Scathing state audit out on Mt. Healthy school district: Financial mess with failed leadership, mismanagement [Video]

MT. HEALTHY, Ohio (WXIX) – A new state audit is out on Mt Healthy City Schools and it’s scathing.

In April, the State Auditor’s Office put Mt Healthy City Schools into the rare “fiscal emergency” designation at the school board’s request due to a projected $10.8 million operating budget.

That’s the last and most severe stage of fiscal emergency problems for school districts.

The audit released Thursday gives insight into what went wrong.

The district has hired dozens of new teachers and staff members and completed about $18 million in building projects without formal plans or ongoing funding to sustain its operations, a copy of the audit shows.

These decisions and others, made without a discernable, cohesive strategic plan or necessary attention to the long-term financial implications, have pushed the Hamilton County district “to the edge of a financial cliff that will require deep reductions to school staff and services to address …