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Allie Dumski
Press Secretary
(614) 644-1111

Columbus – Niles City School District has regained financial stability after almost three years in a state of fiscal emergency, Auditor of State Keith Faber’s Office announced today.

The Trumbull County school district was placed in fiscal emergency in February of 2019 due to the School District’s inability to adopt and submit a recovery plan that would eliminate projected deficits in all five years of the forecast.

“I applaud the leaders and citizens of Niles City 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 school district had to satisfy the following requirements:

• Effectively implemented a financial accounting and reporting system in accordance with Section 118.10(A) of the Revised Code
• Corrected or eliminated all of the fiscal emergency conditions; no new conditions have occurred
• Met the objectives of the financial plan
• Prepared 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 $326,000 in the general fund for fiscal year 2018 by doing the following:

• Passed one renewal levy in November 2019 that generates approximately $1,300,000.
• Implemented expenditure reductions of approximately $1,549,000 which included the retirement of employees and the School District not replacing them as well as healthcare savings.
• The School District closely monitors and reviews personnel levels and all other expenditures which helps keep operating costs down.

Currently, there are 12 entities 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.