Well-known Montreal broadcaster and political candidate Anne Lagacé Dowson is running to become the chair of the EMSB.
Lagacé Dowson says the English Montreal School Board is out of touch with parents and needs new leadership.
"I have watched the school board commission meetings online... and you can see how dysfunctional, often, those meetings are," said Lagacé Dowson.
She said the board has repeatedly demonstrated its inability to work effectively to cater to the needs of parents and children, which has resulted in declining enrolment despite having some of the best academic success in the province.
"Those of us who have kids in the system bang up against a lot of these bureaucratic roadblocks, lack of creativity, lack of openness, in some cases outright secrecy -- so there's a feeling that the EMSB is dysfunctional." said Lagacé Dowson.
She was convinced to run after several well-known Montrealers, including food columnist Lesley Chesterman and human rights lawyer Julius Grey, launched a petition to draft Lagacé Dowson for the job.
With two daughters in the EMSB, and a run-in with the board last year after discovering a French teacher who could not carry on a conversation in that language, Lagacé Dowson said she wants to focus on improving the teaching of French.
The only other declared candidate for the chair is the incumbent Angela Mancini.
Mancini has held the position for seven years and said she’s proud of her record.
“I believe in this school board, I believe in English public education and I want to continue to serve it,” she said.
She said the board improved transparency by making their meetings accessible to the public online.
“We brought in, for example, cameras into the building, which is at great cost to the school board, but I think was important for us to be transparent and for people to see us out there without having to come to (the school board offices at) 6000 Fielding,” she said.
Lagacé Dowson said Mancini has not been transparent, and among other issues, opposes an amendment on the executive committee meeting in public, as well as plans to move standing committee meetings into a public setting.
Lagacé Dowson said she will open up the committees, expand the role of the central parents committee in decision-making, and end the tradition of retired administrators and family members trying to control the board.
Earlier this summer well-known human rights lawyer Brent Tyler announced he would run to become chair of the EMSB, but withdrew his candidacy in August.
School board elections take place on November 2, and it will be the first time voters are allowed to elect the chair directly. There will also now be 10 commissioners instead of 23.
In the past, commissioners have chosen the chair.
If you’d like to vote in the election, make sure you’re on the correct voters’ list.
For a more in-depth look at the current state of English school boards in Quebec, take a look at our recent two-part special report. Part 1 is on declining enrolment rates in English schools. Part 2 looks at how English schools are stacking up.
