English Montreal School Board

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. 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 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 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[8] 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.[9]

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.

Enrolment 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 the Québec 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.[10]

Since the EMSB's creation in 1998, the board has closed 18 schools, most recently 3 elementary schools in 2012.[11] 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.[11]

The EMSB had the highest voter turnout among all school boards in Quebec, with 18%.[12]

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.[13]

• George Vathilakis (1997–2001)
• John Simms (2001–2003)
• Dominic Spiridigliozzi (2003–2007)
• Angela Mancini (2007- )

• Dominic Spiridigliozzi (1997–2003)
• Elizabeth Fokoefs (2003–2007)
• Sylvia Lo Bianco (2007–2014)
• Sylvia Lo Bianco (2014–2018)
• Joe Ortona (2018- )

This school board oversees 35 elementary schools, 17 secondary schools, 8 outreach schools, 7 social affairs institutions and 12 adult and vocational centres, in which over 44,000 students are enrolled.

• EMSB website (French - English)