EMSB chair candidates talk challenges, priorities ahead of school board elections

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With only weeks to go before the English Montreal School Board elections on Nov. 3, the two candidates for chair recently shared their visions and hopes for the board.

In the latest episode of the Corner Booth podcast, incumbent Joe Ortona and Katherine Korakakis, president of the English Parents’ Committee Association of Quebec, spoke of why they are running for chair and the challenges they hope to address.

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Here is a brief overview of both candidates’ remarks on several key topics. Their answers have been shortened for clarity and length.

Challenges and priorities they would address as chair

Ortona: There’s always several challenges. One of them is: How are we going to continue the high success rate that we’ve been able to achieve? We surpassed the private sector last year, and that’s not something that comes very easily.

The other challenge is: How are we going to preserve the rights of the English-speaking minority? Preserving the right for school boards to continue to manage and control their system, preserve our right to hire the teachers that we want without arbitrary restrictions.

And preserve our language, with Bill 96 and all the court challenges.

Korakakis: For me, it’s all about fighting for our community, as I’ve always done. I think it’s very important that we continue to fight for our community, and our right to control and manage our institutions is very important.

There are challenges that have stemmed from the pandemic regarding mental health. The impact of mental health on children and that impact on their success rate, their motivation. We are in an epidemic in Canada and in the world. So we have to address it.

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What I’d like to do is focus more on subject-matter mastery, especially with regards to French. We live in Quebec, and we have to do more to equip our children to stay here and thrive here and be able to be competitive here.

Improving voter turnout and interest in the elections

Korakakis: It’s definitely a concern. That’s why we’re working hard on educating people. And we’re both doing it — trying to get the vote out there.

It’s very important people care about their institutions and care who is running them, because those people will set the priorities in the budgets to meet those needs.

It’s important people understand that whether you have children in schools or not, you can vote. And why should (people) care? These are going to be our future leaders. And, of course, these are the only institutions we have left in the rest of Quebec that we manage and control.

Ortona: Turnout at the EMSB usually tends to be higher than the provincial average.

But we also have to understand the government isn’t doing anything to promote these elections, right? They’re not doing anything similar to what they did in municipal elections. They want the turnout to be low. It seems that they think that a low turnout sort of helps their case for wanting to abolish school boards.

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I don’t subscribe to that at all. I reject this notion that the turnout somehow gives credibility to the existence of school boards. That being said, it’s still important for people to become informed. It’s still important for people to follow and it is important for people to go and vote.

Improvements or changes they would bring to the EMSB

Korakakis: There’s always room for improvement. I’ve talked about mental health. It is a crisis, and we need to do more. We have to do more. And the EMSB could be a leader in this.

What I’m (also) hearing from parents and educators is that there’s not enough programs in place to get more children as bilingual as they need to be to stay here. And as a parent, you don’t want your children to leave. You want them to stay.

We have all these parents that are rights holders, that choose to send their children to French public schools or private schools. I want to get those kids back. They need to come back. We offer excellent stuff at the EMSB, and we can make it better.

Ortona: Let’s not forget that in 2020, the EMSB was probably in the worst position that it had ever been in in its history. It was at its lowest point. We had just come out of a year of trusteeship.

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In the last four years, we’re doing better by every objective metric that you can measure success for a school board.

We’ve restored the reputation of the board. We’re now a credible voice, not only for education, which is our primary mission, but to be a defender for the rights of the English-speaking minority.

I’m not sitting here saying mission accomplished after four years, but we’ve set the base for what we can build on to make that path to success a much easier one for our students.

Defending the English-speaking community and court challenges

Ortona: I think if anything, this government has taught me that we must always remain vigilant about the defence of our Section 23 rights (in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms) and our right to manage and control our school system, no matter who is in power.

If we’re not investing in the court challenges, then who is going to fight things like Bill 40? I’m very clear that I’m against Bill 40 and I’m for the independence of school boards. That’s very important.

Korakakis: It absolutely needs to continue. But there are other people also fighting that fight.

Of course, you defend and you fight for your community. There’s no question. However, there are other priorities that we need to adjust for our students, for their success, for their mental health, for their motivation.

At the end of the day, it’s about priorities and what’s important for you in power.

jfeith@postmedia.com

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