State fiscal review finds 'high risk' of insolvency in Ojai Unified School District
Ojai Unified School District is at "high risk" of insolvency and is on track to "deplete all cash" by July 2024, according to a pair of warnings delivered to the district by state and county education officials last week.
On Jan. 11, César Morales, the county superintendent of schools, delivered the results of a budget analysis that claimed the district had overstated a three-year budget projection by $5.6 million and forecast the district would run out of money by the end of next fiscal year.
Two days later, analysts from the state's Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team delivered a report on the district's finances between 2019 and the 2021-22 school year that found the district at "high risk of insolvency" and flagged eight "significant risk factors" in its budget management.
The double blow comes as Ojai Unified struggles to stay abreast of plummeting enrollment and considers school closures and heavy staffing cuts for next year. The 2,200-student district has seen its student body cut in half over two decades.
"They told us we have a structural deficit and that has to be fixed," district board president Rebecca Chandler said. "Now we're at the point where they're like: 'You will fix this deficit, because it can't go on any longer.'"
Tiffany Morse, the district superintendent, said the state's report was "not a surprise," and that the district had already put work into some of the issues highlighted in the document.
But Morse said the letter from the Ventura County Office of Education, which downgraded the district's first interim budget certification from "qualified," was a surprise.
"We did not have the typical back and forth (with the county education office)," she said.
Morales' letter said the review by county education office found "inadequate and inaccurate information" in the district's budget. The county superintendent ordered the district to submit a $2.3 million board-approved slate of budget cuts by Friday and assigned a "fiscal expert" to work on the district's finances under county oversight.
Misty Key, the county education office's deputy superintendent for fiscal and administrative services, said the office is "working to support the district, the board of trustees and the Ojai community toward a successful resolution of the current fiscal issues before intervention at the state level would be necessary."
Morse, the superintendent, said her office is working through the county education office's notes and that at least one bulleted item, a claimed $540,000 "overstatement of local revenue," was inaccurate.
The district has five business days from January 11 to appeal the county education office's letter to the state superintendent. Ojai Unified's board will discuss the pair of reports during its meeting Wednesday night.Isaiah Murtaugh covers education for the Ventura County Star in partnership with Report for America. Reach him at isaiah.murtaugh@vcstar.com or 805-437-0236 and follow him on Twitter @isaiahmurtaugh and @vcsschools. You can support this work with a tax-deductible donation to Report for America.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Ojai Unified School District financial trouble gets worse
