Montreal, February 24, 2021 - On behalf of the Council of Commissioners of the English Montreal School Board (EMSB), I thought it was important to update the community on the financial situation of the Board after our second quarter budget review. Our financial position is  worse than anticipated. This is largely due to costs associated with the pandemic, which could result in more  than $10 million alone in COVID-19 related expenses, which are not budgeted. Context The current Council of Commissioners took office less than four months ago in the midst of the pandemic and after the EMSB had been under trusteeship for a year. While we have   focused on the safety and well-being of our community, the evaluation and implementation of the Transformation Plan and the recruitment of our next Director General, the increasingly   deteriorating financial position of the EMSB should be of concern to all stakeholders. In June of 2020, the government appointed Trustee adopted a 2020-2021 budget o

Montreal, February 11, 2021 - The English Montreal School Board held a very successful Virtual Town Hall meeting for stakeholders and the public on February 10 to present the implementation of the new Transformation Plan. EMSB Chair Joe Ortona hosted the meeting and Interim Director General Russell Copeman provided a detailed presentation on the objectives and implementation of the Transformation Plan.   To see Mr. Copeman’s PowerPoint presentation click here .  To see the video of the Town Hall click here. In opening remarks, Mr. Ortona reminded stakeholders that the Transformation Plan was adopted while the Council of Commissioners were in trusteeship. “As Council has said in the past, there are many good elements to the plan, which we are keen to advance,” he said. “But the governance elements need to be tweaked.”  Mr. Ortona explained that the Transformation Plan limits the number of committees of the Council to three statutory ones: Executive, Human Resources and Audit. He said