English Montreal School Board

The EMSB Logo

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

Robert A. Stocker is the current Director General of the school board and its chief administrative officer. He is assisted by Roma Medwid, Deputy 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).

History

The Government of Quebec 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, 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 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 Quebec and the rest of Canada.

The new board began operations on July 1, 1998.^{[citation needed]} 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.^[1]

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.^{[citation needed]}

Enrollment in the English Montreal School Board's schools and centres continues to decline as it does in most anglophone public school boards in Quebec. 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.^{[citation needed]}

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.^[2]

English Montreal School Board Chairpersons

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

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.

Elementary schools

Bancroft Carlyle Cedarcrest Coronation Dalkeith Dante Dunrae Gardens East Hill Edinburgh Elementary School [3] Edward Murphy Elizabeth Ballantyne School F.A.C.E. School Frederick Banting (closed) [4] Fraser Academy (formerly Holy Cross) Gardenview

General Vanier Gerald McShane Hampstead [5] Honoré Mercier John Caboto [6] Leonardo Da Vinci McLearon (closed) Merton Meadowbrook Michelangelo Academy Nesbitt Our Lady of Pompei Parkdale

Pierre de Coubertin [7] Pierre Elliott Trudeau Roslyn Royal Vale Sinclair Laird St. Brendan [8] St. Dorothy St. Gabriel St. John Bosco St. Monica St. Raphael Westmount Park Willingdon

High schools

F.A.C.E. School James Lyng John F. Kennedy John Grant John Paul I (Junior High School) LaurenHill Academy

Laurier Macdonald High School (Senior High School) Lester B. Pearson High School.[9] Marymount Academy [10] MIND Paul VI Rosemount High School [11]

Royal Vale Royal West Academy St. Raphael Vincent Massey Collegiate [12] Westmount High School [13]

Outreach schools

Doorways Mountainview Options I Options II

Outreach Perspectives I Perspectives II [14]

Program Mile End Venture Vezina

See also

• English Montreal School Board election, 2003
• English Montreal School Board election, 2007

References

1. ^ "EMSB Home." Protestant School Board of Greater Montreal. April 22, 1999. Retrieved on March 22, 2011.
2. ^ fundraising golf tournament
3. ^ Edinburgh
4. ^ Banting
5. ^ Hampstead
6. ^ John Caboto
7. ^ Pierre de Coubertin
8. ^ St. Brendan
9. ^ Lester B. Pearson
10. ^ Marymount Academy
11. ^ Rosemount High School
12. ^ Vincent Massey Collegiate
13. ^ Westmount High School
14. ^ [1]

External links

	Montreal portal
	Schools portal

• EMSB website (French - English)