Bickering among EMSB commissioners dominates Galileo hearing

Bickering between rival factions within the English Montreal School Board dominated hearings Thursday night about the future of the Galileo Adult Education Centre, with administrative staff of the board walking out mid-meeting.

The EMSB needs to provide space for the overpopulated French-language Commission scolaire de Pointe-de-l'Île (CSPI) and has offered Galileo, but Education Minister Jean-François Roberge said that facility was "insufficient."

The question of what the EMSB should do next has created deep acrimony among its commissioners, which played out at the hearing.

Vice-chair Joe Ortona said EMSB chair Angela Mancini and commissioner Sylvia Lo Bianco have "sabotaged" the plan for Galileo and should resign, while Mancini countered that Ortona's "antagonistic comments" have upset Roberge and put the entire process at risk.

The administrative staff walked out when Lo Bianco, whose district includes Galileo, prepared to reveal an internal email that she said was proof of collusion by the EMSB's director general, Ann Marie Matheson, and some board members to give up the school.

"In all my years of experience as a commissioner, and going through various cohabitations, school closures, etc., I've never seen a director general send a message like that to the council," Lo Bianco said.

Cohabitation could 'save our schools'

Mancini and Lo Bianco are pushing for a cohabitation plan that would share some buildings with the CSPI, which they say is a good compromise.

"For me, the cohabitation model is a way to ensure our footprint in our community remains," Mancini said. 

"If we have cohabitation, and we give the opportunity to the CSPI to look for land and to build … then cohabitation becomes a model in which we save our schools."

Roberge has threatened the EMSB with the transfer of three different buildings — General Vanier and Gerald McShane elementary schools and John Paul I junior high — if they can't come up with a reasonable alternative. He's given the board until June 10 to tell him what issues could arise from his proposal.

Ortona said Mancini and Lo Bianco "got the minister to say no to Galileo."

"And because of that we now have three schools we're going to lose."

Ortona said the EMSB needs to fight harder against Roberge and defend the school board's right to make its own decisions about its facilities.

"Regardless of anybody's opinion on Galileo, the leadership of this board should have said, 'Mr. Minister, you're out of bounds, that's for the council to decide,'" Ortona said.

Mancini said challenging the government carries significant risks.

"A legal battle isn't guaranteed, and I'm not willing to play Russian Roulette with the lives of these students and the teachers and staff in these schools," she said.

She said the Education Act gives Roberge the ability to impose his own solution.

"He has powers right now, whether we like them or not, and that's what he's saying he's going to use."

The EMSB has a vote planned for May 21 on the Galileo decision.

Parents in Saint-Léonard stage demo

Parents of students in the affected EMSB schools said they are anxious to know where their children will be attending school in the fall.

Some protested outside Saint-Léonard borough offices Friday afternoon to show their frustration.

"We don't know what's going to happen. We're very sad and overwhelmed," said parent Hilda Castro.

Her son Leo, aged four, is registered to start pre-kindergarten at General Vanier next fall.

Those who have been watching the EMSB's meetings online say the commissioners' public display of infighting doesn't help matters.

"I was disappointed because our goal is for our children and for the future, and if they don't have those same goals and values then there's something wrong," said another parent, Veronica Ravenda.

Two of the three schools Roberge has threatened to take away from the EMSB — General Vanier Elementary and John Paul I Junior High — are in Saint-Léonard.