Olentangy school board to reorganize

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Tonight’s Olentangy Board of Education meeting is the first of the year, and there isn’t a lot on the agenda. However, it may be the board’s most important meeting of the year.

First up is giving the oath of office to voter-elected board members Roger Bartz, Kevin O’Brien and Mindy Patrick. Bartz was appointed to the board last year to fill an unexpired term; O’Brien was an incumbent; and Patrick is a new board member taking over the seat of Adam White, who did not seek re-election.

Next will be the election of a board president and vice president. Julie Wagner Feasel, serving her third overall term, is the temporary board president, and was the board vice president. O’Brien has previously been the president.

The fifth member of the board is Dave King, who was elected in 2009.

The reconstituted board will then vote on a number of action items. The items include meeting dates for 2016 (typically the second and fourth Thursdays of the month); appointing a board member to serve a three-year term on the Delaware Area Career Center Board of Education (Feasel was the most recent member); re-establishing board committees and its members and leadership; approving board liaison assignments; approving district organizations (Parent-teacher organizations for each school building, booster groups, the Olentangy Education Foundation and Olentangy Dyslexia Network); and membership in META Solutions (a consortium of school districts) and the Ohio School Boards Association, which helped in the district’s superintendent search last year.

The board will also decide whether to establish a board service fund for $5,000. According to Ohio Revised Code, “the board may establish a service fund not to exceed $2 per child enrolled in the district, or $20,000, whichever is greater, to pay for the expenses actually incurred by board members in the performance of their duties.”

Also to be decided are the authorizations for Treasurer Brian Kern and Superintendent Mark Raiff in terms of their respective duties.

Following the organizational meeting, there will be a business meeting that includes reports from Raiff and the board president, public comments and one item. That item is a “resolution authorizing the issuance of not to exceed $22,275,000 of bonds for the purpose of currently refunding a portion of the school district’s $89,949,954.30 refunding bonds, Series 2006A, dated Nov. 9, 2006; and authorizing and approving related matters.” The resolution states that the action is advisable “in view of currently prevailing lower interest rates.”

The board meets at 6 p.m. today at the Olentangy administrative office, 814 Shanahan Road, Lewis Center.

Feasel
http://aimmedianetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/40/2016/01/web1_feasel.jpgFeasel

By Gary Budzak

[email protected]

Gary Budzak may be reached at 740-413-0904 or on Twitter @GaryBudzak.

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