WESTFIELD TWP. — Cloverleaf Schools began its journey to fiscal recovery Tuesday during the first meeting of a state-mandated financial supervision commission.

The five members of Cloverleaf Financial Planning and Supervision Commission were sworn in by Medina County Auditor Michael Kovack at the Cloverleaf Recreation Center on Tuesday morning.

Paul Marshall

Sharon Hanrahan

The commission was formed as a result of state Auditor David Yost’s declaration last month putting Cloverleaf Schools in fiscal emergency. The designation came at the request of the district, which will be under the supervision of the commission.

Three of the five commission members are local residents and two are state designees.

The commission must develop a financial plan within 120 days of its first meeting to address the district’s financial crisis. If an acceptable plan is not submitted, the commission will be disbanded and an arbitrator will be assigned, Ohio Department of Education fiscal oversight director Roger Hardin said at the meeting.

The Department of Education placed Cloverleaf in fiscal caution Dec. 31, 2003, based on anticipated deficits for fiscal years 2004 and 2005. The auditor’s office placed the district on fiscal watch on March 30, 2004, because of the district’s failure to submit a written proposal to eliminate the anticipated deficits, according to a statement from Yost’s office.

Now that the district is in fiscal emergency, it is eligible for an advance of money from the state’s Solvency Assistance Fund, Hardin said.

“This is not free money. It is advanced to the district,” he said.

The money is a two-year, interest-free advance to the district, and repayments must begin next year, he added.

The amount of money Cloverleaf can receive will depend on the deficit the state auditor certifies for the district. The process to determine the deficit began this week and there is no official maximum amount of money a district can receive, said Paul Marshall, commission chairman and Department of Education school administration fiscal consultant.

“I don’t know anyone who says, ‘Gee, I’m just tickled to death that we’re in fiscal emergency,’ ” Marshall said. “But it’s been my experience that after the fact, people say, ‘That really was helpful.’ ”

There are eight school districts in the state that are in fiscal emergency, and there have been a total of 37 districts that have received the designation since 1996, Hardin said. The average length of time a district is in fiscal emergency is about four years, but a couple districts were in fiscal emergency for about nine years, he added.

Marshall has served on the commissions of every district in fiscal emergency from 2004 to June 2011, and said each situation is different.

“When we come into a district, we really do want to help, and I think that the district is looking forward to getting some help from us,” Marshall said. “Everybody is very positive, and at this point I don’t anticipate any problems. I think everybody has the same goal.”

The next scheduled meeting of the commission is 11 a.m. March 12, but before then Marshall plans to meet next week with Cloverleaf’s treasurer, school board president and Superintendent Daryl Kubilus to discuss the process of getting out of fiscal emergency.

“The sense I have is that there is a strong feeling of cooperation (here) and that’s a big part of it,” Marshall said.

Contact Michelle Sprehe at (330) 721-4048 or msprehe@medina-gazette.com.

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