Week in Review 1-6-25

Week in Review > Week in Review 1-6-25

Posted by Buckeye Association of School Administrators on January 06th, 2025

FY26-27 BUDGET
Auditor Keith Faber's office would add a dollar per hour to what local governments
and school districts are charged for their required audits in each year of the next
biennium under draft budget plans submitted to the DeWine administration. The
Office of Budget and Management (OBM) provided Hannah News with a copy of
Faber's FY26-27 budget request, along with those of other agencies, in response to a
public records request. While ultimately, Gov. Mike DeWine decides what ends up in
the executive budget proposal that goes to the Legislature, governors, as a matter of
course, include requests from other statewide officeholders without change.
EDUCATION
A Northeast Ohio teacher who alleged in a lawsuit she was forced to resign for
objecting to using the preferred pronouns of students in gender transition won a
$450,000 settlement against her old employer. Alliance Defending Freedom, a legal
advocacy group, said this week that former Jackson Local School District middle
school English teacher Vivian Geraghty will be paid $450,000 in damages and
attorney fees under a settlement in the case, which was filed in the U.S. District Court
for the Northern District of Ohio.
Lt. Gov. Jon Husted announced Thursday the High School Tech Internship program's
latest round has opened for students and businesses to apply. The program offers
employers wage reimbursement for hosting high school interns in tech-related roles,
giving them a recruitment pipeline and providing the students with valuable work
experience. Interested businesses, schools and students should contact their regional
intermediary organization. Those include the Strategic Ohio Council for Higher
Education (SOCHE) in Northwest and Western Ohio; Youth Opportunities Unlimited
(Y.O.U.) in Northeast Ohio; the Educational Service Center of Central Ohio;
INTERalliance of Greater Cincinnati in Southwest Ohio; and Building Bridges to
Careers in Southeast Ohio. More program information, including how to contact
intermediary groups, is available HERE.
ETHICS
The Ohio Ethics Commission recently adopted an advisory opinion aimed at
providing guidance to public officials who may simultaneously serve in a public
position and on the board of a nonprofit corporation in their "official capacity."
Advisory opinion 2024-01 was adopted to answer questions about how public
agencies should appoint and instruct public officials or employees to serve in their
official capacity, who determines whether a public official or employee is representing

the interests of his or her public agency, and how the official capacity exception
applies to joint appointments by two or more public agencies.
GENERAL ASSEMBLY/STATEHOUSE
The House and Senate adjourned sine die on Monday, Dec. 30, wrapping up business
of the 135th General Assembly. Before doing so, lawmakers sent 29 bills to Gov.
Mike DeWine for his consideration. The 136th General Assembly will convene
Monday, Jan. 6.
The Ohio Legislative Black Caucus (OLBC) made two changes to its leadership team
for the 136th General Assembly, the organization announced recently. Rep. Terrence
Upchurch (D-Cleveland) was re-elected as president, and Sen. Catherine Ingram (D-
Cincinnati) will serve another term as first vice president, OLBC said in a news
release. Rep. Sedrick Denson (D-Cincinnati) will continue as second vice president,
and Rep. Dontavius Jarrells (D-Columbus) will remain treasurer. Additionally, Sen.
Hearcel Craig (D-Columbus) was re-elected as OLBC sergeant-at-arms and chaplain.
Rep.-elect Meredith Lawson-Rowe (D-Reynoldsburg) was elected as OLBC secretary,
replacing Rep. Latyna Humphrey (D-Columbus). Humphrey did not seek another term
as secretary, according to OLBC. Rep.-elect Erika White (D-Toledo) was elected as
OLBC parliamentarian, replacing Sen. Vernon Sykes (D-Akron), who left office after
being term-limited.
GOVERNOR
Gov. Mike DeWine told reporters before Christmas that he would "likely" sign HB8
(Swearingen-Carruthers), as some of the changes made to it were by his request, but
he and his staff will review every bill that was passed. HB8, the "Parents' Bill of
Rights" regarding notification about student health, well-being and instructional
materials with sexuality content, also includes language on mandatory released time
for religious instruction. The Ohio Federation of Teachers, Planned Parenthood
Advocates of Ohio, Ohio Center for Sex Education and Planned Parenthood of
Greater Ohio have all opposed the bill.
Gov. Mike DeWine should line-item veto language in 135-HB315 (Hall-Seitz)
allowing the state and local governments to require public records requestors to pay
estimated actual costs before receiving video public records. "This language
unnecessarily restricts transparency regarding state and local policing by dramatically
altering Ohio's public records laws," the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of
Ohio and 18 other organizations wrote in a letter to the governor.

Flags will fly at half-staff throughout Ohio in honor of former President Jimmy Carter
following an order issued by Gov. Mike DeWine after Carter's death on Sunday, Dec.
29, 2024.
The governor signed the following bills:
– SB109 SEX OFFENSES, MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS(Hackett)-Regarding
sex offenses and individuals regulated by the State Medical Board, regarding
unauthorized intimate examinations, and to amend the version of section 2305.111 of
the Revised Code that is scheduled to take effect Oct. 12, 2028, to continue the change
on and after that date.
JUDICIAL
The Ohio Supreme Court has published a second revision of its annual rules package
for a fresh round of public comment due no later than Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024.
Presented to the Legislature in the spring for final approval or rejection by July 1, this
rules package includes various amendments to the Ohio Rules of Appellate Procedure,
Civil Procedure, Criminal Procedure, Evidence and Juvenile Procedure. It devotes
most of its pages to delinquent children and juvenile traffic offenders and generally
seeks to strengthen Marsy's Law language in judicial rules.
The Ohio Board of Professional Conduct issued a pair of advisories on judge recusals
in its final opinions for 2024. In Advisory Opinion 2024-07, board members say a
judge is not automatically disqualified from hearing a case when his or her judicial
campaign opponent appears as counsel before the judge. The Board of Professional
Conduct reached the opposite conclusion in Advisory Opinion 2024-06. Members say
judges, "absent a waiver by the parties," must recuse from cases in which parties are
represented by counsel that concurrently represents the judge in another matter.
The Ohio Supreme Court has announced U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) funding
from its federal Juvenile Drug Treatment Court Program and Justice for Families
Program. DOJ's Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) is now accepting grant
applications for FFY25. The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s
(OJJDP) application deadline is Wednesday, Feb. 5. Additional information on both
grants can be found at Grants.gov.
PENSIONS
Ohio public employees who also have private sector experience for which they've
paid into Social Security likely will no longer see those federal benefits reduced to
offset their public pensions, following action by Congress over the holidays. Federal

lawmakers passed and President Joe Biden is soon expected to sign the Social
Security Fairness Act, which eliminates policies adopted in the 1970s and 1980s to
reduce the Social Security payments of those who also collect public sector pension
benefits.
TAXATION
The Joint Committee on Property Tax Review and Reform Thursday released its final
report after spending the past year studying Ohio's property tax system over eight
hearings and receiving testimony from 60 witnesses, issuing 21 recommendations
while acknowledging some proposals may contradict others. Created by biennial
budget bill 135-HB33 (Edwards), the joint committee was created to review the state's
complex property tax system. It was required to review the history and purpose of all
aspects of the state's property tax law, including the forms of levies, exemptions, and
local subdivision budgeting, and publish a report of findings and recommendations no
later than Dec. 31, 2024. The result is an 865-page document detailing the history and
changes of the property tax system, while making 21 recommendations, though the
joint committee cautioned that the recommendations should not be considered as a
comprehensive package given the complexities of the property tax system and the
contradictory nature of some recommendations to others.