It is hard to believe, but the holiday season is here, and we are quickly approaching the end of 2022. The holiday break is around the corner, the Buckeyes are in the College Football Playoff, and we’re about to ring in 2023. For boards of education, though, there are important deadlines and other items to keep in mind as we approach January despite the festivities of the season.
Ohio Revised Code 3313.14 requires boards to set the date for the organizational meeting by Dec. 31. For boards of education of city, local and exempted village school districts, this meeting must take place within the first fifteen days of January. For boards of joint vocational school districts (JVSDs) and educational service centers (ESCs), this meeting must occur sometime in January.
One of the key functions of the organizational meeting is for the board to select a president and vice president for the upcoming year. This means that in its December meeting, the board should select a president pro tempore to preside over the January meeting in order to call the meeting to order and preside over the selection of the new president. The president pro tempore can be any member of the board. There are several important tasks that must be performed at the January organizational meeting, such as setting the schedule for regular board meetings during the rest of the year, making appointments to the JVSD board, and adopting the district’s tax budget per RC 5705.28.
Organizational meetings are an important function of the board, and OSBA maintains several resources on this topic for your review. We would encourage you to review our Organizational Meeting and Oath of Office fact sheet for more information. We have also written several blog posts on the topic in addition to this one that you may find helpful. Also, we receive many questions about these topics on the legal hotline, and we would encourage members to utilize this resource if you have any questions by calling (855) OSBA-LAW.