Lakota officials honored district Treasurer Adam Zink and his staff at last week’s school board meeting but there were very few surprised by achievement.
That happens when a school district wins the rare state honor for nine consecutive years.
The district’s financial operations, which oversees the daily and other expenditures of the 17,200-student school system — the largest suburban school system in southwest Ohio ― were lauded during a board meeting presentation by Ryan Holiday, the southwest regional liaison for Ohio’s Auditor of State Keith Faber.
Holiday said Lakota has built a consistent record of “clean audits” with no findings for monetary recovery and no violations of state fiscal laws.
“This award puts the Lakota school district in a very select group,” he told the board during live video feed.
And, he added, “this award represents the hard work of every school district employee who strives each day to achieve accounting excellence. “I especially want to recognize Treasurer Adam Zink for his outstanding leadership, professionalism and commitment to fiscal integrity.”
Zink, who last year replaced long-time, former Lakota Treasurer Jenni Logan, whose many honors include winning the top school treasurer award in Ohio, credited his staff for the award.
Logan retired last year and has since moved on to become interim treasurer for Butler County’s Ross Schools.
Prior to Zink’s promotion, he had served as assistant treasurer for Lakota.
“Really, the applause needs to be for the team,” he said. “Without the team, this would be impossible.”
Lakota Board of Education President Lynda O’Connor joined other board members in also praising Zink and his department’s work.
“We appreciate the message of accountability and transparency and fiscal responsibility (the award) sends (to our community),” said O’Connor.
Board member Kelly Casper noted the relatively low percentage of governmental bodies in the state that win such an honor yearly.
“It’s all government entities and only four percent of townships, cities, villages, counties … get this award. Kudos to your team,” said Casper.
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