Mount Healthy board hears treasurer say $3.5 million general-fund cash was misstated; approves revised forecast and financial recovery plan

Mount Healthy City Schools board members voted unanimously Thursday to submit a revised five-year forecast and a financial recovery plan to the Ohio Department of Education after the district’s acting treasurer said the general-fund cash balance for June 30, 2023 had been misstated by about $3.5 million.

The acting treasurer, Sandra Gris Grisman, told the board she compared the forecast’s reported cash balance of roughly $8,000,004.96 to an in‑state accounting query that showed an actual general‑fund balance near $4,900,000, and that the error was later corrected in a February resubmission. “I called it cash misrepresentation,” Gris Grisman said. “You just lost $3,500,000 in cash in a moment, basically.”

Gris Grisman said the corrected figure reduces cash carryover that feeds into each year of the five‑year forecast, deepening projected deficits. The district’s current-year forecast presented to the board showed a deficit before accounting adjustments and included a two‑year payback schedule for a state advance. The treasurer’s materials also showed a scenario using a 10‑year payback; Gris Grisman said the decision to extend a state advance to 10 years would rest with the state commission, not the local board.

The board approved the forecast as required by the Ohio Department of Education with the two‑year payback reflected and added the financial recovery plan workbook and accompanying narrative to the items being submitted to the state. Gris Grisman said the district had already submitted a version of the forecast in November 2023 that…