For Immediate Release:                                                      

June 21, 2021                                                             

Coventry Local School District Released from Fiscal Emergency

Columbus – Coventry Local School District has regained financial stability after more than 6 years in a state of fiscal emergency, Auditor of State Keith Faber’s Office announced today.

The Summit County school district was placed in fiscal emergency on December 4, 2015 due to the School District’s inability to adopt and submit a recovery plan that would eliminate a projected current year deficit.

“I applaud the leaders and citizens of Coventry Local School District for making the sacrifices and hard decisions to achieve the necessary balance for a fiscally responsible community,” said Auditor Faber.

To be released from fiscal emergency, the District had to satisfy the following requirements:

• Effectively implement a financial accounting and reporting system;
• Correct or eliminate all of the fiscal emergency conditions; no new conditions have occurred and it appears that based on the five-year forecast, the District will remain out of fiscal emergency during the forecast period;
• Meet the objectives of the financial plan; and
• Prepare a five-year forecast in accordance with standards issued by the Auditor of State and the opinion expressed by the Auditor of State is “nonadverse.”

The District eliminated a deficit of $1,948,000 in the general fund for fiscal year 2015 and a deficit of $3,284,000 for fiscal year 2016 by doing the following items:

• Passed two renewal levies in November 2017 and March 2020.  Those levies generate approximately $2,880,700 and $1,985,175 respectively.
• Implemented expenditure reductions of approximately $783,000 which included a reduction in force.
• The School District closely monitors personnel levels which helps keep operating costs down.
• Sale of land generating approximately $198,000 in one-time revenues.
• Reallocated $25,000 in general fund expenditures to the food service fund.
• The School District closely monitors and reviews personnel levels and all other expenditures which helps keep operating costs down.

Currently, there are 13 entities are in fiscal emergency. The Auditor’s Office Local Government Services works with those financially struggling to get their books in order and address problem areas.

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The Auditor of State’s office, one of five independently elected statewide offices in Ohio is responsible for auditing more than 6,000 state and local government agencies. Under the direction of Auditor Keith Faber, the office also provides financial services to local governments, investigates and prevents fraud in public agencies, and promotes transparency in government.