| Back to school 2010 | | | | Rigor, stability and success will be watchwords for new school year By Debbie Horrocks August 25, 2010 - There is something in the air on that first morning of school. Rain or shine, the energy and atmosphere just feel different. Maybe, it’s because the stakes are so high, or because we all remember what it felt like when we were children. Maybe, it’s because that first school day, and the 200 or so that will follow to June are such a big part of the roadmap to each child’s future and, ultimately, our collective one here in Quebec. On behalf of the 105,000 students at our nine member school boards, the Quebec English School Boards Association (QESBA) is also preparing for the new school year – one that it hopes will later be remembered for its rigor, stability and success. There are some important issues that will determine if those qualities ultimately define the year when school is out next June. Rigor. Quebec’s first graduates of the reform are now headed for CEGEP. Their eleven years of elementary and high school studies have been marked by a progressive, if sometimes-uneven curriculum that has been hailed around the world but too-often maligned here at home. As this school year starts, QESBA is relieved that the new Education Minister has accepted our advice and that of so many others, and delayed implementation of yet another round of changes to report cards and evaluation. QESBA has always maintained that parents must be given information about their child’s academic progress that is crystal clear. Parents are the key partners in the educational progress and welfare of their kids, and they must have the tools to properly play that role. Nonethess, QESBA is not of the view that a single “national” report card is required to make this so, nor can we support the government’s plan to reduce drastically the place of “competencies” in the evaluation of our students. Rigorous programs and a transparent set of objectives for knowledge acquisition are essential; that doesn’t mean that the complementary goal of teaching our kids the analytical skills and the personal automomy to manipulate such information should be somehow downgraded. Our teachers and school administrators have worked so hard to give our students the best of this hybrid approach. They will continue to do so. Quebec results on a battery of international tests consistently show our students to be near the top of the class in the key subjects. The standards and programs are in place; now is a time for consolidation, not further change. Stable. English public education is a cornerstone of our community across Quebec. The foundation upon which it sits is not always as solid as it might be, and thus, vigilance is constantly required. Two issues will command QESBA’s careful attention over the coming months: Access to English schooling is always a concern. During the approaching hearings on Bill 103 and its proposed amendments to the French Language Charter, QESBA will argue for a formula that will provide some needed oxygen for our English public schools, while allowing them to play a rightful part in promoting the French language rather than being absurdly targeted as adversaries to that objective. As always, QESBA will actively intervene with the government bureaucracy to defend against any erosion in the daily process of addressing English school eligibility. An upcoming summit on education, confirmed by the Premier last month, will address questions about the governance of public education and the future of elected school boards. As the only level of government directly elected by members of the English-speaking community, Quebec’s English school boards are a vital voice for stability and representation. QESBA will be vigilant and vocal in defending that voice. Success. The tools are definitely in place for a successful school year. QESBA and the unions representing teachers, professionals and support staff have signed collective agreements in principle that lay the groundwork for the delivery of quality services to our children for years to come. Additional resources are in place, and a new and ground-breaking system of value-added remuneration will soon give our teachers important recognition for going the extra distance on behalf of their students. Our English public schools have always identified high school graduation as the key component of student success. QESBA is a key partner in the renewed government focus on “la perseverance scolaire”. That initiative targets 80 per cent graduation rates for the year 2020. Our system, on average, is already there. Success, this year and every year will be measured by further improvement on those graduation rates. Whether this first day of school has you accompanying a young child to the school yard or just reminiscing about your own Day 1, public education requires the involvement and partnership of all Quebecers. A successful, stable and rigorous school year will depend upon it. Debbie Horrocks is the president of the Quebec English School Boards Association. | | |
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| | Line Beauchamp named Minister of Education, Recreation and Sports | | | | QESBA welcomes fresh perspective on Education Montreal, August 11, 2010 - The President of the Quebec English School Boards Association (QESBA) Debbie Horrocks welcomes the nomination today of Line Beauchamp as Minister of Education, Recreation and Sports. “Line Beauchamp is a seasoned politician having successfully held two other ministries in this Liberal government. Fresh perspective in any sector is always good and can be very positive,” said Debbie Horrocks. The Fall will bring an Education Summit along with many dossiers associated to Bill 88 and Bill 103. “QESBA has always held positive relationships with former Education ministers and we will work closely to ensure that this continues with Madame Beauchamp. We are looking forward to meeting with Madame Beachamp in short order to discuss many dossiers affecting the English Education sector. “We also congratulate Madame Courchesne on her nomination as President of the Treasury Board and we wish her all the best in her new duties and we thank for her passion and dedication to education,” concluded Horrocks. QESBA is the voice of English public education in Quebec. - 30 - Information: Kim Hamilton Director of Communications and Special Projects 514-919-3894 | | |
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| | Federal census move | | | | Federal census move damaging to Quebec’s English-speaking communityQESBA endorses Commissioner of Official Languages inquiry Montreal, July 19, 2010 – The Quebec English School Boards Association (QESBA) is officially supporting Canada’s Commissioner of Official Languages in his investigation on the shortened census data questionnaire by the Government of Canada. The Quebec English School Boards Association (QESBA) represents the nine English language public school boards and one special status school board in the province of Quebec. Those school boards are home to approximately 105 000 English language minority students. “The vitality of our minority community and the minority language communities across Canada are of utmost importance to our association and to our stakeholders” said Debbie Horrocks, President of QESBA. The Government of Canada has decided to render the long-form census voluntary, which, in the long term, can be very harmful to minority communities. The information procured from this form is frequently used as research for possible government orientations and services that can ultimately affect services to the English minority community. QESBA rejects the government’s suggestion that the current practice of mandatory completion of the long form is an intrusion on the privacy of Canadians. Information on such criteria as “first official language spoken” and “language most often spoken at home” is necessary for the proper delivery and support of services to minority-language community. “The census data is used regularly as a main point of reference for many government orientations that affect our communities and is a very important tool to the community we serve in Quebec. We support the investigation launched by the Commissioner of Official Languages on the shortened census questionnaire and hope that the federal government comes to its’ senses and reinstates the proper complete census questionnaire” concluded Horrocks. | | |
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| | Basic School Regulation | | | | Government-imposed report card plan should be tabled: QESBA By Debbie Horrocks School’s out for summer. …Ya, right! Perhaps, Education Minister Michelle Courchesne isn’t an Alice Cooper fan. While our children happily forego tests and textbooks for bathing suits and summer camp, the Minister has evidently picked the first weeks of summer as the best time to table a series of controversial and far-reaching amendments to the Basic School Regulation. That document dictates how Quebec’s elementary and high school students are evaluated . The changes would revamp report cards, could put at risk the very basis of Quebec’s curriculum reform and will impede on the expertise and autonomy of democratically-elected school boards. Furthermore, some of the changes, which are to become law in late July, could compromise the progressive practice of evaluating special needs students on their individual progress. The Quebec English School Boards Association (QESBA) will be telling the Minister how we feel about the timing and the content of these changes to the Basic School Regulation but we think the public has a right to know as well. First, the timing: These sweeping changes to the province’s well-known curriculum reform were published in the Gazette officielle du Québec on June 11th. By July 26th -- not normally a key date on the education calendar -- those changes could become law. In between, QESBA, administrators’ associations, teachers’ unions, parents groups and other partners in the delivery of elementary and secondary education, must offer their final word on the merits of the plan. Whatever those merits, and they are highly debatable, the timing of this initiative raises logistical questions. Why rush new and untested report cards and evaluation tools through before teachers, principals and parents have had the chance to assess and adjust to them? How are they going to encourage greater student success? What research findings made them necessary? What about the careful course planning and evaluation steps that our teachers and administrators have already undertaken to prepare for the coming school year? Second, the content: The proposals would have a substantial impact on how our students are marked, and how they are prepared for tests and exams. Standard Ministry-developed report cards would be put in place at the pre-school, primary and secondary levels. English school administrators will tell you that the report cards aren’t broken, so why fix them…again. Our parents and students understand our Board-developed report cards, and our teachers have adapted their expertise in evaluation to respond to the admittedly challenging adjustments of the reform. It is frustrating to receive the apparent message that it is now time to start over. The new report cards would significantly alter the delicate balance between the evaluation of knowledge and “competencies”. Quebec’s curriculum reform has been much maligned, and often unfairly. This clear move to lessen the focus on competencies is a particularly unfortunate one. The first full graduates of Quebec’s reform have only just completed their final Secondary V exams. There has been no time to even begin to assess the impact of the revised course of study on these students. The philosophical underpinnings of the reform they have just finished are absolutely consonant with a changing world and job market. The reform focuses on helping our children acquire the transferable skills and judgment as well as the basic knowledge they will need to go forward. It’s an educational approach that has seen Quebec widely praised on the international stage. It is a pity that this same reform now seems up for grabs in a summer scramble. Ask any educator: when you change how students are marked on report cards, you inevitably change how teachers teach and how they assess what their students learn and understand. The Ministry-imposed report card, if it is decreed for implementation next Fall, will only create confusion rather than the greater clarity the Minister says she is seeking. By downgrading the importance of our students acquiring competencies – the ability to actually use and analyze the knowledge they acquire – these draft regulations are cutting to the very heart of progressive curriculum reform. The Minister has insisted publicly that she has no intention of calling into question the basic tenets of the curriculum reform. Her actions would suggest otherwise. English public schools in Quebec have justifiably prided themselves on balancing the educational needs of all of the students they serve. In practice, and consonant with current Ministry policy, they include most students with special needs in the regular classroom whenever possible. Additional human resources, and a promising new injection of more, under recently-signed collective agreements, help teachers manage the included classroom. It’s not perfect but our comparatively high graduation rates suggest that this is the right approach for students at every spectrum of potential. The over-all high school success average at Quebec’s nine English school boards has already reached the targeted 80 per-cent level set by the Ministry for the year 2020. QESBA worries that the new regulations might be a signal a departure from this favored orientation of inclusion. They appear to prescribe the standard report card for any special needs students included in the regular classroom. QESBA has asked Ministry officials for reassurance that this would not be the case but so far, to no avail. Exceptions will henceforth require a special derogation from the Minister. Our school boards are well-equipped to make the right calls on how to evaluate students with special needs, and when to include them in the regular classroom. Curriculum development and student evaluation must always evolve. It’s our job to lead educational change, not follow it. But the pace of change must be coherent and the progress must be assessed before it properly moves forward. The Minister’s current summer timetable fails on both counts. QESBA thinks this regulation should be delayed for at least a year and carefully re-examined before being reintroduced. The key partners in education, our elected school boards, their administrators and teachers, deserve the full opportunity to provide their full input on such crucial matters – and not while school’s out. Debbie Horrocks is the President of the Quebec English School Boards Association. | | |
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| | Bill 100 Op Ed | | | | Bill 100 gets in the way: QESBAReducing costs is legitimate goal; let school boards do it responsibly When you get your paycheque, does it come with preconditions on how and where you can spend each dollar of it? Would you be a more responsible consumer if it did? Who is better placed to decide how to spend that paycheque, you and your family or the employer who issued it? The Quebec English School Boards Association (QESBA) and its member boards are pondering similar questions as the National Assembly heads for a vote on Bill 100. This draft law arbitrarily prescribes to school boards how, why, and where to cut back on public education expenditures. The bill calls upon us to reduce our administrative expenditures by 10 per cent by the end of our fiscal year on June 30, 2014. The bill imposes an immediate cut of 25 per cent of costs on professional development, public school promotion and travel. In doing so, it completely disregards the legally-mandated role of publicly-elected school boards to manage their own affairs. More important, the students we serve risk losing out as these imposed cuts risk targeting essential services – a scenario school boards would protect against if allowed their legislated authority to make these decisions. School boards are an elected level of government. We control and manage public expenditures on educational and complementary services for over a million Quebec children, some 110,000 in Quebec’s nine English school boards. Let us be clear, QESBA and its member boards understand that we have a duty to contribute to the debt and deficit reduction that is in store for all Quebecers. As such, we are prepared to engage in all due diligence to realize the necessary 10 per-cent cut which is at the heart of this budget bill. We have been doing our part in controlling costs for a long time: according to the Auditor General’s report, no other level of government does better with respect to the efficiency of its administration. When it comes to administering their operations, municipalities spend more, hospitals spend more and your provincial government spends a lot more. Bill 100 sets out the parameters of budget reduction for school boards. As noted, we will accept those over-all parameters – if we are then permitted to exercise our judgment and expertise to realize the necessary savings in ways that will protect service delivery to our students and best respond to the core mission for which we were elected. At first glance, it might appear logical for the government to target administrative costs, travel and publicity. That notion appeals to a legitimate and laudable impulse to “cut the fat” and make sure resources are focused on real needs. Our school boards already govern their cost reduction efforts by those principles, applied responsibly. The fat is long-gone, if it was ever there. We have school boards the size of Belgium. At some, there is one senior administrator on the road at all times, simply to ensure that each isolated school has the hands-on support and responsive central services it needs to operate in its community. That is hardly extravagant or wasteful – it is good management and support for a diverse and challenging school network. Our school boards, if given the opportunity, will continue focus on achieving cost reductions without compromising the quality of services. Like our francophone counterparts, Quebec’s nine English school boards understand the particular needs of their education communities, and are best placed to make timely and appropriate decisions on how to allocate tax payers’ precious dollars. QESBA welcomed many recent Bill 88 amendments to the Education Act. They prescribed greater transparency, tracking of academic results, timely and thorough reporting to parents. Those amendments also reinforced our fundamental belief in the importance of professional development, for teachers, administrators, parents, and elected commissioners. Now, Bill 100 follows on its heels with a contradictory prescription. This formula will serve neither students nor taxpayers. What will help, in difficult economic circumstances is to invite school boards to weigh all expenditures in context and judge them on their educational merits. As it stands, Bill 100 calls on us to respond to a political wind blowing in a direction that has little to do with student success. Tell us how much we must cut; let us do the job right. It’s not too late to amend Bill 100 accordingly. | | |
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| | QESBA News Conference Bill 103 | | | | STATEMENT BY DEBBIE HORROCKS, PRESIDENT OF THE QUEBEC ENGLISH SCHOOL BOARDS, SYLVIA LO BIANCO, VICE-CHAIR OF THE ENGLISH MONTREAL SCHOOL BOARD, AND MARCUS TABACHNICK, CHAIR OF THE LESTER B. PEARSON SCHOOL BOARD ON THE SOLUTION PROPOSED BY THE QUEBEC GOVERNMENT IN RESPONSE TO THE SUPREME COURT DECISION ON BILL 104 Montreal, June 2st, 2010 – Our English public school network prepares each of its students for a rich and productive future in Quebec. We view ourselves as vital partners in building Quebec and the communities we serve. Evidently, this government does not share that vision. On behalf of the Quebec English School Boards Association (QESBA) and its two largest member school boards, English Montreal and Lester B. Pearson, we are here to tell you that we are extremely disappointed by the proposed “solution” announced by the Liberal government this morning in response to the Supreme Court decision on Bill 104. We went to the Supreme Court to argue that the Quebec government has certain obligations with respect to allowing access to English schooling; we said the government has a responsibility to provide us with the necessary oxygen to thrive and grow. We insisted that such obligations and responsibilities could be honoured without in any way threatening the legitimate and necessary protections for the French language in Quebec. The Supreme Court agreed with us. Sadly, the government of Quebec has evidently been unable to summon the courage or the leadership to implement this honourable balance. We expect a growing number of Quebecers will share our anger and disappointment this morning. This government had a chance to respond to the Court decision in a manner that could have supplied Quebec’s English public schools with perhaps 500-800 additional students a year. That is vital replenishment for us, and requires only modest and manageable reductions for a francophone school system of close to one million students. Once in our schools, those students would have the chance to master French, to participate in one of nine English school boards who are graduating an average of 80-per-cent-plus of their students each year – a target that this government only hopes to meet in the year 2020. The government could have respected the Court ruling, and maintained its necessary and legitimate defence of the French language at the same time. Instead, it has chosen to respond with the paralysis and confusion that have so often afflicted Quebec governments when addressing the realities of a francophone Quebec and an increasingly frustrated English-speaking minority. Let there be no mistake: our English public school system – with or without the support and leadership it deserves from its government – will, today and tomorrow, take its full place in Quebec society. It will use that place to produce bilingual graduates, ready, eager and willing to build their futures here. Those graduates will count on the good faith of our francophone concitoyens to include them in that future – and they will continue to hope, like us, for a day when their government will delight in the opportunities these English school graduates can bring. Today, this government has failed to deliver the fairness, clarity and justice that those graduates so richly deserve. - 30 – Contact : Kimberley Hamilton Director of Communications and Special Projects 514-849-5900, ext. 225 514-919-3894 cell. | | |
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| | Brief on Bill 86 | | | | Presentation of theQuebec English School Boards Association (QESBA) To theEducation and Culture Commission Contact: Kimberley HamiltonDirector of Communications and Special ProjectsTel.: (514) 849-5900, ext. 225Cell.: (514) 919-3894 May 2010 Good afternoon, Monsieur le président, Madame la ministre de l’Éducation, du Loisir et du Sport et Madame la ministre de la Culture, des Communications et de la Condition féminine, mesdames et messieurs. I am Debbie Horrocks, President of the Quebec English School Boards Association (QESBA). I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for inviting QESBA to present to the Commission de la Culture et de l’Éducation on Bill 86 proposing an extension to elected Commissioner mandates. QESBA is the voice of English public education in Quebec. Our mission is to preserve and promote the English-language public school system in Quebec, its elected leadership and member school boards. QESBA represents the nine English school boards across the province of Quebec that includes 186 elected and parent commissioners in the service of 110,000 elementary, secondary, adult and vocational students in English public schools across the province. Ours is a small system, but it belongs to us. In partnership with our administrators, teachers, parents, students and community, we work together on every facet of public education and we are proud of the system we guide, manage and firmly believe in. As full partners with the Ministère de l’Éducation, du Loisir et du Sport, our nine elected English school boards are effective and accountable local governments -- the only level of government that the English community can truly call its own and which has its best interests at heart. Our elected school boards deliver and answer for quality education and complementary services, to their parents and to all taxpayers. Under Bill 88, they now do so with an even greater focus – a focus we welcome – on transparency and accountability. Twinning of school and municipal electionsAs you know, QESBA has been vocal and firm about maintaining a distinct school electoral system in its current context. We firmly believe that our electoral system works -- it might not be perfect -- but none of our electoral systems in Quebec and Canada are perfect. Our boards manage their own electoral budgets, name their own returning officers; and they understand the realities of two electoral lists and the importance of the democratic process to our community. Twinning the municipal and school elections is evidently the wish of this government. QESBA remains unconvinced. We respect that our partners at the Fédération des commissions scolaires du Québec (FCSQ) are highly favorable to the concept of twinning elections. We share their conviction that voters need to be given every opportunity to better understand the role of elected school boards, and that candidates for this important office be given the tools to fully and responsibly explain their positions on important educational issues. QESBA does differ on how best to attain those objectives, and primarily for logistical reasons. We have a difficult time agreeing to such a drastic change without having concrete guidelines about electoral budgets, how and if they will allow school boards to recover their costs. Securing linguistic guarantees that would fully protect and serve all electors in our system is also a concern. Our biggest preoccupation with twinning is that our elections would be at the bottom of the priority list when dealing with the municipal and French school board elections that would happen at the same time. The report recently deposited by the Directeur général des elections du Québec (DGEQ) offers a number of potentially promising scenarios, should the National Assembly move to recommend simultaneous elections at some point in the coming months. The DGEQ, in our view, is slightly unrealistic in its cost estimates for the over-all elections. Holding elections on the same day but with each institution still maintaining the management of said elections might offer our member boards and community a little breathing room to move forward with the project of twinned elections. The DGEQ also makes a clear reference to the English voters’ list and its current problems along with some proposed solutions. However, the report doesn’t point to any concrete solutions. We do have other questions: Who will run these elections? What will happen to our electoral list? Who will manage it? Who will ensure that our community has equal representation at a voting office? Who will ensure that Mrs. Jones who is 88 years-old and has voted in every election since she gained her right to vote will be able to communicate in English and have the proper ballot in her ward, if it is in Laval, in Val d’Or or in Granby? Our current system works for our Boards and for our community. Voter turnout is at a record low in provincial and municipal elections. While our voter turnout was at 17% in 2007 up from 14.6% in 2003, we still have a way to go. One of the reasons that we have a low turnout is the state of our voters’ list. Our English school boards must have the tools required to improve our voters’ list to ensure that our community can fully exercise its democratic right to vote. We have been working closely with the Ministère de l’Éducation, du Loisir et du Sport and the office of the Directeur General des Elections du Quebec to rectify this problem, and we appreciate the high level of collaboration we have enjoyed. We further appreciate the stated commitment of Mme la Ministre Courchesne to fix these problems. But we still have a long way to go. We have had to turn people away because they were put on the French voters’ list by default after their children graduated from high school. We’ve even had many cases of individuals who have filled out the proper forms to be put back on the English voters’ list only to be removed again. One of them is even a commissioner in one of our boards. In every election since linguistic school boards in 1998, significant numbers of potential electors have been unable to exercise their right to vote for a multitude of reasons. QESBA notes with some concern that the draft law proposes to postpone school elections to an undetermined date. That is hardly a message that promotes democracy and transparency. Commissioners were elected to serve a four-year term; now, voters are being told that this term will be extended indefinitely. Our electors are not being given a clear explanation as to why, nor are our school boards themselves. In light of the above, QESBA’s simple and coherent answer to this draft law would be, “No, school elections, if properly supported by this government, effectively implemented by our school board network and faithfully reported upon by the media, need not be put off from their projected date in November 2011.” The future of universally-elected school boardsBut, let’s be frank: QESBA did not need to make the trip to Quebec City simply to tell you that. We recognize that the elections will almost surely be delayed; we recognize in good faith that we must participate in moving towards improvements to universally-elected school boards. We will find ways to enhance voter participation in twinned elections, should that be the eventual choice endorsed by the National Assembly. Still, if we accepted your offer to testify today, it is with a larger question in mind, and a number of important answers that we want you to clearly understand. Our question: Will this government, will the Opposition and the other members of this National Assembly clearly recognize, maintain and support the existence of the single most effective, responsive and efficient elected level of government in Quebec: our 69 universally elected school boards? That is our question, and please allow us the important opportunity to tell you why the answer – in the name of the students we serve and the taxpayers to whom we report – must be a resounding “YES”. We are proud of who we are. It is no accident that our principals and school board administrators hold their annual meeting and professional development sessions jointly with QESBA and its member commissioners. Our elected school boards work collegially with our senior administration, with our teachers, towards ever-improving student success. It is no accident that six of the top seven boards in Quebec on student success rates are English boards. It is no accident that, on average, our graduation rates are already above the 80 per-cent threshold set by this government for the year 2020. We are advanced as a system, we favor innovative teaching and flexibility, we make use of our collective agreements, our partnership with parents, and our collegial approach to help students at every level of potential reach higher and accomplish more. Under the leadership of our elected school boards, our system has a network of alternative schools that are organized creatively and without special funding from the MELS. These schools are taking at-risk students and offering them a second chance. These are students exhibiting a host of behavioral difficulties, chemical dependency and intellectual development challenges. The world’s standard for second-language teaching was set here in Quebec, by our school boards through their development of French immersion. Our elected Councils, responding to and accountable to their community, have put those enhanced French programs in place and overseen their development and growth. Now, many of our English students do better on French mother-tongue exams than their francophone neighbors. Those are signs that we are doing it right! Accountability, transparency and community partnershipsQuebec’s elected school boards, be they English or French, are an essential intermediary between parents, students, unions and other stakeholders, and government. They ensure local responsiveness to particular needs by exercising, to the extent of their autonomy, the capacity to deliver quality education to their community. Our school boards, again under recent amendments adopted by this government, are accountable for performance objectives based on those set province-wide but adapted to particular local conditions. The model of locally-elected governance allows this flexibility and transparency, which can translate into greater student success. Ask an English-sector parent if they know where to go to get involved in their child’s schooling; to complain about an impending school closure...they will give you a complete drill! They don’t always agree but our parents are part of our day-to-day school and school board operations. Parental involvement was a way of life in English public schools, long before Governing Boards, long before School Committees were enshrined in legislation. And we do all this by controlling and managing our school system through the fundamentally democratic institution universally elected school boards. Each of the three major parties, including the current government, has called that vital institution into question. We are here to urge this government, and the members of the Opposition parties to support our efforts to make elected school boards work even better -- rather than continuing to send uncertain and threatening signals that you are actively considering dismantling them. As elected commissioners we work cohesively with all the partners involved in the education of our young people, be they administrators, teachers, professionals, support staff, parents or municipal officials. Bill 88 and, more recently, the MELS plan on perseverance scolaire, “L’ecole j’y tiens” emphasize the need for the kind of collaboration that is already so central to our way of doing things in English public education. To quote the Education Minister in the above-mentioned document: We must all be “…partners in our children’s success”. Each commissioner, like each of you, has a community to answer to and, at the same time, a local government, his or her school board, to defend. We take that role very, very seriously. We expect to answer for errors, we expect to be available to our parents, we expect to report our results fully to our public, and yes, to our Minister. This government, with the assent of the National Assembly, has added important accountability measures to strengthen our performance in delivering on these responsibilities, with the adoption of Bill 88 amendments to the Education Act. The welfare and success of our students is not a private matter. High school completion is not a private matter. The expenditure of taxpayers’ funds on education is not a private matter. Public education is just that…public. We are extremely proud of the public education system we have created – our students have the tools and abilities to be fruitful and contributing citizens of the Québec of the future. And only a strong, autonomous and universally-elected network of school boards can protect the sacred public interest in education. We urge this government and the other parties of the National Assembly to remember that. QESBA will be there at every step to remind you. After all, we are supposed to be partners in this process...we have a duty to work together in the best interests of our young people, they are the future…our future. So, if the delay proposed in this bill will facilitate a strengthening of universally-elected commissioners to oversee public education, so be it. If the delay is exploited to question, attack and ultimately replace these fundamental building blocks of our democracy, QESBA and its member boards will do everything they can to help Quebecers understand the precious resource they would stand to lose. Merci. | | |
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| | Go Publique 2010 | | | QESBA launches ambitious provincial ad campaign. Preparing students to build their lives in Québec – and in both languages Montreal, March 10, 2010 – The Quebec English School Boards Association (QESBA) launches an ambitious four-week “Go publique” promotional campaign today throughout the province of Quebec, under the tagline “Mon école publique anglophone… mon avenir ici au Québec!” The provincial campaign includes billboards, print ads and a promotional video to be distributed on You Tube and Facebook and by all of our school boards. “We have billboards across the four corners of the province – from Bas-St-Laurent to the North Shore up to Abitibi and down through Gatineau - featuring one of our teachers and two of our students exemplifying the pride felt throughout our system,” said Debbie Horrocks, President of QESBA. “It’s time for us to be loud and proud and show Quebecers what we are capable of accomplishing in our English public school system.” A promotional video featuring a group of students sharing their experiences and impressions of the English public school system will be distributed on-line and print ads in a series of daily and weekly newspapers will also appear. The nine English language school boards throughout Quebec will each embark upon their own regional “Go Publique” campaigns during the month of March. “Our students graduate with an excellent knowledge of both French and English, we prepare them well to build their lives right here in Québec,” said Horrocks. “The goal of this campaign is to sensitize parents of children that are eligible for English public schooling in Quebec that our system will give their children the very best of both linguistic worlds; and in 2010, that isn’t an option, it’s a necessity” concluded Horrocks. The nine English school boards in Quebec are: Central Québec, Eastern Shores, Eastern Townships, English Montreal, Lester B. Pearson, New Frontiers, Riverside, Sir Wilfrid Laurier and Western Quebec. They serve some 110,000 students in 320 elementary, high schools, adult and vocational centres across the province. The Quebec English School Boards Association is the voice of English public education in Quebec. | | |
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| | A word of appreciation to our teachers | | | Newsman Dan Rather once said, “The dream begins with a teacher who believes in you, who tugs and pushes and leads you to the next plateau, sometimes poking you with a sharp stick called 'truth'." It is Teacher Appreciation Week from February 7th-13th, and Rather's message is a timely reminder of the challenges we place before our teachers and the rewards we all reap from their dedication, compassion and expertise. Education today is a demanding sector in which to work. The Quebec English School Boards Association (QESBA) would like to express its profound thanks to the more than 8,000 teachers who, each day and often, beyond school hours, do our English public school network proud across the province. Our network is responsible for educating some 110,000 youth and adult students, preparing them for a rapidly changing world, in French as well as English. Not only do our students bring with them an endless diversity of potential, challenges and backgrounds, they come to the classroom ready to think and learn in ways that no one has yet fully assimilated. It's a dynamic time in education, and our teachers are responding with professionalism, integrity and commitment. Another public commentator, historian Jacques Barzun, once said: “Teaching is not a lost art, but the regard for it is a lost tradition”. QESBA, its member school boards, along with all Quebec parents, the community and our provincial government must to do everything we can to restore that lost tradition. We must each do our part to ensure that this most important of professions is properly rewarded, in a manner that is commensurate with the responsibilities it entails. “Teachers who inspire realize there will always be rocks in the road ahead of us,” to quote a final, unnamed source. “They will be stumbling blocks or stepping stones; it all depends on how we use them.” We tip our hats to teachers, this week and every other. Debbie Horrocks President | | |
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| | Highest court declares Bill 104 unconstitutional QESBA welcomes ruling, seeks clear and constructive response from Premier | | | Ottawa, October 22, 2009 – The Quebec English School Boards Association (QESBA) reacted with satisfaction today to a ruling by the Supreme Court of that Bill 104, which further restricts access to English public schooling in Quebec, is illegal under Canada’s Constitution. The judgment validates the position taken by QESBA when it intervened before the Court in this case last December. The Court said that Bill 104 was “excessive” in its absolute elimination of the right of access to English public schooling of students who sought to be rendered eligible based on their attendance for at least one year in a non-subsidized Quebec private school. The Court did, however, give the government of Quebec one year to find a solution. “QESBA is gratified with this morning’s decision,” noted QESBA President Debbie Horrocks. “Now, we will be calling on the Premier to meet with us to consult on a solution that will respect the judgment, respect the needs of our English public school community, all the while respecting the importance of protecting the French language in Quebec. Meeting those three objectives in is not only entirely possible; in fact, the Supreme Court insisted upon it in today’s judgment. QESBA intervened in this case because the future strength of our English school boards depends on maintaining student enrolment. The English school network is the cornerstone of our communities across Quebec. Bill 104 eliminates access to English schools of at least 500 students per year – primarily in the greater Montreal region. Those students are essential to our system, and the consequential impact on the French school system would be very modest. “Students in Quebec’s English public schools are given every opportunity to master French and to contribute fully to Quebec society” Horrocks continued. “QESBA member boards contribute to the promotion of the French language; they don’t in any way threaten it! Our schools are part of the solution, and we expect the Premier, by his response to this judgment, to show us that his government fully agrees.”
The court seems to be sending a message that it’s time for the Quebec government to find a definitive and positive balance between the rights to English public schooling in Quebec and the core objectives of the Charter of the French Language. “We take from this decision that the Quebec government needs to sit down with us and other key partners to, once and for all, find and confirm that balance. | | |
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| | A new school year: New challenges and opportunities | | | | QESBA turns 80! Montreal, August 27, 2009 - Welcome back! On behalf of the directors and staff of QESBA and our nine member school boards, we want to offer our warmest wishes for a stimulating, safe and productive 2009-2010 school year. In the coming days, some 110,000 students will begin another chapter – or start a first one – in their educational life within the 340 schools, vocational and adult centres of the QESBA English public school network across Quebec. Our principals, teachers, professionals and support staff will be there to accompany them each step of the way. Click here to read the full article. | | |
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| | Government must recognize English public schools as allies, not adversaries | | | Montreal, June 2009 Impending Bill 104 decision on English school access:
By Debbie Horrocks The current government of Quebec, like every one before it, will soon face another inevitable test on how to maintain its central obligation to protect and promote the French character of Quebec while honoring its legal and moral obligations to Quebec’s English-speaking minority. That test will come with a pending decision from Canada’s Supreme Court on whether or not Bill 104 is legal. This law, enacted 25 years after the Charter of the French Language was adopted in 1977, eliminates the right of students who have attended unsubsidized private English schools in Quebec to then gain access to English public schools. The case goes to the heart of how Quebec’s English-speaking minority can co-exist and contribute to a predominantly French Quebec. The answer will come in the response of this government to the eventual ruling. The Quebec English School Boards Association (QESBA) intervened before the Supreme Court of Canada last December to argue that Bill 104 is unconstitutional. We did so to ensure the long term survival of the institution of English public schooling in the province. We are optimistic that the Court will strike down the law. Should it not, however, the future of our English public school network could be irreparably compromised. If the Court does strike down the law, it is our hope and expectation that the government will move swiftly and deliberately to implement the ruling. QESBA insisted in Court, and we reiterate now, that the government of Quebec can demonstrate leadership, vision and responsibility by exploiting this opportunity to honor the two obligations noted above. In doing so, it would properly recognize Quebec’s English public school network as an ally, not an adversary in the quest to strengthen the French language of Quebec. That is the reality of Quebec’s English public schools today. Our fundamental role in maintaining a strong and vital English community presence and partnership in Quebec is only matched by our determination to render the graduates of our schools fluent in the French language. For more than a generation, Quebec’s English school boards have been designing and implementing French second-language programs that go far beyond the requirements of the Quebec Education Program. Our schools were the birthplace of a French immersion model that is now duplicated in countries across the world. The students who enter our schools are not circumventing Quebec’s language law; in fact, they are respecting the central objective of it. If this essential institution of English public schooling is to truly contribute to the future of Quebec, then Quebec must contribute to the future of this essential institution. The resolution of language-related questions is never simple; that is a given in Quebec. The answer, however, is sometimes easier than it appears. QESBA estimates that the striking down of Bill 104 would have the effect of opening access to English public schools to some 500 students each year. That number is enormously significant to a school system facing chronically-declining enrolment, a birthrate lower than that of its francophone counterparts and a continuing trend towards outmigration. The consequent loss of students to the French school network is proportionately modest. Compromise always involves some cost. When it works, compromise reconciles two legitimate priorities in a mutually beneficial way. This compromise works.Inevitably, there will be suggestions that the government enact new legislation to circumvent the Court decision. Some will allege that any concession to English school access is automatically threatening to the French language and that this is just an incremental step towards the dismantling of The Charter of the French Language. QESBA expects that the Court will have rejected such arguments. We certainly do and we trust that public opinion will follow. Our association has been told by successive Premiers and Education Ministers that our English public school system is a vital institutional component of Quebec society. QESBA now asks that these words of inclusion, fairness and equity be matched by deeds. By implementing an eventual Court decision striking down Bill 104, this government will send a signal of confidence in Quebec’s future and a deeply-appreciated message of our valued role in it. Debbie Horrocks is the President of the Quebec English School Boards Association. | | |
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