STRONGSVILLE – The Strongsville City School District has earned the Meritorious Budget Award for its excellence in budget presentation for the 2016-17 school year.

The Association of School Business Officials International awarded the district with the honor following the review of an extensive budget document that was prepared and submitted by Treasurer George Anagnostou.

The MBA promotes and recognizes excellence in school budget presentation and enhances school business officials’ skills in developing, analyzing and presenting a school system budget, according to the ASBO.

The award recognizes the district treasurer’s skills in developing and analyzing an effective budget. It also shows communication between departments to develop short- and long-term financial strategies. The goal of ASBO is to provide clear budget guidelines, and to build confidence in the community by creating a reader-friendly budget.

Anagnostou’s presented budget shows past trends, future predictions and current numbers. It is broken down into four sections. The introductory section gives a summary of the entire financial picture and an overview of the rest of the document. The organizational section contains the legal components, the structure of the district and the budgeting policies and processes. The financial section is the bulk of the document, with explanations of the funds and where the money comes from. The informational section gives a history of the finances and enrollment, as well as future projections and past trends.

“It contains a lot of information about the school district. Not everyone will be interested in everything, but everything is gathered in one document,” Anagnostou said.

The budget is reviewed by professional auditors, and only school districts that have met or exceeded the program’s stringent criteria earn the award. Anagnostou estimated that only a few districts in the state of Ohio would earn the award this year.

“Last year, only two school districts in the state received this award. Internationally, there are 130 school districts that do it. We could be the third district in Ohio that’s enrolled in this program,” Anagnostou said.

Earning a budget award verifies that the district is adhering to nationally recognized standards. It shows that the treasurer and administration are presenting an accurate and transparent budget.

“As a CPA, the data in here is just incredible. If you want to know anything about our district, look in here. There’s historic enrollment levels, there’s historic spending levels, it explains every fund … there’s just a ton of detail in here,” said board President Carl Naso.

The document can be updated annually with projections based on the current year’s five-year forecast. An electric copy can be found on the district web site, www.strongnet.org under “Our District” and “Treasurer."