Nearly half of the 72 school boards in the province will be eliminated, Education Minister Yves Bolduc announced Wednesday.

Bolduc decided to cut the boards following devastatingly poor turnout of the latest school board elections earlier this month, where an underwhelming 5 per cent of voters came out for the francophone boards, but that number increased slightly to 21 per cent for anglophone boards.



The heads of both the French and English school boards met with Bolduc in Quebec City Wednesday to discuss the fate of the boards.

Roughly half of Quebec's 60 francophone school boards will merge, while the province’s nine English boards will become seven.

Bolduc said he is not ready to specify which boards would be affected, but reports suggest New Frontiers, Riverside and Eastern Townships School Board would merge. The EMSB and Lester B. Pearson boards are expected to remain unchanged.



“We now have to study the details,” said Quebec English School Boards Association President David D’Aoust. “We have to consult our members because boards belong to the elected officials who just went through the last election.”

Bolduc also promised changes for the French boards in Montreal.

"We want to have a better organization first with the geography, with the demography, and with the organization," said Bolduc. "On Montreal Island there's going to be changes. We have to reorganize the Montreal Island."

The main impetus for the mergers will be to reduce costs and to give more power to individual schools.



“Is the quality of service going to stay the same? We don't have answers to that,” said Josee Bouchard, president of the Federation des Commissions Scolaires du Quebec.

Service is something parent and former teacher Paul Paquet said he worries about.

His two children attend schools that are part of the Commission Scolaire de Montreal, where there’s talk the board's western schools could merge with Commission Scolaire Marguerite Bourgeoys.

“If we need something above the school, like psychologists, like professionals, like activities, it will be very hard, because it's not the same culture; it's not the same territory,” he said.

The proposed restructuring is currently only in talks. The school boards with have a few days to look over the plan and the government says it's willing to negotiate – but that changes are imminent.