Among the many provisions impacting school districts in the biennium budget (HB 64) that took effect on September 29, 2015 was a significant change to the property disposal process for school districts. 

Pursuant to newly-enacted Revised Code Section (RC) 3313.413, school districts seeking to dispose of real property must now first offer the property for sale to the governing authorities of high-performing community schools and any newly established community schools that are implementing a community school model that has a track record of high quality academic performance, as determined by the Ohio Department of Education (ODE). A community school is “high-performing” if it falls into any of the following categories:

  1. the school serves only grades K-3 and has received a grade of “A” or “B” for making progress in improving literacy measure on its most recent report card;
  2. the school primarily serves students enrolled in a dropout prevention and recovery program and has received a rating of “exceeds” standards on its most recent report card;
  3. the school has received a grade of A or B on the value-added progress dimension of its report card, and has received a grade of A, B, or C for the performance score index in each of the three previous years of operation;  or
  4. the school has received a grade of A or B on the value-added progress dimension of its report card, and has increased its performance index score in each of the three previous years of operation.

It is not yet clear how a school district is to determine whether charter schools are high-performing according to these criteria.  We’ve reached out to ODE for some direction on the matter, and will provide an update as soon as we know more.

If a community school does not notify the treasurer of the intention to purchase the property offered within 60 days, the school district must then follow the procedures set forth in 3313.411.  An outline of those procedures can be found in OSBA’s Property Disposal Fact Sheet.

OSBA is hosting a workshop on recent legislative changes and their impacts to board policies on Thursday, October 15.  You can learn more about the workshop here.

Posted by Shadya Yazback on 10/13/2015

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