The Legal Ledger

Is it time to “spring clean” your district?  As the school year draws to a close, now may be the perfect time to spruce up, clean up, and get your district in order for the next school year. However, as you clean out your classrooms and straighten up your storage rooms, keep in mind that there are laws that specifically regulate how districts may dispose of their school property. So, as you organize your things into the “keep” vs. “trash” piles, keep in mind the following:

 1)    Pay attention to how much your “trash” is worth.
If the value…

Last week, the Ohio House of Representative and Ohio Senate took action to develop a plan that will provide four additional calamity days to school districts.  Here’s a summary of some of the key provisions of the bill, as well as the answers to a few of the more frequently asked questions we’ve received:

•  Additional calamity days.  The bill provides four additional calamity days for the 2013-2014 school year.  These additional days may be granted to districts only after they have made up four of their contingency days and only after the district’s…

‘Tis the season for board transition!  But what happens if your board returns from the holidays in January at less than full capacity?  A vacancy may occur on the board for many reasons, but vacancies typically occur in January as a result of one of two things.  Either a board member has resigned from the board during the middle of his/her term with an effective date of December 31 or the board had more open seats than interested candidates at the most recent election.  In either case, a vacancy will occur on the board as of January 1 and the vacancy should be filled…

As of October 11, 2013, HB 14 has limited the circumstances in which a board of education may withhold the grades and credits of students who have failed to pay fees and charges. Under the newly amended provisions of RC 3313.642, boards of education are prohibited from withholding the grades, credits, official transcripts, diplomas, IEPs, or 504 plans of a student for the nonpayment of fees for materials used during the course of instruction if:

-a complaint has been filed in juvenile court alleging that a student is an abused, neglected, or dependent child; or

-a student has…

On June 30, 2013, House Bill (HB) 59, also known as the budget bill, was signed by Governor Kasich. Effective September 29, 2013, the bill added a new topic to the topics that may be discussed during an executive session of a public body.

Under current law, RC 121.22 (G) provides seven topics, six of which are applicable to school boards, which allow public bodies to remove themselves from public view to engage in discussion regarding certain matters.

As a result of HB 59, school boards will be able to discuss an eighth topic during executive session. This new topic deals…

The OSBA Legal Assistance Fund (LAF) recently assisted the Strongsville City School District Board of Education by submitting a amicus curiae brief supporting the district's position in a public records case.

On March 4, the Strongsville Education Association (SEA) began a labor strike of the district's facilities. The school board hired temporary replacement teachers and continued operating the schools. The strike continued until April 28, when the parties approved a successor collective bargaining agreement.

On March 5, two attorneys served various public records requests…

During 2009, the Martins Ferry City School District experienced financial difficulties. As a result, contract negotiations between the board of education and the Ohio Association of Public School Employees, Local 4 AFSCME and its Local 546 (OAPSE) resulted in a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) that did not provide a wage increase in 2009, but included wage reopener provisions for 2010 and 2011.

In January 2010, the board implemented a 5% uniform salary reduction. OAPSE filed grievances after the reduction was implemented alleging that the uniform salary reduction violated the…

On January 25, 2013, the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued a Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) notifying schools that students with disabilities must be afforded equal access to extracurricular athletics. The DCL comes after the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) published a report noting the positive impact that extracurricular athletics has on students, especially those with disabilities. In its report, the GAO determined that public elementary and secondary students with disabilities are not being provided an equal opportunity to participate in…

The Harlem Shake is a popular dance video that has spawned hundreds of thousands of imitators. For those of you unfamiliar with the dance craze, a few of my favorite versions can be found here, here, and here. The videos usually feature a person dancing alone, then a group joining in wildly…