Youngstown - During a visit to Youngstown today, Auditor of State Dave Yost officially released the Youngstown City School District from fiscal emergency.

“Youngstown City Schools are leaner today than when they came into fiscal emergency in 2006,” Yost said. “My office is proud to play a role in helping the school district skinny down and become financially healthy – and even prouder of what the district has done to accomplish it. This is a great day for Youngstown students.”

The Youngstown City School District was placed into fiscal caution on March 2, 2006 due to anticipated deficits for fiscal year 2006 and 2007. On June 16, 2006, the Auditor of State’s office declared the district in fiscal watch because of forecasted deficits for 2006 of $4.4 million and for 2007 of $10.8 million. Fiscal emergency was declared on November 16, 2006 due to the inability of the district to submit an acceptable financial recovery plan to eliminate the forecasted deficits.

As part of their efforts to emerge from fiscal emergency, the district eliminated approximately 360 staff positions in various ways, saving about $17 million. They closed the bus garage for savings of approximately $250,000 annually. The district reduced their health insurance carriers from two to one, changed carriers, and saved approximately $1.7 million annually. One-time worker compensation savings totaled $400,000, and the closing of three buildings saved approximately $1.11 million in utility payments annually.

To generate revenue, the district passed a $5 million, 5-year emergency levy. From fiscal year 2007 through fiscal year 2009, the district received $28,405,000 in state solvency assistance funds, all of which have been repaid.

To be terminated from fiscal emergency, the Youngstown City School District met the following criteria:

• Adopted and implemented an effective financial accounting and reporting system;
• Corrected or eliminated all of the fiscal emergency conditions; no new conditions have occurred, and it appears that, based on the district’s five-year forecast, the Youngstown City School District will remain out of fiscal emergency during the forecast period;
• Met the major objectives of the district’s financial recovery 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.”

A full copy of this termination is available online.

The Auditor of State is one of five independently elected offices under the Ohio Constitution. Auditor Yost’s office is responsible for auditing over 5,600 state and local government agencies. Staff also works in partnership with state and local governments to deal effectively with financial, accounting and budgetary issues.

Contact:
Carrie Bartunek
Press Secretary
(614) 728-7198