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.
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 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.
Read more about this topic: English Montreal School Board
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