English Montreal School Board Commission scolaire English-Montréal
Location
6000 Fielding Avenue Montreal, Quebec 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.emsb.qc.ca

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]

EMSB Administration Building

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

Vice-Chairs of the English Montreal School Board

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.

References

External links

• EMSB website (French – English)