MONROE — The governing board of this 2-year-old school district will travel to Ohio's capital this weekend in hopes the rare out-of-town work session to be uninterrupted and productive.

        Monroe Board of Education members assure that the day-and-a-half marathon session in a Columbus hotel is neither a junket nor an attempt to exclude the public.

        No votes will be taken as the five-member board formulates the young district's own set of policies in governing the 1,300-student school system that was created in 2000 by splitting off of Butler County's Middletown Schools.

        Until now, district officials had used borrowed policies from existing school districts to guide the governance of Monroe Schools.

        The work session runs from 9:30 a.m. to at least 7 p.m. today in a conference room at Columbus' Trueman Club Hotel and continues Monday morning from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

        “We have a lot of policy work to do,” said Board of Education President Suzi Rubin.

        “The board's major job is to set policy for the district.”

        Ms. Rubin explained that the Columbus work session, which she estimated will cost the district about $700 and will include Superintendent Arnol Elam and treasurer Sharon Moon, will allow all participants to work undistracted by other employment responsibilities and local preoccupations.

        “This will be a long, drawn-out process,” she said.

        Fellow board member William “Rocky” Heflin agreed, saying: “We have to spend a lot of time on this ... we've tried to do this piecemeal in the past, but it didn't work. This is the best approach.”

        Public input will be taken in coming board meetings.

        The board will hold a regularly scheduled meeting 7 p.m. Monday at Monroe Elementary.

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