Officially, there are only two types of meetings: regular and special. For the sake of clarity, however, the Dayton Board of Education assigns names to all of its regularly scheduled meetings.
Organizational Meeting
The Board is required to hold an organizational meeting no later than January 15 of each year. The primary purpose of this meeting is to elect members to serve as president and vice president. The Dayton Board of Education also uses this meeting to establish regular meeting dates for the year, approve membership in the Ohio School Boards Association, establish the service fund (the Board’s budget), and to approve a resolution for the advance payment of taxes (as needed).
Ohio Revised Code sets the service fund for a public school district at a rate of “two dollars for each child enrolled in the district or twenty thousand dollars.” Regardless of enrollment, the service fund cannot exceed sixty thousand dollars. (ORC 3315.15)
Review Session
Each month, the Board is asked to approve recommendations from the superintendent and/or treasurer regarding issues such as staffing, contracts, major purchases, and curriculum. To allow the members an opportunity to gain information that will aid in their decision-making, a review session is held approximately five days before each Business Meeting.
Members are provided with a complete list of recommendations from both the superintendent and treasurer, and during the review session, they may question the superintendent, treasurer, or members of the superintendent’s cabinet about the details of any of the recommendations.
Board Retreat
The Board holds a retreat four times a year with the dates being specifically chosen to coincide with four major topics: first-quarter metrics/Strategic plan (January); five-year forecast (March); superintendent and treasurer evaluations (June) and release of the district report card (September).
Retreats are held on the fourth Saturday of the month. If time allows, retreats are also used as an opportunity for board member training and development.
Special Meeting
A meeting is labeled a “special meeting” if it is called after the meetings for the year have been established and publicized at the Organizational Meeting.
“A special meeting…may be called by the president or treasurer thereof or by any two members, by serving a written notice of the time and place of such meeting upon each member of the board at least two days prior to the date of such meeting. Such notice must be signed by the official or members calling the meeting.” (ORC 3313.16) The media must be given notice 24 hours prior to holding any special meeting, with the exception of emergency meetings in which case notice must be provided as soon as possible.
Emergency Meeting
Emergency meetings are called when a matter of urgent necessity must be decided and there is not enough time to allow for the 48- hour notice to members, or the 24-hour notice to the media. An example of a reason to hold an emergency meeting would be if a boiler were to suddenly break down in a school building and need replacing. The board could then call an emergency meeting to authorize payment.
Executive Sessions
Ohio Sunshine Law allows the board to move into executive session to discuss matters deemed private. These matters are established by Ohio Revised Code, and examples include, but are not limited to, hiring/firing of an employee, purchase and/or sale of real estate, conference with an attorney, and labor negotiations. The public can attend a board meeting when it enters the executive session and may re-join the meeting once the executive session has ended. At its discretion, the board may invite other individuals to join the executive session if their presence is deemed necessary. The Board will always open and close meetings in public session, and no formal action (i.e., vote) is taken by the Board while in executive session).
- Consideration of the appointment, employment, dismissal, discipline, promotion, demotion, or compensation of an employee, student, or school official, and/or to investigate charges of complaints against any such person, unless the person in question requests a public hearing (when an executive session is held under this provision, the motion and vote must state which one or more of these purposes is involved but need not state the name of any person to be considered);
- Consideration of the purchase of property for public purposes, or sale of property at competitive bidding, but only if premature disclosure of the information would give an unfair competitive or bargaining advantage to a person whose personal, private interest is adverse to the general public interest;
- Conferences with an attorney involving pending or imminent court action;
- Preparing for, conducting, or reviewing negotiations with employees regarding their compensation or other terms and conditions of their employment;
- Matters required to be kept confidential by state or federal law and/or;
- Specialized to details of security arrangements.
The Board is not permitted to take any official action (vote) during an executive session. Likewise, minutes are not to be taken.
