The fifth employee, the district's fiscal director, quit in January. A new fiscal director, Ryan Worsham, was hired in August, but the district has not been able to find long-term replacements for two of the five positions, including an assistant superintendent to lead the office. The superintendent said none of the investigation's findings rose to a crime. "Some returned and some did not," Morse said. Four of five of its staff were intermittently placed on leave during a six-month investigation, according to a district slideshow presentation. The district's delicately balanced finances were also upset last year after a 2021 fraud investigation decimated the district's fiscal office. Ojai Unified Superintendent Tiffany Morse, right, speaks during an district special board meeting on Tuesday, Nov. "The trust in the community has been very damaged. "There are a lot of credibility issues that are having us question the validity of what is being told to us," said Richard Byrd, interim president of the Ojai Federation of Teachers. Talks with the Ojai Federation of Teachers officially hit an impasse on Oct. 26, district and union leaders confirmed. The crisis comes as contract negotiations with the district's classified union and teacher's union continue to be stalemate. "We have not made the structural cuts necessary to stabilize our finances because it's difficult," Morse said. "It will impact students and staff." The district planned to make over $3 million in cuts in May 2020, Morse said, but district leaders forestalled the cuts when legislators announced emergency COVID-19 funds. The superintendent said the emergency money did not solve the district's underlying budget problems. Ojai Superintendent Tiffany Morse said the district's enrollment woes have been amplified by an understaffed, fraud-marred financial department, budget coding errors affecting more than $700,000 of district money, inflation spikes and the district's slow adjustment to the new reality.
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