a history of curriculum services canada

II. First Steps
The very first step was to assemble a working group to develop the parameters of the new
organization. On August 4, 1993, Jim Sebastian and Caroline Di Giovanni of the Ministry of
Education and Training (MET)* met with Gail Anderson of the Ontario Public School Board
Association (OPSBA) and a representative of the Ontario Catholic Supervisory Officers'
Association (OCSOA).
At this seminal meeting, much of the future shape of what would become OCC was discussed.
The make-up of membership was the first consideration and several organizations, including
Ontario Teachers' Federation (OTF), Ontario Public Supervisory Officers' Association
(OPSOA), and Ontario Separate School Trustees' Association (OSSTA), were discussed as
potential members.
The clearinghouse was to operate as a partnership among the stakeholder groups and it was
determined that the working group should function as a management body, rather than as an
advisory panel. The potential for this work group to become a Board of Directors “at arm's
length” from the Ministry was also considered.
As their primary functions, the work group identified co-ordination of marketing, contacts,
catalogue development, and the organization as a whole, together with "delivery" of the database
- abstracting, cataloguing, and storing. One of the group’s first actions was to meet with CFORP
representatives to learn how their organization functioned and how their model might prove
helpful in developing the clearinghouse. Many recommendations were forthcoming relating to
funding, staffing, management, and the collection, pricing, vetting, production, and distribution
of materials.
CFORP had started small and remained modest in its approach, gradually winning the trust and
support of teachers and the education community. This same approach was recommended for the
new clearinghouse. CFORP also emphasized quality control. While it would likely be necessary
in the beginning to accept most materials in order to establish a database, it was acknowledged
that quality controls should be introduced as early as possible. Stress was also placed on the
need to keep the new service separate from CFORP's service to francophones.
To meet the immediate needs of teachers in Ontario, the initial focus of the clearinghouse would
be the establishment of a mechanism for the sharing of English-language Transition Years
resource materials developed by boards and teaching federations. Early visions for a catalogue
included a list of human resources, notably Transition Years speaker/specialists, in addition to
traditional print resources. As a result of their research, the work group deemed it essential that
every resource listing be accompanied by an abstract (to be produced in house), together with
basic information about the material—number of pages, authors, publication date, etc. The
group wrestled with the question of user fees, resolving to keep them as low as possible and, to
this end, the option of negotiating copyright waivers from boards was discussed.
©2008 Curriculum Services Canada 4