THE HARRISON Hills School District has weathered stormy financial waters.

Thanks to several moves recently enacted by the board of education, the district has moved off the state’s list for fiscal caution.

It comes as welcome relief to all those associated with Harrison Hills schools. Fiscal caution status is a perilous situation to be in, as fiscal emergency looms treacherously close. And as we have seen in Bellaire, fiscal emergency brings much state-mandated baggage with it.

Harrison Hills officials, however, must remain vigilant when it comes to district operations while guarding against more fiscal turbulence in the future.

The Harrison Hills school board needed to take some drastic steps this summer to improve its standing with the state.

The board of education opted to close three elementary buildings. Westgate, Lakeland and Jewett schools have been targeted for shutdown. Additional savings were realized by a reduction in personnel.

Such moves created financial breathing room for district coffers, but also yielded some hardships as well.

In addition to many staffers losing their jobs, hundreds of young students will now be forced to travel much longer on the bus each day. Both are unfortunate occurrences, but ones far from isolated to Harrison Hills.

All too many Eastern Ohio school districts have been forced to implement similar cutbacks. That is just the nature of the beast when it comes to the current state of our local schools.

That being said, Harrison Hills officials should be commended for taking the necessary steps to avoid even further financial calamity in their district. They cannot afford to relax, however, in their never-ending battle to avoid red ink.