The board of directors of the Fairfield Community School District hereby declares it the policy of the district to provide a wide range of instructional materials on all levels of difficulty, with diversity of appeal, and the presentation of different points of view and to allow review of allegedly inappropriate instructional materials.

I.       Responsibility for Selection of Materials

          a.        The board is responsible for all matters relating to the operation of the Fairfield Community School District.

          b.        The responsibility for the selection of instructional materials is delegated to the professionally trained and licensed employees of the school system.  For the purpose of this rule the term “instructional materials” includes printed and multimedia materials (not equipment), whether considered text materials or library materials. The board retains the final authority for the approval of textbooks.

          c.         While selection of materials may involve many people including principals, teacher-librarian, students, parents and community members, the responsibility for coordinating the selection of most instructional materials and making the recommendation of the purchase resets with licensed employees.

          d.        Responsibility for coordinating the selection of text materials for distribution to classes will rest with the licensed employees, principal and superintendent.  For the purpose of this rule the term ’text materials‘ includes textbooks and other printed and non-printed material provided in multiple copies for use of a total class or a major segment of such a class.

 

II.      Criteria for Selection of Materials

          a.         The following criteria will be used as they apply:

1. Materials will support and be consistent with the general educational goals of the district and the objectives of specific courses.

2. Materials will be factually accurate and objective in content and presentation.

3. Materials will be appropriate for the subject area and for the age, emotional development, ability level, and social development of the students for whom the materials are selected.

4. Materials will have aesthetic, literary, or social value.

5. Materials chosen will be by competent and qualified authors and producers.

6. Materials will be chosen that are designed to motivate students and staff to gain an awareness and understanding of the many important contributions of women, minorities, and ethnic groups.  These materials will help them examine and comprehend their own attitudes, duties, rights, responsibilities, and privileges as participating citizens in a pluralistic, democracy.

7. Biased slanted materials may be provided to meet specific curriculum objectives.

8. Physical format and appearance of materials will be suitable for their intended use.

9. Price may be a consideration when viewing overall use of materials.

10. Recommendations from faculty and students are given consideration.
     
11. Materials and information will be selected for its strengths rather than rejected for its weaknesses.

12. Materials and information will be included to make clear the important role religion has had in shaping every age and culture.

          b.         The selection of materials and information on controversial issues will be directed toward maintaining a balanced collection representing various views.

 

III.     Procedure for Selection

          a.         Library Media Center Materials

1. In selecting materials for purchase for the media center, the media specialist will evaluate the existing collection and the curriculum needs and will consult reputable, professionally prepared selection aids and other appropriate sources.  (i.e.  School Library Journal, Booklist, etc.)  For the purpose of this rule the term “media’ includes all materials considered part of the library collection.
    
2. Gift materials will be judged by the criteria in Section II and will be accepted or rejected by those criteria.  Such materials will not be accepted if subject to restrictions on use or disposal or if they would produce an imbalance the library media center cannot afford to redress.

3. Selection is an ongoing process which will include the removal of materials no longer appropriate and the replacement of lost and worn materials still of educational value.

          b.        Text Materials

Study committees are appointed and study various educational programs on a scheduled basis.  Toward the end of the study of a particular program, the study committee reviews various educational materials that would appear to facilitate the teaching and learning of the skills and knowledge of that program.  Usually a selected group of materials, including textbooks, are submitted to most teachers who teach a given program.  These teachers provide the study committee their opinions and suggestions about materials.  The committee then selects the materials they consider to be of greatest help to the teachers and students in meeting the objectives that have been established for that program.  In turn these materials are recommended to the administration for adoption.

          c.         Interlibrary Loan, Networks, Telecommunications, etc.

The content of materials received from other sources such as interlibrary loan, telecommunications, networks, electronic bulletin boards, etc. cannot be viewed beforehand or controlled.  These sources are made available to meet educational goals and objectives, for teaching research skills, and for providing materials of interest that are not available locally.  These sources of information help acquaint students with information from the world at large.

          d.         Confidentiality of School Library Media Centers

The employees of Fairfield Community School District recognize that circulation records of the School Library Media Centers are confidential in nature and that these records will not be made available to anyone including any agency of state, federal, and local government except pursuant to federal, state, or local law relating to civil, criminal, or administrative investigatory power.  This is done to protect the freedom of users to read and peruse information without fear of intimidation or harassment.  The purpose of these records is for the retrieval of overdue materials and for statistical analysis of library use.

          e.         Copyright Law

The Fairfield Community School District will obey the Copyright Act of 1976 and the guidelines of fair use established by the Copyright Office.

Section 107 of the Act provides that:

the fair use of a copyrighted work…for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright.  In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered will include

(1)       the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for non-profit educational purposes;

(2)       the nature of the copyrighted work;

(3)       the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and

                      (4)       the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

 

IV.     Weeding

         a.          The library media specialist(s) will remove from the library media center materials, equipment and furniture no longer of value to the library
                      media program following general selection, replacement, and weeding guidelines.  (See, e.g., “Weeding the School Library Media Center
                      Collections, Iowa Department of Education, 1995.)

          b.         Text materials committees or other designated teachers or teacher committees may remove text materials no longer of value to the instructional program following general selection, replacement, and weeding guidelines.  The materials will be reviewed by the committee or person designated to determine their possible intrinsic worth to other groups or individuals in the following priority order:

1.   To another unit of the school.

2.   To other school in the district.

3. To the general public.  If deemed of sufficient value, the district will offer  items for sale at a stated time.

4. If items are determined to be of no value, or if no group or individual under points 1-3 above claims them, items will be discarded in a manner consistent with the district’s procedures for discard.

 

 

Legal Reference:  Iowa Code §§279.8; 280.3, .14; 301 (2009).
                                      281 I.A.C. 12.3 (12).

Cross Reference:  215    Public Participation in Board Meetings
          ​​​​​​​                            402.5 Public Complaints About Employees
                                        602    Curriculum Development
                                        605    Instructional Materials

Approved: Feb 16, 2015
Reviewed: Dec 22, 2014
Revised: Dec 22, 2014

​​​​​​​

The policy of this school district related to selection of learning materials states that any member of the school district community may formally challenge instructional materials used in the district's education program.  This policy allows those persons in the school and the community who are not directly involved in the selection of materials to make their own opinions known.  The task of the reconsideration committee is to provide an open forum for discussion of challenged materials and to make an informed recommendation on the challenge.  The meetings of the committee may be subject to the open meetings law.

The most critical component of the reconsideration process is the establishment and maintenance of the committee's credibility in the community.  For this purpose, the committee is composed of community members.  The community should not, therefore, infer that the committee is biased or is obligated to uphold prior professional decisions.  For this same reason, a community member will be selected to chair the committee.

The reconsideration process, the task of this committee, is just one part of the selection continuum.  Material is purchased to meet a need.  It is reviewed and examined, if possible, prior to purchase.  It is periodically re-evaluated through updating, discarding, or re-examination.  The committee must be ready to acknowledge that an error in selection may have been made despite this process.  Librarians and school employees regularly read great numbers of reviews in the selection process, and occasional errors are possible.

In reconsidering challenged materials, the role of the committee, and particularly the chairperson, is to produce a climate for agreement.  The committee should begin by finding items of agreement, keeping in mind that the larger the group participating, the greater the amount of information available and, therefore, the greater the number of possible approaches to the problem.

If the complainant chooses, the complainant may make an oral presentation to the committee to expand and elaborate on the complaint.  The committee will listen to the complainant, to those with special knowledge, and any other interested persons.  In these discussions, the committee should be aware of relevant social pressures which are affecting the situation.  Individuals who may try to dominate or impose a decision must not be allowed to do so.  Minority viewpoints expressed by groups or individuals must be heard, and observers must be made to feel welcome.  It is important that the committee create a calm, nonvolatile environment in which to deal with a potentially volatile situation.  To this end, the complainant will be kept informed of the progress of the complaint.

The committee will listen to the views of all interested persons before making recommendations.  In deliberating its recommendation, the committee should remember that the school system must be responsive to the needs, tastes, and opinions of the community it serves.  Therefore, the committee must distinguish between broad community sentiment and attempts to impose personal standards.  The deliberations should concentrate on the appropriateness of the material.  The question to be answered by the committee is, "Is the material appropriate for its designated audience at this time?"

The committee's final recommendation will be (1) to remove the challenged material from the total school environment, (2) to take no removal action, or (3) to agree on a limitation of the educational use of the materials.

The committee chairperson will instruct the secretary to convey the committee's recommendation to the office of the superintendent.  The recommendation should detail the rationale on which it was based.  A letter will be sent to the complainant outlining the outcome.

 

 

Approved: Feb 16, 2015, January 25, 2021
Reviewed: Dec 22, 2014, Nov. 16, 2020
Revised:

 

Request for re-evaluation of printed or multimedia material to be submitted to the superintendent.

REVIEW INITIATED BY:

DATE:

Name

Address

City/State

Zip Code

Telephone

School(s) in which item is used

Relationship to school (parent, student, citizen, etc.)

BOOK OR OTHER PRINTED MATERIAL IF APPLICABLE:

Author

Hardcover

Paperback

Other

Title

Publisher (if known)

Date of Publication

MULTIMEDIA MATERIAL IF APPLICABLE:

Title

Producer (if known)

Type of material (filmstrip, motion picture, etc.)

PERSON MAKING THE REQUEST REPRESENTS: (circle one)

Self

Group or Organization

Name of group

Address of Group

1.	What brought this item to your attention?
2.	To what in the item do you object?  (please be specific; cite pages, or frames, etc.)
3.	In your opinion, what harmful effects upon students might result from use of this item?
4.	Do you perceive any instructional value in the use of this item?
5.	Did you review the entire item?  If not, what sections did you review?
6.	Should the opinion of any additional experts in the field be considered?
			yes				no
	If yes, please list specific suggestions:
7.	To replace this item, do you recommend other material which you consider to be of equal or superior quality for the purpose intended?

8.	Do you wish to make an oral presentation to the Review Committee?
		Yes	(a) Please contact the Superintendent
			Please be prepared at this time to indicate the approximate length of time your presentation will require.  Although this is no guarantee that you'll be allowed to present to the committee, or that you will get your requested amount of time.
							Minutes.
		No
	Dated					Signature

 

Approved: Feb 16, 2015, January 25, 2021
Revised: Dec 22, 2014, Nov. 16, 2020
Reviewed: Dec 22, 2014

 

Dear:

 

We recognize your concern about the use of ______________________________ in our school district.  The school district has developed procedures for selection of instructional materials but realizes that not everyone will agree with every selection made.

To help you understand the selection process, we are sending copies of the school district’s:

          1.         Instruction Goals and Objectives;

          2.         Instructional Materials Selection Policy Statement, and

          3.         Procedure for Reconsideration of Instructional Materials.

If you are still concerned after you review this material, please complete the Reconsideration Request Form and return it to me.  You may be assured of prompt attention to your request.

If I have not heard from you within one week, we will assume you no longer wish to file a formal complaint.

 

Sincerely,

 

 

Approved: Feb 16, 2015, January 25, 2021
Revised: _____________
Reviewed: Dec 22, 2014, Nov. 16, 2020

 

I.       Review or Reevaluation

1. Any resident or employee of the school district may ask that a specific title or titles in the instructional materials used in the district’s educational program be reviewed or reexamined.  (The term “review” used in this section will refer to reexamination or reevaluation of material based on a “request for review.”  It should not be confused with the normal reviewing process as a part of selection.)  This will not be considered to reflect adversely on the qualifications of the person or persons who made the selection.

                     1.         The school official or staff member receiving a request for review or reexamination regarding instructional materials will try to resolve
                                 the issue informally.  The materials will remain in use unless removed through the formal procedure herein provided.

                     2.         The school official or staff member initially receiving a request for review will explain to the requester the school district’s selection
                                 procedure, criteria, and qualifications of those persons selecting the material.  These people will also explain the place this material
                                 occupies in the educational program, its intended educational usefulness, and additional information regarding its usefulness.

                      3.          In the event that the person asking for the review is not satisfied with the initial explanation, the person raising the question should be referred to the library media specialist and/or principal.  If, after this discussion, the person wishes to file a formal request for review, the school official should assist in filling out a “Request for Review” form.

4.          The school official or staff member receiving the “Request for Review” form should notify the principal of the appropriate attendance center about the inquiry in writing by the end of the following school day.  The written notification should indicate name, material and resolution if any.  The principal or other designated person will file a report for the Review Committee’s records.

          b.         Request for Review

                     1.           Each attendance center and the school district’s central office will keep on hand and make available “Request for Review” forms.  All
                                   formal requests for review must be made on this form.                                                  

                     2.           Within five days after receiving the form, the superintendent of designee will file the request with the standing Review
                                   Committee.           

c.          Review committee

                      1.         The Review Committee will be made up of thirteen members.

                                  a.         Three teachers – one middle school, one senior high and one elementary, designated annually by the superintendent.

                                  b.        School media specialists will be named to the committee.  The media specialist responsible for the attendance center where the item being reexamined originated will not serve on the committee for that review.

                                  c.         One member of the central administrative staff designated annually by the superintendent.

                                  d.        Four members from the community appointed annually by Fairfield Community School Board action.

                                  e.         One high school student and one middle school student selected annually.  The middle school student will be selected by the principal.  Recommendations for the senior high student will come from the principal with selection by the student council.

                                  f.         One school board member appointed annually by school board action.

                      2.         The chairperson and secretary will be selected by the members of the committee.  The chairperson will not be an employee or officer of the district.  The secretary will be an employee or officer of the district.

                      3.         The committee will receive the Materials Selection Policy and all “Request for Review” forms from the superintendent or person designated by the superintendent.

          d.         Review Process

                      1.         The first meeting will consist of the Review Committee.  The procedure following receipt of the “Request for Review” is as follows:

                                  a.         Distribute copies of the written “Request for Review” form.

                                  b.         Distribute reputable, professionally prepared reviews of the material when available.

                                  c.         Distribute copies of the material if available.

                      2.          Before the next meeting committee members will read and examine completely the materials being reviewed.  Opinions will be based on the material as a whole and not on passages pulled out of context.  The secretary will inform the press of the date of the next meeting.            

                      3.          At a subsequent meeting, interested persons, including the person requesting the review, may have the opportunity to share their views.  The committee may request individuals with special knowledge to present information to the committee.

4.           The person requesting the review will be kept informed by the secretary concerning the status of the review through the committee process.  All known interested parties will be given appropriate notice of committee meetings.

5.          At the second or subsequent meeting, as desired, the committee will make its recommendation in open session.  The committee’s final recommendation will be by majority vote
 a.         to take no action;
 b.         to remove all or part of the material from the total school environment;
 c.         to allow student to use alternate titles, approved by school personnel involved; or
 d.         to limit the educational use of the material.

The sole criteria for the final recommendation is the appropriateness of the material for its intended educational use.

                      6.        The written recommendation and its justification will be forwarded to the superintendent for appropriate action and to the person initiating the request and to the appropriate attendance centers.

                     7.        A recommendation of the committee to remove or limit use of the material will not be interpreted as a judgment of irresponsibility on the part of the professionals involved in the original selection or use of the material.

                      8.       Committee members directly associated with the selection, use, or request for review of materials will be excused from the committee during the deliberation on such materials.  The superintendent may appoint a temporary replacement for the excused committee member, but such replacement will be of the same general qualifications of a member excused.

                     9.        Requests for Review which have previously been before the committee must receive approval of a majority of the committee
                                 members before the materials will again be reviewed.  Requests with less than a two-year lapse will not be considered.  Every Request
                                 for Review form will be acted upon by the committee.

                      10.      If not satisfied with the recommendation of the committee, any person may appeal the decision to the Board of Education, in which
                                 case the matter will be placed on the agenda of the next regular scheduled meeting of the board.

                       11.      Any person dissatisfied with the decision of the board may appeal to the State Board of Education pursuant to Iowa Code Chapter
                                  290.

 

 

Revised: Dec 7, 2016, January 25, 2021
Reviewed: Dec 7, 2016, Nov. 16, 2020
Approved: Feb 20, 2017

 

Employees and students may make copies of copyrighted materials that fall within the following guidelines.  Where there is reason to believe the material to be copied does not fall within these guidelines, prior permission will be obtained from the publisher or producer with the assistance of the teacher-librarian, principal, or curriculum director.  Employees and students who fail to follow this procedure may be held personally liable for copyright infringement and may be subject to discipline by the board.

Under the “fair use” doctrine, unauthorized reproduction of copyrighted materials is permissible for such purposes as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship or research.  Under the fair used doctrine, each of the following four standards must be met in order to use the copyrighted document:

• Purpose and Character of the Use – The use must be for such purposes as teaching or scholarship.

• Nature of the Copyrighted Work – The type of work to be copied.
• Amount and Substantiality of the Portion Used – Copying the whole of a work cannot be considered fair use; copying a small portion may be if these guidelines are followed.
• Effect of the Use Upon the Potential Market for or value of the Copyrighted Work – If resulting economic loss to the copyright holder can be shown, even making a single copy of certain materials may be an infringement, and making multiple copies presents the danger of greater penalties.

Authorized Reproduction and Use of Copyrighted Material Reminders:

• Materials on the Internet should be used with caution since they may, and likely are, copyrighted.
• Proper attribution (author, title, publisher, place and date of publication) should always be given.
• Notice should be taken of any alterations to copyrighted works, and such alterations should only be made for specific instructional objectives.
• Care should be taken in circumventing any technological protection measures.  While materials copied pursuant to fair use may be copied after circumventing technological protections against unauthorized copying, technological protection measures to block access to materials may not be circumvented.

In preparing for instruction, a teacher may make or have made a single copy of:

• A chapter from a book;
• An article from a newspaper or periodical;
• A short story, short essay or short poem; or,
• A chart, graph, diagram, drawing, cartoon or picture from a book, periodical or newspaper.

A teacher may make multiple copies not exceeding more than one per pupil, for classroom use or discussion, if the copying meets the tests of “brevity, spontaneity and cumulative effect” set by the following guidelines.  Each copy must include a notice of copyright.

• Brevity
  • A complete poem, if less than 250 words and two pages long, may be copied; excerpts from longer poems cannot exceed 250 words;
  • Complete articles, stories or essays of less than 2,500 words or excerpts from prose works less than 1,000 words or 10% of the work, whichever is less, may be copied; in any event, the minimum is 500 words;
  • Each numerical limit may be expanded to permit the completion of an unfinished line of a poem or prose paragraph;
  • One chart, graph, diagram, drawing, cartoon or picture per book or periodical issue may be copied.  “Special” works cannot be reproduced in full; this includes children’s books combining poetry, prose or poetic prose.  Short special works may be copied up to two published pages containing not more than 10% of the work.
• Spontaneity – Should be at the “instance and inspiration” of the individual teacher when there is not a reasonable length of time to request and receive permission to copy.
• Cumulative Effect – Teachers are limited to using copied material for only one course for which copies are made.  No more than one short poem, article, story or two excerpts from the same author may be copied, and no more than three works can be copied from a collective work or periodical column during one class term.  Teachers are limited to nine instances of multiple copying for one course during one class term.  Limitations do not apply to current news periodicals, newspapers and current news sections of other periodicals.

 

Copying Limitations

Circumstances will arise when employees are uncertain whether or not copying is prohibited.  In those circumstances, the teacher-librarian, principal, or curriculum director should be contacted.  The following prohibitions have been expressly stated in federal guidelines:

• Reproduction of copyrighted material will not be used to create or substitute for anthologies, compilations or collective works.
• Unless expressly permitted by agreement with the publisher and authorized by school district action, there will be no copying from copyrighted consumable materials such as workbooks, exercises, test booklets, answer sheets and the like.
• Employees will not:
  • Use copies to substitute for the purchase of books, periodicals, music recordings, consumable works such as workbooks, computer software or other copyrighted material.  Copy or use the same item from term to term without the copyright owner’s permission;
  • Copy or use more than nine instances of multiple copying of protected material in any one term;
• • Copy or use more than one short work or two excerpts from works of the same author in any one term;
• • Copy or use protected material without including a notice of copyright.  The following is a satisfactory notice:  NOTICE:  THIS MATERIAL MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT LAW.
  • Reproduce or use copyrighted material at the direction of someone in higher authority or copy or use such material in emulation of some other teacher’s use of copyrighted material without permission of the copyright owner.
  • Require other employees or students to violate the copyright law or fair use guidelines.

                            

Authorized Reproduction and Use of Copyrighted Materials in the Library

A library may make a single copy or three digital copies of:

• An unpublished work in its collection;
• A published work in order to replace it because it is damaged, deteriorated, lost or stolen, provided that an unused replacement cannot be obtained at a fair price.
• A work that is being considered for acquisition, although use is strictly limited to that decision.  Technological protection measures may be circumvented for purposes of copying materials in order to make an acquisition decision.

A library may provide a single copy of copyrighted material to a student or employee at no more than the actual cost of photocopying.  The copy must be limited to one article of a periodical issue or a small part of other material, unless the library finds that the copyrighted work cannot be obtained elsewhere at a fair price.  In the latter circumstance, the entire work may be copied.  In any case, the copy will contain the notice of copyright and the student or staff member will be notified that the copy is to be used only for private study, scholarship or research.  Any other use may subject the person to liability for copyright infringement.

 

Authorized Reproduction and Use of Copyrighted Music or Dramatic Works

Teachers may:

• Make a single copy of a song, movement, or short section from a printed musical or dramatic work that is unavailable except in a larger work for purposes of preparing for instruction;
• Make multiple copies for classroom use of an excerpt of not more than 10% of a printed musical work if it is to be used for academic purposes other than performance, provided that the excerpt does not comprise a part of the whole musical work which would constitute a performable unit such as a complete section, movement, or song;
• In an emergency, a teacher may make and use replacement copies of printed music for an imminent musical performance when the purchased copies have been lost, destroyed or are otherwise not available.
• Make and retain a single recording of student performances of copyrighted material when it is made for purposes of evaluation or rehearsal;
• Make and retain a single copy of excerpts from recordings of copyrighted musical works for use as aural exercises or examination questions; and,
• Edit or simplify purchased copies of music or plays provided that the fundamental character of the work is not distorted.  Lyrics will not be altered or added if none exist.

Performance by teachers or students of copyrighted musical or dramatic works is permitted without the authorization of the copyright owner as part of a teaching activity in a classroom or instructional setting.  The purpose will be instructional rather than for entertainment.

Performances of nondramatic musical works that are copyrighted are permitted without the authorization of the copyright owner, provided that:

• The performance is not for a commercial purpose;
• None of the performers, promoters or organizers are compensated; and,
• Admission fees are used for educational or charitable purposes only.

All other musical and dramatic performances require permission from the copyright owner.  Parents or others wishing to record a performance should check with the sponsor to ensure compliance with copyright.

 

Recording of Copyrighted Programs

Television programs, excluding news programs, transmitted by commercial and non-commercial television stations for reception by the general public without charge may be recorded off-air simultaneously with broadcast transmission (including simultaneous cable retransmission) and retained by a school for a period not to exceed the first 45 consecutive calendar days after date of recording.  Upon conclusion of this retention period, all off-air recordings must be erased or destroyed immediately.  Certain programming such as that provided on public television may be exempt from this provision; check with the teacher-librarian, principal, or curriculum director or the subscription database, e.g. united streaming.

Off-air recording may be used once by individual teachers in the course of instructional activities, and repeated once only when reinforcement is necessary, within a building, during the first 10 consecutive school days, excluding scheduled interruptions, in the 45 calendar day retention period.  Off-air recordings may be made only at the request of and used by individual teachers, and may not be regularly recorded in anticipation of requests.  No broadcast program may be recorded off-air more than once at the request of the same teacher, regardless of the number of times the program may be broadcast.  A limited number of copies may be reproduced from each off-air recording to meet the legitimate needs of teachers.  Each additional copy will be subject to all provisions governing the original recording.

After the first 10 consecutive school days, off-air recordings may be used up to the end of the 45 calendar day retention period only for evaluation purposes, i.e., to determine whether or not to

include the broadcast program in the teaching curriculum.  Permission must be secured from the publisher before the recording can be used for instructional purposes after the 10 day period.

Off-air recordings need not be used in their entirety, but the recorded programs may not be altered from their original content.  Off-air recordings may not be physically or electronically combined or merged to constitute teaching anthologies or compilations.  All copies of off-air recordings must include the copyright notice on the broadcast program as recorded.

 

Authorized Reproduction and Use of Copyrighted Computer Software

Schools have a valid need for high-quality software at reasonable prices.  To assure a fair return to the authors of software programs, the school district will support the legal and ethical issues involved in copyright laws and any usage agreements that are incorporated into the acquisition of software programs.  To this end, the following guidelines will be in effect:

• All copyright laws and publisher license agreements between the vendor and the school district will be observed;
• Staff members will take reasonable precautions to prevent copying or the use of unauthorized copies on school equipment;
• A copy of the software license agreement will be retained by the technology department; and,
• A computer program may be adapted by adding to the content or changing the language.  The adapted program may not be distributed.

 

Fair Use Guidelines for Educational Multimedia

Students may incorporate portions of copyrighted materials in producing educational multimedia projects such as videos, Power Points, podcasts and websites for a specific course, and may perform, display or retain the projects.

Educators may perform or display their own multimedia projects to students in support of curriculum-based instructional activities.  These projects may be used:

• In face-to-face instruction;
• In demonstrations and presentations, including conferences;
• In assignments to students;
• For remote instruction if distribution of the signal is limited;
• Over a network than cannot prevent duplication for 15 days, after 15 days a copy may be saved on-site only; or,
• In their personal portfolios.

Educators may use copyrighted materials in a multimedia project for two years, after that permission must be requested and received.

The following limitations restrict the portion of any given work that may be used pursuant of fair use in an educational multimedia project:

• Motion media:  10 % or three minutes, whichever is less;
• Text materials: 10% or 1,000 words, whichever is less;
• Poetry:  an entire poem of fewer than 250 words, but no more than three poems from one author or five poems from an anthology.  For poems of greater than 250 words, excerpts of up to 250 words may be used, but no more than three excerpts from one poet or five excerpts from an anthology;
• Music, lyrics and music video:  Up to 10%, but no more than 30 seconds.  No alterations that change the basic melody or fundamental character of the work;
• Illustrations, cartoons and photographs:  No more than five images by an artist, and no more than 10% or 15 images whichever is less from a collective work;
• Numerical data sets; Up to 10% or 2,500 field or cell entries, whichever is less.

Fair use does not include posting a student or teacher’s work on the Internet if it includes portions of copyrighted materials.  Permission to copy will be obtained from the original copyright holder(s) before such projects are placed online.  The opening screen of such presentations will include notice that permission was granted and materials are restricted from further use.

Notices – Before including this section, make sure employees are ready to comply with it and notices are posted.

The teacher-librarian and principal are responsible for ensuring that appropriate warning devices are posted.  The warnings are to educate and warn individuals using school district equipment of the copyright law.  Warning notices must be posted:

• On or near copiers and printers
• On forms used to request copying services;
• On video recorders;
• On computers; and,
• At the library and other places where interlibrary loan orders for copies of materials are accepted.

 

 

Approved Oct. 8, 2007, Sep 21, 2015, Sep 21, 2015, January 25, 2021      
Reviewed   Sep. 17, 2007, Jul 27, 2015, Dec 21, 2020    
Revised   Oct. 8, 2007, Jul 27, 2015, September 18, 2017