Education Reform Update of May 29, 1998, No. 7

Naming of the new Linguistic School Boards

With the coming into force on May 2, 1998 of the third and last order in council on the naming of the new French and English school boards, each school board now has an official name. Proposed by the provisional councils of the new school boards, the names were approved by the Commission de toponymie before being submitted to the government for adoption.

All school boards have a French name. English school boards have an English name in addition to their French name.

Name Formation Rules

The name of each school board consists of a generic term (“Commission scolaire” or “School Board”) and a specific element (“Eastern Townships,” for example). Determined by the Commission de toponymie, the rules for forming the names of the school boards are the following:

Québec and Montréal

Québec and Montréal are always written with an accent (e.g.: Commission scolaire Central Québec / Central Québec School Board).

Articles and Conjunctive Particles

In French, the generic term is connected to the specific element by articles and conjunctive particles (e.g.: Commission scolaire des Phares).

This rule does not apply if the specific element is the name of a person (e.g.: Commission scolaire Marguerite-Bourgeoys) or if it is in English (e.g.: Commission scolaire New Frontiers / New Frontiers School Board).

Capital Letters

In French, the initial letter of all words in the specific element, with the exception of articles, prepositions and conjunctions, is a capital (e.g.: Commission scolaire du Fleuve-et-des-Lacs).

However, the first letter of an article preceding the specific element is upper-cased if it is based on the name of a municipality or regional county municipality whose name starts with an article (e.g.: Commission scolaire de L’Amiante, appearing under L and not A in the alphabetical listing).

Hyphens

Hyphens are used between the words in the specific element when there is at least one word in French (e.g.: Commission scolaire au Cœur-des-Vallées; note the digram “œ.”)

If the specific element is entirely in English, Amerindian or Inuit, hyphens are not used (e.g.: Commission scolaire Eastern Shores / Eastern Shores School Board).

It the specific element is the name of a person, all words in it are connected by hyphens (e.g.: Commission scolaire René- Lévesque, Commission scolaire Lester-B.-Pearson / Lester-B.-Pearson School Board).

When the first word of the specific element is an article or conjunctive particle, it is not followed by a hyphen (e.g.: Commission scolaire De La Jonquière, appearing under D and not J in the alphabetical listing).

Dashes

When the specific element is made up of two or more place names and there are hyphens in one of the place names, an em-dash is used between the place names (e.g.: Commission scolaire de Kamouraska–Rivière-du-Loup).

The Sixty French School Boards

The following is a list of the official names of the French school boards by region. The administrative regions and the school boards appearing under each region are listed in alphabetical order.

Abitibi-Témiscamingue
(Administrative Region 08)

Commission scolaire Harricana
Commission scolaire du Lac-Abitibi
Commission scolaire du Lac-Témiscamingue
Commission scolaire de l'Or-et-des-Bois
Commission scolaire de Rouyn-Noranda

Bas-Saint-Laurent
(Administrative Region 01)

Commission scolaire du Fleuve-et-des-Lacs
Commission scolairede Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup
Commission scolaire des Monts-et-Marées
Commission scolaire des Phares

Centre-du-Québec
(Administrative Region 17)

Commission scolaire des Bois-Francs
Commission scolaire des Chênes
Commission scolaire de la Riveraine

Chaudière-Appalaches
(Administrative Region 12)

Commission scolaire de la Beauce-Etchemin
Commission scolaire de la Côte-du-Sud
Commission scolaire de L'Amiante
Commission scolaire des Navigateurs

Côte-Nord
(Administrative Region 09)

Commission scolaire de l'Estuaire
Commission scolaire du Fer
Commission scolaire de la Moyenne-Côte-Nord

Estrie
(Administrative Region 05)

Commission scolaire des Hauts-Cantons
Commission scolaire de la Région-de-Sherbrooke
Commission scolaire des Sommets

Gaspésie–Îles-de-la-Madeleine
(Administrative Region 11)

Commission scolaire des Chic-Chocs
Commission scolaire des Îles
Commission scolaire René-Lévesque

Lanaudière
(Administrative Region 14)

Commission scolaire des Affluents
Commission scolaire des Samares

Laurentides
(Administrative Region 15)

Commission scolaire des Laurentides
Commission scolaire Pierre-Neveu
Commission scolaire de la Rivière-du-Nord
Commission scolaire de la Seigneurie-des-Mille-Îles

Laval
(Administrative Region 13)

Commission scolaire de Laval

Mauricie
(Administrative Region 04)

Commission scolaire du Chemin-du-Roy
Commission scolaire de l'Énergie

Montérégie
(Administrative Region 16)

Commission scolaire des Grandes-Seigneuries
Commission scolaire des Hautes-Rivières
Commission scolaire Marie-Victorin
Commission scolaire des Patriotes
Commission scolaire de Sorel-Tracy
Commission scolaire de Saint-Hyacinthe
Commission scolaire des Trois-Lacs
Commission scolaire du Val-des-Cerfs
Commission scolaire de la Vallée-des-Tisserands

Montréal
(Administrative Region 06)

Commission scolaire Marguerite-Bourgeoys
Commission scolaire de Montréal
Commission scolaire de la Pointe-de-l’Île

Nord-du-Québec
(Administrative Region 10)

Commission scolaire de la Baie-James

Outaouais
(Administrative Region 07)

Commission scolaire au Cœur-des-Vallées
Commission scolaire des Draveurs
Commission scolaire des Hauts-Bois-de-l'Outaouais
Commission scolaire des Portages-de-l'Outaouais

Québec
(Administrative Region 03)

Commission scolaire de la Capitale
Commission scolaire de Charlevoix
Commission scolaire des Découvreurs
Commission scolaire de Portneuf
Commission scolaire des Premières-Seigneuries

Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean
(Administrative Region 02)

Commission scolaire De La Jonquière
Commission scolaire du Lac-Saint-Jean
Commission scolaire du Pays-des-Bleuets
Commission scolaire des Rives-du-Saguenay

The Nine English School Boards

The names of the nine English school boards are, in alphabetical order, the following:

Commission scolaire Central Québec
Central Québec School Board

[Administrative regions 02, 03, 04, 10 (section), 12 and 17 (section)]

Commission scolaire Eastern Shores
Eastern Shores School Board

[Administrative regions 01, 09 (section) and 11]

Commission scolaire Eastern Townships
Eastern Townships School Board

[Administrative regions 05, 16 (section) and 17 (section)]

Commission scolaire English-Montréal
English-Montréal School Board

[Administrative region 06 (section)]

Commission scolaire Lester-B.-Pearson
Lester-B.-Pearson School Board

[Administrative region 06 (section) and 16 (section)]

Commission scolaire New Frontiers
New Frontiers School Board

[Administrative region 16 (section)]

Commission scolaire Riverside
Riverside School Board

[Administrative region 16 (section)]

Commission scolaire Sir-Wilfrid-Laurier
Sir-Wilfrid-Laurier School Board

[Administrative regions 13, 14 and 15]

Commission scolaire Western Québec
Western Québec School Board

[Administrative regions 07 et 08]

The Three Special-Status School Boards

The three special-status school boards continue under their current names:

Commission scolaire crie
Cree School Board

[Administrative region 10]

Commission scolaire Kativik
Kativik School Board

[Administrative region 10]

Commission scolaire du Littoral

[Administrative region 09]

School Board Territories

In the next few months, the ministère de l’Éducation will publish a map showing the territories of the new school boards. In the meantime, descriptions of the territories of the linguistic school boards and maps showing their limits are available on our Internet site.