a history of curriculum services canada

1999
planned for later in November to the Edutech Conference and to the Education Improvement
Commission (EIC).
Several other organizations approached CSC in the fall, with plans for various kinds of joint
ventures:
• The Independent Learning Centre (ILC) approached CSC with the idea of projectmanaging
the development of all their Grade 9 courses. Because CSC was not in a
position to undertake development, the offer was declined, with ILC agreeing to refer
their materials in future for review instead.
• Classroom Connections, an organization that develops and distributes corporate and
organizational materials to schools, as well as providing teacher and parent materials,
approached CSC in November, in an attempt to get the CSC stamp of approval. Some
form of partnership was suggested and put up for discussion.
• Magic Lantern, the largest distributor of classroom video resources to schools across
Canada, approached CSC as a vendor, to load over 6000 videos that match the Ontario
curriculum onto the website “Central Store” catalogue. Theirs was a generous revenue
share offer for sales attributed to the CSC website.
• Finally, the Ontario Physical and Health Educators Association of Ontario (OPHEA)
approached CSC for a joint venture in helping to market Health and Physical Education
resources on the CSC website by linking to their catalogue. This was a concept that CSC
would explore with other subject associations in the future.
In the early fall, a presentation was made to the Institute for Catholic Education, at its request, to
explain the general CSC management and process of the course profile reviews, including
meeting the Catholic Graduate Expectations. The information provided was well received by
Sister Joan Cronin, Executive Director of the Institute and her committee.
CSC was also approached by the family of the late Janice Thomson, a prominent Ontario
educator, to set up a scholarship in her memory.
An important fact-finding meeting took place in December between the Executive Director and
Monique Belanger, Co-ordinator, Elementary-Secondary Programs, Council of Ministers of
Education (Canada). CSC was encouraged at this time to set up a meeting with curriculum
leaders from all Canadian provinces and territories to establish criteria for the commonalities in
curriculum across Canada. A date was set for February 2000 and invitations were sent out
immediately, with 15 confirmed responses received before the end of the year.
December ended with interviews for a 5 month contract position, at the Director level, to
establish The Curriculum Foundation. The position would begin in January 2000 and the
successful candidate, Terry Lynch, was chosen for his outstanding record as a director of
education, his experience in charitable foundation development and implementation, and his
well-earned reputation in Ontario education.
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