Quebec Anglo groups gear up for fight to save elected school boards

The chair of the English school board serving West Quebec thinks Bill 86 should alarm English-speaking parents as well as the larger anglophone community in the region.

English parent groups met with the Ministry of Education Tuesday in Quebec City.

Rhonda Bouchera West Quebec mother and president of the English Parents' Committee Association said that when she left the meeting, ministry officials "knew we weren't happy."

"We're going to fight for survival. We have to because if this law passes, you're chipping away at our English rights. They're going to be gone," she said.

We're going to fight for survival. We have to because if this law passes, you're chipping away at our English rights. They're going to be gone.- Rhonda Boucher,president ofEnglish Parents' Committee Association

TheQuebec English School Board Association has hired a lawyer and vows to launch a legal constitutional fight if Bill 86 is passed. The bill wastabled in the National Assembly in Quebec CityFriday.

Bill 86 would eliminate elected school boardsand replace them with mostly appointed councilsincluding parents andcommunity members, as well as teachers, principalsand the director general of school boards.

West Quebec boards denounce Bill 86

The current elected boards in West Quebec held a news conferenceTuesday to collectivelydenounce the bill.

The chair of the Western Qubec School Board,Jim Shea,saidthe issue for anglophones is particularly sensitive because he sees it asan attack on English minority rights.

The English language minority in Quebec, like the French minority outside Quebec, have a constitutional right to manage their own schools.Education Minister Franois Blais said those rights have not been infringed in the new law.

Blais said he would like the legislation passed in time for the 2016-17 school year.

New council mostly appointed

The new council would still be responsible for roles like bus transportation and educational services, but some issues would go to local school parents and teachers. The board would not necessarily have to be elected, though there is an option for some voting provisions.

Shea disagrees and calls the new law "a devastation."

...this is the last control of the institutions we have within the province, and I think we have to do everything we can to maintainthat.- Jim Shea,WesternQubecSchool Board chair

"If the English-speakingcommunity loses control over its English language education, this is the last control of the institutions we have within the province, and I think we have to do everything we can to maintain that," he said.

Sheasupports the legal action of the English boards association and encourageslegal action by English members of the local community, though he said hisboard would not be devoting taxpayer funds to it.

Rhonda Bouchersaid while parents have been calling for voting rights on boards, the loss of English elected boards are seen as chipping away at English communities particularly in small regions of West Quebec, where schools are the heart of those English enclaves.

Without elected boards to push back against pressure to close smaller schools, or to share resources across theirschools, the fear is that entire English communities could be suddenly more vulnerable.