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The Ohio Auditor of State has placed the Trimble School District under fiscal watch

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ATHENS, Ohio (WOUB/Report for America) — The Trimble School District is now under fiscal watch as part of the predicted fallout from a more than one million dollar budget shortfall.

The sign outside of Trimble Local High School. A large bell sits next to it.
[Theo Peck-Suzuki | WOUB Public Media/Report for America]
The Ohio Auditor of State had previously placed Trimble under fiscal caution following revelations in December that the district was facing a $1.6 million deficit. Trimble treasurer Ashley Miller said the deficit came about because the district overcharged grants, creating the impression it had more funds than it did.

Miller became treasurer in September. The grants were overcharged during her predecessor’s term.

“It appeared that Trimble could afford their spending habits, when in reality they were deficit spending,” Miller wrote in an email.

Officially, fiscal watch means Trimble has 60 days to develop and submit a financial plan to the state explaining how it will resolve the deficit on its own. However, Miller said it’s “an inevitability” that the district will proceed to fiscal emergency, the most severe level of budgetary crisis.

“The auditors should be coming in soon to begin the process,” Miller wrote. “This is on their timing though, we unfortunately don’t have a lot of control at this point.”

Miller said she expects the fiscal emergency to take effect in March or April. She estimates the district will not return to full financial health for another couple of years.

In a fiscal emergency, state government officials, Trimble administrators and members of the community will form a commission charged with correcting the district’s financial trajectory. Miller said being in a fiscal emergency also unlocks important solvency assistance loans.

Miller submitted a five-year forecast to the state when the deficit first came to light in November. The forecast showed Trimble was on course to amass a deficit of almost $3.3 million by 2027 if spending remained unchanged.