The Ohio School Board Association (OSBA), in partnership with the East Central Ohio Educational Service Center (ECOESC) and the Ohio Valley Educational Service Center (OVESC), hosted a new board member orientation workshop for newly elected school board members.

The free three-hour training was provided on December 16 at the Pritchard Laughlin Civic Center in Cambridge. Leading the “Competent, Collaborative, and Committed” training was OSBA Senior Deputy Director, Teri Morgan. “We really appreciate the opportunity to do a workshop like this, particularly if it has a blend of new board members and veteran board members because they need to come on and work as a team,” said Morgan. “What we want new board members to realize is that it’s a 30-thousand-foot level of governance. It’s not running the district; it’s a governance.”

Some objectives of the training included the following: understanding roles and responsibilities, learning how to work effectively with district leadership, getting the most from meetings, communicating effectively, and strategic planning. “We spend time talking in the new member workshop about the rules, responsibilities, and how we can build an effective team and how important communication is,” said Morgan. “It’s just a good time for good conversation between veteran and new board members and maybe for new board members to learn something that they hadn’t realized.”

Board Members from the following districts/ESC’s attended the training: Bellaire Local Schools, Belpre City Schools, Bridgeport Exempted Village School District, Caldwell Exempted Village Schools, Cambridge City Schools, Claymont City Schools, Dover City Schools, East Central Ohio ESC, East Guernsey Local Schools, Garaway Local Schools, Martins Ferry City Schools, New Philadelphia Local Schools, Ohio Valley ESC, Shadyside Schools, St. Clairsville-Richland City Schools, Switzerland of Ohio Local, and Union Local Schools.