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Columbiana School District in Fiscal Watch
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohio Auditor of State Betty Montgomery today placed the Columbiana Exempted Village School District, Columbiana County, in fiscal watch after the district failed to submit a reasonable proposal to the Ohio Department of Education to address the district's deteriorating financial condition."We recognize that these are troubling financial times for many school districts in Ohio. With today's declaration, the district has 60 days to submit an acceptable financial plan to ODE," Montgomery said. "The watch declaration allows our office to provide cost-free assistance to the district as it attempts to develop this new plan."The fiscal watch declaration was based the district's most recent five-year forecast which anticipates deficits of $482,00 for fiscal year ending June 30, 2005.Under state law, the district must now submit an acceptable financial plan designed to correct the district's financial problems to the state superintendent of public instruction. Failure to submit the plan will result in the district being placed in fiscal emergency.The Department of Education requires the board of education of a district placed in fiscal caution to provide a written plan to correct the problem. If an acceptable proposal is not submitted within a reasonable period of time using existing resources, the state superintendent of public instruction may request that the Auditor of State declare the district in fiscal watch to prevent further fiscal decline.With today's declaration, 10 of Ohio's 612 public school districts are in fiscal watch. Nine districts are in fiscal emergency, Montgomery said."