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.

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:

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

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 cont

Hundreds of new individuals will begin serving on school boards in Ohio next month.  The legal hotline has received several questions about conflicts of interest for incoming members.  (Remember: OSBA attorneys cannot provide a legal analysis of the specifics for a board member, but we can provide legal information to help you determine whether you should speak with board counsel about a potential conflict.)

While it can arise in many contexts, we most commonly receive the question as one of four basic scenarios:

Since 1977, OSBA’s Legal Assistance Fund (LAF) has provided supportive assistance to boards of education in cases or controversies of statewide significance. Qualifying districts may request and receive:

Candidates required to file a post-general election campaign finance report must do so by December 11.  You can find the reporting forms on the Secretary of State’s website.

Attorneys can earn 5.0 CLE credits at the School Law Workshop presented by the Ohio Council of School Board Attorneys on Tuesday, Nov. 10.  The workshop will take place in Rooms C 210-212.  Sessions include:

On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) released a resource guide to help school districts better support undocumented youth. According to DOE, the aim of the guide is to help educators and school staff "support the academic success of undocumented youth, to debunk misconceptions by clarifying the legal rights of undocumented students as well as sharing helpful information about financial aid options open to undocumented students."

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.