Through no fault of its own, the Upper Grand District School Board has been pulled into the spotlight of a country-wide lawsuit that requires it to hand over information that includes years-old classroom lesson plans.
The lawsuit is between a non-profit organization called Access Copyright and the ministries of education in eight of the 10 provinces and three territories.
Access Copyright represents publishers and content creators, in this case those that create educational materials used in schools through textbooks and other materials. Access Copyright licences the content of those materials for those that create it.
In 2018 education departments filed a lawsuit against Access Copyright for $25 million, claiming they were paying too much for materials.
Access Copyright countersued for $50 million.
As part of the lawsuit, 300 school boards from across the country have been ordered to provide various documents.
“Some boards are required to do full document disclosure, other boards are required to do limited document disclosure. The UGDSB was randomly selected to do full document disclosure,” UGDSB spokesperson Heather Loney told GuelphToday.
The local board was one of 65 selected randomly selected by the court from hundreds across the country to provide full disclosure, said Loney.
“This involves gathering documents associated with access copyright including training materials and curriculum-based information, including lesson plans,” Loney said.
Asked if there were logistical issues in gathering that information, Loney said the biggest one was the sheer volume of documents involved.
Board-level documents were due beginning at the end of November and then can continue to be submitted until completion and school-level documents are due Jan. 15.
