Confederation. The province of Quebec 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 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 by both the House of Commons and the Senate, notwithstanding the unresolved constitutional debate between Quebec and the rest of Canada.
The EMSB officially began operations on July 1, 1998, after[9] the English sectors of the Protestant School Board of Greater Montreal (PSBGM), the Montreal Catholic School Commission (CECM), the Commission scolaire Jérôme-Le Royer and the Commission scolaire Sainte-Croix were amalgamated to form the EMSB.[10]
The political infighting among the board's commissioners has received significant coverage in Montreal's English-language media, most notably the Montreal Gazette. This competition, for the most part, had previously pitted Catholics vs. Protestants. That division has recently become much less significant, however. But the harmonization of the previous boards' administrative policies and 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.
Enrollment in the English Montreal School Board's schools and centres continues to decline as it does in most English-language public school boards in Quebec. This is a part of an ongoing decline following the enactment of the Charter of the French Language by the Québec government In 1977.[11][12]
Since the EMSB's creation in 1998, the board has closed 21 schools, most recently 2 elementary schools and 1 high school in 2020. The School Board's chairperson attributes the declining enrolment to Bill 101, families moving to cities with lower home taxes, such as Laval; and the general decline in birth rates.[13]
The EMSB had the highest voter turnout among all school boards in Quebec, with 21%.[14]
In 2019, the EMSB said it would not enforce Bill 21, the Government of Quebec's proposed ban of public servants wearing religious symbols, stating that the board has never received a complaint from a parent or student about a teacher's religious symbol.[15]
Political stands
The EMSB is currently challenging the constitutionality of section 477.1.1 of the Education Act, arguing the government cannot unilaterally take schools away from the EMSB as it did in 2019 when it took General Vanier School and John Paul I High School and transferred them to Commission scolaire de la Pointe-de-l'Île, as it violates section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The EMSB is one of the school boards who joined the Quebec English School Boards Association (QESBA) challenging the constitutionality of Bill 40, the CAQ law that abolished school boards and replaced them with school service centres. The school boards maintain that Bill 40 violates section 23 of the Charter.
The EMSB is also challenging the constitutionality of Bill 21, arguing it violates sections 23 and 28 of the Charter. Sections 23 and 28 cannot be overridden by the notwithstanding clause. Most recently, the EMSB has challenged the constitutionality of Bill 96, arguing it violates section 133 of the Constitution Act, 1867, section 23 and Part V of the Constitution Act, 1982. None of these provisions can be overridden by the notwithstanding clause.
The EMSB has also spoken publicly against the government's directive banning prayers in schools as well as Bill 23, and maintains that both are unconstitutional.
Chairs of the English Montreal School Board
- George Vathilakis (1998–2001)
- John Simms (2001–2003)
- Dominic Spiridigliozzi (2003–2007)
- Angela Mancini (2007–2020)
- Joe Ortona (2020- )
Vice-Chairs of the English Montreal School Board
- Dominic Spiridigliozzi (1998–2003)
- Elizabeth Fokoefs (2003–2007)
- Sylvia Lo Bianco (2007–2014)
- Sylvia Lo Bianco (2014–2018)
- Joe Ortona (2018–2020)
- Agostino Cannavino (2020- )
List of EMSB Schools
This school board oversees 30 elementary schools, 3 elementary and secondary schools, 21 secondary schools, 7 social affairs institutions and 10 adult and vocational centres, in which over 44,000 students are enrolled.
Elementary schools
- Bancroft School
- Carlyle School
- Cedarcrest School
- Coronation School
- Dalkeith School
- Dante School
- Dunrae Gardens School
- East Hill School
- Edinburgh School[16]
- Edward Murphy School
- Elizabeth Ballantyne School
- Gardenview School
- Gerald McShane School
- Hampstead School[17]
- Honoré-Mercier School
- John Caboto Academy[18]
- Leonardo da Vinci Academy
- Merton School
- Michelangelo International Elementary School
- Nesbitt School
- Our Lady of Pompei School
- Parkdale School
- Pierre de Coubertin School[19]
- Pierre Elliott Trudeau School
- Roslyn School
- Sinclair Laird School
- St. Gabriel School
- St. Monica School
- Westmount Park School
- Willingdon School
Elementary/Secondary Schools
- F.A.C.E. School
- Royal Vale School[20]
- St. Raphael School
Secondary Schools
- James Lyng High School
- John F. Kennedy High School
- John Grant High School
- LaurenHill Academy
- Laurier Macdonald High School
- Lester B. Pearson High School[21]
- L.I.N.K.S. High School
- Marymount Academy International[22]
- M.I.N.D. High School
- Rosemount High School[23]
- Royal West Academy
- Vincent Massey Collegiate[24]
- Westmount High School[25]
- Focus High School
- Options High School
- Outreach High School
- Perspectives I High School
- Perspectives II High School[26]
- Programme Mile-End High School
- Venture High School
- Vezina High School
Social Affairs Schools
- Cité des Prairies
- Elizabeth High School
- Mackay Centre School
- Montreal Children's Hospital
- Mountainview School Project Centre
- Philip E. Layton School
- Sir Mortimer B. Davis School
Adult and Vocational Education Centres
- Galileo Adult Education Centre
- The HSM Adult Education Centre
- James Lyng Adult Education Centre
- John F. Kennedy Adult Education Centre
- Wagar Adult Education Centre
- Saint-Laurent Adult Education Centre
- Laurier Macdonald Vocational Centre
- Rosemount Technology Centre
- Shadd Health and Business Centre
- St. Pius X Career Centre
References
- "Frequently Asked Questions". English Montreal School Board. 2010. Archived from the original on 1 March 2012. Retrieved 24 February 2012.
- "About Our Board". www.emsb.qc.ca.
- Feith, Jesse (September 20, 2019). "EMSB has highest Quebec public school board success rate, new stats show". Retrieved 2020-03-17.
- "Our Territory". www.emsb.qc.ca. Retrieved 2020-03-17.
- "Director General". www.emsb.qc.ca. Retrieved 2020-03-17.
- "Senior Management & Departments". www.emsb.qc.ca. Retrieved 2020-03-17.
- "Home (English)". English Montreal School Board. Retrieved 2022-09-05.
6000 Fielding Avenue Montreal, QC H3X 1T4
- "GAZETTE OFFICIELLE DU QUÉBEC. 14 julliet 1979. Il le année. n° 28" (Archive). p. 7030 (PDF p. 88/172). "The Protestant School Board of Greater Montreal 6000. avenue Fielding Montréal (Que.) H3X 1T4"
- "About Our Board". www.emsb.qc.ca. Retrieved 2020-03-17.
- "EMSB Home." Protestant School Board of Greater Montreal. April 22, 1999. Retrieved on March 22, 2011.
- "Un effet direct de la loi 101". April 2017. Archived from the original on 2022-05-25. Retrieved 2022-07-12.
- "DECLINE OF ENROLMENT IN QUEBEC'S ENGLISH-LANGUAGE SCHOOL SECTOR" (PDF). concordia.ca. Retrieved 2022-07-12.
- "High-profile candidates compete for EMSB chairperson job". Archived from the original on 2015-01-19. Retrieved 2019-01-27.
- "Montreal-area English school board election results – Global News". globalnews.ca. Retrieved 3 November 2014.
- "School board vows to disregard Quebec bill restricting religious symbols". Retrieved 2019-03-29.
- "Edinburgh". edinburghschool.org. Archived from the original on 16 October 2010. Retrieved 20 April 2018.
- "École primaire Hampstead Elementary School". www.emsb.qc.ca. Retrieved 20 April 2018.
- "Académie John Caboto Academy". www.emsb.qc.ca. Retrieved 20 April 2018.
- "École Pierre de Coubertin School". www.emsb.qc.ca. Retrieved 20 April 2018.
- "École Royal Vale School". www.royalvale.emsb.qc.ca.
- "Lester B. Pearson High School". www.emsb.qc.ca. Retrieved 20 April 2018.
- "Marymount Academy Index". www.emsb.qc.ca. Retrieved 20 April 2018.
- "École Secondaire Rosemount High School". www.emsb.qc.ca. Retrieved 20 April 2018.
- "Vincent Massey Collegiate". emsb.qc.ca. Retrieved 20 April 2018.
- "Westmount High School". emsb.qc.ca. Retrieved 20 April 2018.
- "Perspectives II". Emsb.qc.ca. Archived from the original on 2012-02-25. Retrieved 2012-01-02.
External links
- EMSB website (French – English)