Blogs

January brings new year’s resolutions, bowl games and (for school districts) organizational meetings. Everyone loves a checklist, so here it is: your handy-dandy organizational meeting checklist!

Timing:

_____ City, local, and exempted village boards of education must meet before January 15.

_____ Joint vocational boards of education and educational service center governing boards must meet before January 31.

Presiding officer:

_____ If the members of the former board selected a president pro tempore for the…

While you are planning your visit to the 2018 OSBA Capital Conference, make sure to take advantage of the OSBA Conference App. It’s available for use on…

Earlier this week, two amicus curiae briefs were filed with the Supreme Court of Ohio on behalf of the Ohio School Boards Association. In both briefs, OSBA was joined by other parties. OSBA had been asked by member school districts to prepare these briefs through its Legal Assistance Fund. 

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Does your board have new members? Have you been a board member for a while, but want to brush up on some of the basics? OSBA’s upcoming workshop — “Board member 101: Survival kit for your first 90 days in office” — may be just the ticket.

This two-day workshop focuses on helping board members, particularly those who are new to their positions, to develop into more effective educational leaders. OSBA staff from the divisions of board and management services, legal services, policy, and legislative services are…

As the end of the school year approaches, one of the more popular questions we receive has to do with the salary notice schools provide to their employees. Legally, RC 3319.12 requires boards of education, by the first day of July, to give each teacher who holds a valid contract for the succeeding school year a “notice” of the salary they are to be paid. Of course, the law also stipulates that this salary shall not be less than the salary paid during the preceding year unless the reduction is part of a uniform plan…

Three . . . two . . . one . . . Happy New Year!  

Happy New Year! At the beginning of every year, the division of legal services receives questions relating to organizational meeting procedures and the administration of the oath of office. Let’s take a moment to review the basics.

RC 3313.14 requires, city, local, exempted village and joint vocational school (JVS) boards to organize within the first 15 days of January. An educational service center (ESC) governing board has until the end of the month to hold its organizational meeting.

The meeting should be called to order by the president pro tem, and opening ceremonies (…

In our final blog post for 2015, we’re taking a look at the last of the most common conflict-of-interest questions OSBA receives on its hotline: board members who hold more than one public office.  Previous weeks have covered scenarios where:

• the individual currently works for the district,
• the individual has a family member working for the school district, and
• …

This month, we’ve been looking at the most common questions OSBA attorneys receive regarding board member conflicts-of-interest.  Those include:

• the individual currently works for the district,
• the individual has a family member working for the school district,
• the individual is employed by a company that has an active contract with the district (discussed below), or…

Through the month of December, we’re looking at the most common scenarios in which an incoming board member may have a conflict of interest.  Last week, we discussed individuals currently working and volunteering for the district (you can read that blog entry here).  This week, we’ll take a look at board members that have family members working for the school district.  In the coming weeks, we’ll look at board members that are employed by or own a company that has an active contract with the…