2010 Organizational Meeting

The annual organizational meeting of the Swanton school board was held January 12th. All public entities are required by state law to hold an organizational meeting prior to January 15th, so that is why this meeting was 'off' of our normal schedule.

There are several housekeeping items that are a matter of routine at these things, such as authorizing the Treasurer and Superintendent to accept all donations to the school district on our behalf; secure bonds (O.R.C. 3313.25); authorize the Superintendent to employ temporary personnel as needed in emergency situations (O.R.C. 3319.10); etc. etc. It is the same list of items every year.

Another point of business regards Superintendent Committee appointments. For this year, I volunteered to be on the Audit Committee, the Insurance Committee, and will also be a liaison to other area public entities (such as the townships). The Negotiations Committee will include Mr. Ueberroth and Michelle Tyson, both new school board members. (I wanted to be on this one as well, but only two board members may do so at a time so as not to violate Sunshine Laws of the state, and those two spoke up before I could. . . . maybe I can be an alternate for one of them, should that become necessary.) The Recreation Committee will include Kris Oberheim and Michelle Tyson (new members), and Mona will continue in her capacity as OSBA liaison, with Mr. Ueberroth as her alternate. Mr. Ueberroth will be a liaison to the Village, and other board members will fill that capacity in the various district groups to which they belong.

We appointed our legal counsel for calendar year 2010 with Cooper-Walinski, Ennis, Roberts and Fisher, and Squire, Sanders and Dempsey LLC. We will primarily use the services of Cooper-Walinski. This is a quality firm located right here in Toledo, and our attorney there - Margaret Lockhart - is well qualified in school law (which is a different animal than other areas of law!). I am very glad to have her on our team. If you are interested in her credentials, please go to the Cooper-Walinski website for more information (http://www.cooperwalinski.com).

But the best thing that we accomplished at the organizational meeting was to incorporate a moment of silence into our regular meetings, right after the pledge of allegiance. I am so thankful to have this! It can only bring good to our meetings.