This morning, the Ohio Supreme Court heard arguments in School Choice Ohio Inc. v. Cincinnati Public School District and Springfield City School District. School Choice Ohio (SCO) filed the lawsuit after the Springfield City School District denied SCO’s request for student names and addresses.
In December, the General Assembly enacted the “ban the box” law, House Bill (H.B.) 56. The bill creates R.C. 9.73, which prohibits public employers in Ohio from including any questions about a person’s criminal background on employment applications. School districts should take steps now to ensure compliance with the law when it becomes effective on March 23, 2016.
OSBA’s legal assistance fund (LAF) supports school districts that are defending legal challenges with the potential to affect public schools statewide. The courts have recently ruled on two LAF cases.
Talawanda City School District Board of Education v. Testa
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.
