On Wednesday, the English Montreal School Board Council of Commissioners held an information session regarding possible changes to Montreal schools.
Michael Cohen, a spokesman for the EMSB, said in an email to the Tribune that the main goal of these proposed changes is “consolidation of enrolment.”
Among the specific changes under consideration are the “development of multiple scenarios per cluster of schools,” addressing schools that have an enrollment under 200, and reviewing elementary schools with two different French programs, “schools and centres that share one facility” and “specific project schools.”
All possible scenarios for major school changes will be voted on at a board meeting on March 30. In a press release, EMSB Director General Robert Stocker said “it is only at that regular board meeting on March 30 that Council will decide … which recommendations for major school change … shall be retained for public consultation.”
Only after decisions are made can schools respond formally, explained Cohen. The schools’ reaction to these changes is therefore unknown.
The public consultation process following the March 30 meeting will include governing boards, school and centre principles, the Central Parents’ Committee and municipal jurisdictions. Final decisions on the scenarios will be taken in January 2012, after having gone through public hearings in December 2011.
In the past 13 years, the EMSB has closed 15 schools. “Last year we did some French program changes. Three years ago we closed an elementary school in Montreal North and another in Point-Au-Trembles,” Cohen said.
Whichever recommendations are selected by the English Montreal School Board will be officially adopted in July 2012. Schools that may possibly be affected by these changes include James Lyng High, Royal Vale Elementary and High School, Marymount High, and Bancroft, among others. These schools could close, merge with another one, or move.
While the Wednesday meeting was an information session, EMSB chairman Angela Mancini stated that “the commissioners will have an opportunity, after being briefed on the contents of the documentation, to request via a formal board resolution that an evaluation of additional scenarios be performed by our administration.”
