Instruction Procedure 2020P: Curriculum Development and Adoption of Instructional Materials

The curriculum of a district shall be reviewed on a regular basis. The district shall adopt a cycle for review of the following.

• Civics and History, Geography
• Mathematics, Science and Technology
• Social, Physical and Life Sciences
• Reading and Communications
• Writing and Arts
• Health and Fitness and Career Education
• Special Programs

Instructional Materials Committee: Scope and Schedule
The instructional materials committee is formed to establish and monitor such procedures as may be necessary for the selecting, adopting and discarding of instructional materials owned and used by the district. The committee will act upon requests for text approval and removal and will evaluate and act upon citizens’ requests for reconsideration of instructional materials. The function of the committee is to insure that materials are selected in conformance to stated criteria.

A meeting schedule will be established by the superintendent.

Instructional Materials Committee Membership
The Instructional Materials Committee (IMC) shall consist of a district administrator, one teacher from each school, one school librarian, two parents, and/or two community members. The superintendent shall designate committee members as chairperson and secretary.

Terms of Office and Annual Meetings
Members shall be appointed by the superintendent for three year terms an on a rotational basis. The committee shall meet on an as needed basis. Members shall be appointed by the superintendent. The superintendent shall designate committee members to serve as chairman and secretary.

Duties
The committee, with the approval of the superintendent, shall establish and monitor such procedures as may be necessary for the implementation of this policy.

Citizens Review of Instructional Materials
Citizens are invited to review instructional materials in current use or proposed for district adoption. Such review may be accomplished at the school or district office. The review and examination process should be arranged in a way to avoid disrupting the educational program. The review of instructional materials should be undertaken with knowledge of the district educational goals and essential learnings.

Displays of learning materials may be provided in school during parent meetings, instructional program nights, parent-teacher conferences and public meetings during the school year.

Selection of Instructional Materials: Responsibilities
The principal is responsible for insuring the continuing familiarity of his/her certificated staff with the requirements this policy and procedure. The district office shall provide such technical assistance as may be necessary to accomplish this.

Initial Selection
Texts shall be initially selected by such certificated staff as the superintendent may designate. Texts are major instructional materials for a given course.

Supplementary materials shall be selected by certificated staff using such materials with the understanding that while such materials do not require item-by-item approval of the committee, they must be selected using established criteria and are subject to normal reconsideration procedures. Supplementary materials supplement the major text of a course and are held in five or fewer copies in a given classroom.

Approval
Texts shall be approved by the committee. Supplementary materials shall not require committee approval.

Adoption
Texts shall be adopted by the board prior to their use in classrooms. Texts selected previously are exempt from this requirement. Supplementary materials shall not require board adoption.

Tasks and Time Lines
Textbooks can be approved at any committee meeting and sent for adoption at the next board meeting.

Conditions for Loan and Sale of Instructional Materials
Free textbooks and other instructional materials may be made available for loan to students when, in the judgment of the board members, the best interests of the district will be served by such a decision. The professional staff will maintain records necessary for the proper accounting of all instructional materials and will set forth conditions for student replacement of lost or badly damaged materials.

District instructional materials which students are not required to own may be made available to students who wish to purchase them. New and used materials currently utilized in the instructional program will be sold at the replacement cost of each item. Used materials no longer in basic or supplementary use will be sold at a price reflecting the depreciated value of the materials. Instructional materials that do not meet current district standards for subject content, sex balance, ethnic content or are not repairable may be declared obsolete by the superintendent and disposed of per district policy.

Removal of Instructional Materials
Instructional materials may be removed from collections at any time that they no longer meet the criteria for initial selection outlined in “Criteria for Selection of Instructional Material.” Any instructional materials may be removed when the administration judges such removal to be in the best interests of the district. Ordinary procedures for withdrawal of materials are outlined below:

1. Texts shall be removed from collections by the committee based on the criteria for selection in this procedure and on the availability of suitable replacement materials.
2. Supplementary materials shall be removed from collections by individual certificated staff holding such collections based on the criteria for selection in this procedure and on the availability of suitable replacement materials.

A citizen wishing to protest use of any instructional materials in the school system must use the form for requesting reconsideration of instructional materials. These forms are available from the district office. The complainant will deliver the completed request form to the instructional materials committee secretary, who will take the following steps to assure timely consideration of requests:

1. Set a time and place for an open hearing of the complaint by the instructional materials committee. Such hearing shall be within 30 days of the committee secretary's receipt of the completed request form.
2. Notify the complainant and appropriate staff, including those using the materials, of the time and place of the meeting. Such notification shall include an invitation to present relevant information, oral or written.
3. Assemble such data, including reviews and professional opinions of the materials, the staff member's objectives in using the materials, and the specific objections of the complainant, as may be necessary for the committee to properly judge the request for reconsideration.

Hearings of a citizen's request for reconsideration shall be open to the public. The committee shall consider all matters presented and give reasonable credit to such matters according to the weight to which they are reasonably entitled. Decisions shall be by majority vote of the committee. Decisions of the committee shall be delivered in writing to the complainant and affected staff within 10 days.

ADOPTED: June 13, 1982
REVISED: March 24, 1997
REVISED: March 25, 2002
REVISED: November 22, 2004