Several western Pennsylvania school districts filed a lawsuit against the largest school board association in the Commonwealth in response to a cease and desist letter, instructing the districts to stop using the association’s policies.

The Pennsylvania School Boards Association (PSBA) sent letters to Mars Area School District in Butler County, South Side School District in Beaver County, and Ligonier Valley School District in Westmoreland County threatening to sue them if they continued to utilize policies after the districts terminated their membership with the agency.

One of the attorneys for the districts, Jordan Shuber of Dillon, McCandless, King, Coulter & Graham, said in an interview with Broad + Liberty that PSBA’s actions are retaliatory in nature. According to Shuber, Mars Area School District had previously terminated its membership with PSBA on two occasions. They were initially members from 2005 to 2010, and then rejoined in 2014 and remained members until 2018.

PSBA’s attorney did not send the cease and desist letter to Mars until September 6, 2024, and Mars did not receive a similar letter at any time between 2010 and 2014 when they were not active members.

Shuber believes that PSBA is threatening members who leave the association and stop paying dues because, “they are worried more districts will leave.” He said the districts left the association primarily because they “wanted to have more control over policy decision making since PSBA pressures people to use their forms.”

PSBA is the largest association representing and supporting school board members in the state. Until recently, they had a monopoly in providing these types of services; however, in December 2023, a rival organization, Pennsylvania School Directors Coalition, was launched. 

According to their website, the Coalition “offers several services designed to support school board members in promoting commonsense education policies both locally and statewide, improving academic achievement, and unlocking opportunities for all of Pennsylvania’s children.” They do not charge dues for school directors to access training or professional development.

Conversely, PSBA charges an annual fee to the school district, and every board director of that district is automatically a member. According to PSBA’s website, there are “4,500 school directors [who] become members by virtue of election to their local board — the board joins as a whole.”

School districts pay approximately $19,000 annually to PSBA for membership. For example, in May 2024, Perkiomen Valley School District in Montgomery County approved an expenditure of $19,006.02 to renew its “All Access Membership Package.” It is unknown whether there are various levels of membership as PSBA does not list that on their website, and they have not returned any requests for comment.

The crux of the lawsuit centers around whether PSBA “owns” the boilerplate policies that they create and make available to members. PSBA believes their policies are copyrighted, while the district’s attorneys argue they are not.

Policy services, according to the complaint and the PSBA website, is a benefit that the agency provides to members.

As members of the PSBA, Mars, South Side, and Ligonier Valley had access to their boilerplate policies and adopted many of them as their own. Subsequently, after the districts terminated their membership, PSBA threatened to sue unless they developed their own policies and stopped using the ones from PSBA.

The cease and desist letters state, “former PSBA subscribers are not permitted to use the PSBA materials once their subscription is terminated” and “once a district terminates its agreement with PSBA, that district may no longer use the PSBA materials and it must, among other things, develop its own policies.” 

According to the letters, “district policies authored and approved by the district through PSBA’s policy services are copyright protected by PSBA.” 

The school districts and their attorneys disagree, and the complaint alleges that “PSBA’s policy services are not copyright protected.”

The lawsuit cites a precedent case in Georgia where the Supreme Court ruled in 2020 that “no one can own the law.” (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, Inc., 590 U.S. 255, 265, 140 S. Ct. 1498, 1507 (2020)).

Shuber argues that PSBA was contracted by the districts to assist in the formulation of policies and ultimately recommended legislative language or boilerplate language. It was then up to the board members to legally adopt the policies through a board majority vote. The complaint asserts that, “such polices are the property of the citizens of the districts and are not owned by

nor may they be copyrighted by either the districts or the districts’ hired consultant, PSBA.”

Additionally, the lawsuit claims that PSBA, while relying on the copyright of the policies as their own materials, has not updated its copyright registration since the 1970s.

Ultimately the court will decide whether PSBA owns their policy language that is based on Pennsylvania law and statues. The court’s determination could potentially have a long-lasting impact on PSBA’s operating and membership structure.  

PSBA’s response to the court is due by December 2, 2024.

PSBA did not respond to a request for comment.

A full copy of the complaint is here.

Beth Ann Rosica resides in West Chester, has a Ph.D. in Education, and has dedicated her career to advocating on behalf of at-risk children and families. She covers education issues for Broad + Liberty. Contact her at barosica@broadandliberty.com.