001The following program is a presentation of the Ohio School Boards Association. Board presidents play several critical roles on a board of education. One of those roles is to lead schoolboard meetings. Using parliamentary procedure, the board president guides the board through its agenda, managing motions and amendments from introduction through adoption. Your favorite OSBA attorneys, Sarah Clark and Jenny Harden are here to talk about the questions they get from school board presidents about leading the meeting. Jenny and Sarah, thanks for coming on the Legal Ledger sidebar. >> Of course. Thanks, Scott. Glad to be here. >> So, parliamentary procedure. Jenny, what what is it all about? >> Uh, well, it that's a great question, Scott, and thanks for asking. Um, and because that's such a mouthful, we can just call it Parley Pro. That's probably a little
002bit easier, but hopefully I may have a problem with Parley Pro, too. So, I'll try. It is cute. >> We'll walk you through it. Don't worry about it. Um, Parley Pro is a series of rules for the operation of meetings. It's not mandated by Ohio law, but most boards in Ohio have adopted some form of uh Parley Pro. The most common one is Robert's rule. So, that's essentially what we're be going to be talking about today. >> So, Sarah, if Parley Pro isn't required, uh, what's the advantage of of using it? >> Yeah, that's a great question, too. So it does essentially three things for your meetings. Number one, it's going to maintain the decorum at the meeting. Number two, it's going to help the board determine the will of the majority and it's going
003to protect the rights of the minority on your board. And then three, it it facilitates the orderly conduct of the business of the meeting. >> And what are some of the key features of it? >> As Sarah said, to preserve the orderly conduct of business, Parley Pro establishes how motions are introduced and handled when they're in front of the body. um unless they have a conflict of interest, every member of a school board can make motions and second motions and vote on matters uh that are before the board. >> And and that's actually an important point because actually under Robert's rules, the board uh chair doesn't have a right to vote unless their vote is necessary to break a tie. Um but for school districts, under Ohio law, the board president has the same rights
004as anybody else to participate. They can make a motion. They can vote. Um and and those rights are the same as any other member on the board. >> So Robert's rules doesn't always control the board's activity then. >> Yeah, that's correct. So there are going to be some times when the school board has to deviate from Robert's rules um because of requirements in Ohio law. We just talked about one. Another one might be um Robert's rules allows uh members to vote by ballot, but that's actually going to be a problem under the open meetings act for for Ohio school districts. So they're going to have to choose um to comply with the open meetings act instead of that. uh right that they have under Roberts. >> So Jenny, you mentioned that uh motions were the
005way things happen in meetings. Are there different kinds of motions? >> Yeah, there are five different kinds. Um there are main motions, subsidiary motions, privileged motions, incidental motions, and of course there has to be a super long name motions that bring a question again before the board. >> And maybe add a little bit more detail for our viewers uh about each of those motions. >> Sure. We're going to talk about the two that are most commonly used, which are main motions and uh subsidiary motions. So, a main motion is just what it sounds like. That's the where a board member brings a matter before the board for consideration. Main motions are handled one at a time. You can only have one main motion in front of the board at the at a time. >> And
006then subsidiary motions do something to that main motion. So, the most common ones that we see at the local schoolboard level are the motion to amend um and the motion to postpone um or the motion to refer it to a committee. >> Yeah. And if uh subsidiary motions are before the board affecting the main motion, they're handled in reverse order. So, think of it as steps. You go up the steps and then you come back down the steps in the same order. Um, in other words, if there's a main motion and a subsidiary motion to amend the main motion, the board will vote first on the subsidiary motion and then on the main motion, >> whether it was amended or not. >> Right. Exactly. And that's where the board president's role is so critical because
007the board president has to keep track of exactly what's going on. Um, they have to make sure that the board knows what it's voting on. So, if the motion the main motion's amended, they need to restate the main motion with the amendment. Um, and a lot in a lot of cases the board superintendent or treasurer can help keep track of motions as they're moving along. >> So Sarah, I know uh anytime we talk about uh board meetings, how board meetings are run, executive sessions, uh I know you guys get a lot of questions. Do you get a lot of questions on on Parley Pearl? >> We do. Uh in addition to sort of the the questions we get about how do you amend an agenda, how do you amend a motion? Um we also get
008a lot of questions about how to bring items back before the board or how do you correct things that have already taken place. Um so you know how do you revisit a decision that the board has already made >> and there are two options there and they which one you're using depends on when the matter was decided. So, if a prevailing member uh sorry, a member who was on the prevailing side of a motion that's already been passed in the same meeting decides that he or she wants to bring it back before the board, um they would propose a motion to uh reconsider. Motions to reconsider require a second. They're debatable but not amendable, and they require a majority vote to pass. >> So, what happens when a board wants to uh revisit a decision
009it made at a past meeting? Yeah. So that is called a motion to rescend and it's not always going to be possible. So there are times where you can't undo a decision that the board has made, right? So there would be um a situation where the rights have already vested in the decision. You've already started to perform work or somebody else has already started to perform work. Um and so you can't undo that decision. Um but assuming that it it's appropriate, the motion to resend can be brought by any member of the board. Um it does require a second and it's both debatable and amendable. >> Yeah. And if it's brought before the board with no notice, it takes a twothirds vote to pass. If it's brought before the board with notice ahead of time,
010like it's on the agenda, for example, it takes a majority vote to pass a motion to resend. >> Well, thank you for walking us through all of this. Uh, can board members get more information if they need it? >> Of course. >> I I know you guys. >> Of course they can. So, we we have a ton of resources on um Robert's rules of order, parliamentary procedure. Um, I think two a couple that I would recommend. We have a fact sheet uh on our uh legal resources by topic page that talks about the different motions, what's required for those. I think that is a great thing to print off and have with you at the board meeting. And then we also have a number of books that are going to be sold at the bookstore
011um on parliamentary procedure and those are great as you prepare for a meeting um if you know, you know, there's going to be a matter that's sort of controversial or a hot topic. It's great to look through those in advance of the meeting and kind of know, you know, have your ducks in order um to know what your options are and sort of how those different options might play out. >> Yeah. And those books are going to be available at the the upcoming capital conference, right? >> That's correct. Yes. In the bookstore. >> Yeah. And speaking of Capital Conference, um I'll be doing a breakout session Monday afternoon at 400 p.m. on Robert's rules and we'll be talking about these topics. >> Many more, I'm sure. >> Many more, many, many more. Um, so I
012hope to see uh a lot of people who are viewing this legal ledger sidebar there. >> So that's Monday at 4. >> Monday at 4. >> I'm sure that will be a packed session. >> I hope so. >> So Sarah and Jenny, thanks uh for joining us and thank you for joining us here on the Legal Ledger Sidebar. We'll see you on the next episode.