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.
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), Darlene Kehyayan (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 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 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.
List of Chairs of the English Montreal School Board
Name
Ward
Term of Office (start)
Term of Office (end)
George Vathilakis
1
July 2, 1998
August 29, 2001
John Simms
4
September 12, 2001
November 21, 2003
Dominic Spiridigliozzi
16
November 25, 2003
November 9, 2007
Angela Mancini
19
November 14, 2007
November 7, 2014
Angela Mancini
-
November 7, 2014
July 15, 2020
Joe Ortona
-
November 6, 2020
Incumbent
List of Vice-Chairs of the English Montreal School Board
Name
Ward
Term of Office (start)
Term of Office (end)
Dominic Spiridigliozzi
15
July 2, 1998
November 21, 2003
Elizabeth Fokoefs
3
November 25, 2003
November 9, 2007
Sylvia Lo Bianco
15
November 14, 2007
November 7, 2014
Sylvia Lo Bianco
7
November 17, 2014
September 26, 2018
Joe Ortona
10
September 26, 2018
November 6, 2020
Agostino Cannavino
6
November 11, 2020
December 19, 2023
James Kromida
5
January 18, 2024
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.
