MANSFIELD — The Mansfield City School board will meet Tuesday for a regularly scheduled meeting after cancelling a meeting this week, according to board president Chris Elswick.
The board previously called a meeting on Dec. 9 — a date not on the regular board meeting calendar on the district’s website.
An initial notification provided to Richland Source stated it would be a special meeting. After Richland Source inquired about the purpose of the special meeting, another notification was sent out stating it was actually a regular board meeting.
After inquiring whether Ohio law or school board policy permitted a regular meeting to be rescheduled, Richland Source received another email Tuesday morning stating that the meeting had been cancelled.
Treasurer Tammy Hamilla said the meeting was cancelled because the district wanted to ensure the public had proper notice.
“We wanted to make sure we were doing it the legally appropriate way,” she said.
Board President Chris Elswick told Richland Source on Wednesday the meeting was moved due to schedule conflicts with board members.
“We were trying to combine the other two (meetings) into one but it didn’t work out due to everybody’s schedule. December is tough,” he said.
“I particularly wanted to make sure that (outgoing board member Gary Feagin) can make it. It’s his last meeting.”
Elswick said he believes the board is able to change meeting dates.
“I’m not aware of anything that would keep us from doing that. We’ve never had an attorney or anyone from the state tell us that,” he said. “I’ve never known it to be an issue.”
What’s the difference between a special meeting and a regular meeting?
School boards have four types of meetings — organizational, regular, special and emergency.
An organizational meeting takes place once a year. New members are sworn in, officers are elected and the regular school board meeting schedule is set.
If school board members want to meet outside of a regular meeting, they can call a special meeting.
Ohio law requires school boards to establish a reasonable method that allows anyone to determine the time and place of all regular meetings.
Ohio law has additional requirements for special meetings.
The board must provide notice of special meetings to any person who has requested it, according to the Ohio School Boards Association. The board must also provide at least 24 hours’ advance notice to the news media that have requested notification.
Special meeting notices must include the purpose of the meeting. The board can only address topics that were announced in the meeting notice.
Jennifer Harden, OSBA’s deputy director of legal services, said the law does not speak to whether or not regular board meetings can be rescheduled.
“But it happens all the time,” Harden said. “There’s no guidance in the law with respect to rescheduling meetings and providing notice.”
She added that school boards must follow their own policies about notifying the public of meetings.
“The OSBA recommends that boards be conservative and treat a rescheduled regular meeting as a special meeting for notification purposes,” she said.
Mansfield City Schools’ policy manual states “posting such meeting material to the District’s website shall establish a reasonable method whereby any person may determine the time and place of all regularly scheduled meetings and the time, place, and purpose of all special meetings” in section 0164 (G).
The public can access current and former meeting agendas on the board of education’s homepage.
Board will likely discuss improved financial forecast at Tuesday meeting
The agenda for the cancelled board meeting Tuesday is no longer on the district’s website, but it included a vote on an updated five year financial forecast.
Hamilla said she plans to present that forecast to the board next week. She said the district is not required to submit a December forecast to ODEW, but can as part of the agency’s supplemental reporting period.
The district’s financial projections has changed quite a bit since the last forecast submitted to the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce just two months ago.
Those changes are due to factors including:
- Changes in district income: There will be a decrease in property taxes received due to a property tax relief measure approved by Richland County commissioners.
- Changes in district income: The district has received increased interest on its investments during the first four years of the forecast.
- Changes in personnel services costs: Salaries have changed following negotiations with the district’s three unions.
- Changes in employee health insurance costs and benefits: The district is expecting to decrease employee insurance costs due to a recent change of plans and companies. The district has also seen lower-than-expected unemployment benefit costs after recent staff reductions.
Hamilla’s forecast shows Mansfield City Schools’ financial outlook has improved from just a few months ago, due largely to a new, more affordable health insurance plan.
“Overall, in salary and benefits, the expenditures are less than they were before, even though we forecasted those raises that were given out,” Hamilla said.
“The total ratio between salaries and benefits as a percentage of expenditures has gone down and it has kind of rightsized salaries and benefits.”
Per the district’s meeting schedule, all meetings begin at 5:30 in the Lowell T. Smith boardroom of the Raemelton Administration building at 856 Cook Road.