Clark-Shawnee Local Schools — OH

1. Snapshot

Rural-Fringe district in Clark County, immediately southwest of Springfield. 1,650 students across 2 buildings — Shawnee Elementary (PK-6) and Shawnee Middle/High School (7-12, combined). Single-K-12-campus rural-fringe district. SAIPE poverty 13.3%. Demographics 79% White / 9% Multiracial / 7% Black / 5% Hispanic. Per-pupil expenditure $29,659 (FY2020) — anomalously high; see note below.

Per-pupil note: Clark-Shawnee’s $29,659 PP total reflects $24,999,000 in capital construction outlay that year — the district built / finished building Shawnee MS/HS (the combined 7-12 building), and that capital expense inflates the per-pupil total enormously. Real operational PP is closer to $13-14K. Use plant ops $/pupil ($1,113) for the actual under-investment comparison, not the topline PP.

2. Why this was a hard sell — community context (ACS)

This is a high-homeownership, modest-but-decent-income, English-monolingual Rural-Fringe community, median HHI $82K, median home value $186K. The 1% EIT on an $82K wage = $820/year, 5-year commitment. That’s substantial — and the structure (EIT) creates the same coalition-vulnerability as Amherst’s: retirees pay nothing while their working neighbors pay; non-resident workers (Springfield commuters who work in Clark-Shawnee businesses) pay but can’t vote.

May 5, 2026 statewide saw 24 of 42 failed measures as EITs. Clark-Shawnee was running its third consecutive 1% EIT attempt, into the worst statewide EIT environment in recent memory. The structural failure mode is the same as Amherst: three swings, same ask, no scale-down or restructure, and the macro environment has gotten worse rather than better.

3. The gap story (what the data would have shown voters)

Clark-Shawnee’s data tells an already-built-the-buildings-now-can’t-staff-them story — unique in this 7-district set.

• Plant operations spending: $1,113 / pupil vs national median $1,324 — 16% below national median. Real under-investment, but not extreme.
• Capital construction outlay (FY2020): $24,999,000 — the new Shawnee MS/HS combined campus. This is the unique story for Clark-Shawnee: the district just committed massive capital to consolidate 7-12 into one building. The operating ask is to staff and run the building they just built.
• Per-pupil instruction: $7,902 — comparable to peers ($7,800-$8,400 range). Classroom spend is not the obvious gap.
• Utilities/energy spend: $334K — low — consistent with the new building being more efficient than what it replaced.
• Chronic absenteeism: 16.5% district-wide. Shawnee MS/HS 20.7%, Shawnee ES 13.7%. Healthy by Ohio standards — well below cohort norms.
• Suspension: 5.2% district-wide. Shawnee MS/HS 10.2%, Shawnee ES 1.8%. Low-suspension district.
• 0 expulsions district-wide.
• Counselor ratio 330:1 — better than peer median (~410:1). 5.0 counselor FTE district-wide. Strong staffing.
• Nurse coverage: 2 of 2 buildings have one. 2.0 nurse FTE. Full coverage.

The climate data is healthy. The capital story is good (they built the building). What the data does NOT support is “the buildings are starving” — the people are. The operating ask is for human capital (teachers, support staff, programs) in a building they just spent $25M building.

The campaign argument: we just spent $25M to consolidate 7-12 into one campus. We need the operating budget to run it. Whether that argument was made cleanly in the campaign is what FMX outreach should investigate.

FMX peer operational benchmarks (live)

North Marion OR is publishing 99.3% resolution — the highest number in any of the 7 districts’ FMX peer sets. Lewisburg PA carries a 58-year portfolio age (their pre-consolidation buildings) at 92% resolution — a relevant comparable for Clark-Shawnee’s pre-consolidation building stock. Rockford MN is a clean rural-fringe operational profile.

4. Bond/levy history

• Prior 1: 1% EIT, defeated (date not surfaced in coverage; FMX team to validate)
• Prior 2: 1% EIT, defeated again
• May 5, 2026: 1% EIT, defeated for the third time — Springfield News-Sun headlined the result as “voters reject Clark-Shawnee Schools income tax levy for third time”
• Post-vote: Superintendent Brian Kuhn announced the district would move forward with its reduction plan effective the start of the 2026-27 school year. Per WDTN pre-vote coverage, the board’s contingency plan specifically targets athletics for elimination if levies continue to fail.

This is direct structural parallel to Amherst Exempted Village — a third consecutive EIT failure with no scale-down or restructure between attempts. The pattern: 3 swings, same dollar amount, same structure, declining political viability.

5. What voters / opposition said

Springfield News-Sun’s framing (the board approved “a plan to cut staff and eliminate sports if future levies fail”) set up the campaign as a threat-driven ask, which is the same playbook Barberton ran into the same statewide wave with similar results. The 62% No share on attempt #3 says voters were not moved by the threat — or were moved against it.

The May 5, 2026 statewide context (42 of 66 failed, 24 of 42 EITs) is the macro story; Clark-Shawnee’s loss is part of the wave. No organized opposition coverage surfaces. The third-attempt-fails pattern with no organized opposition is the trust-erosion signal — voters don’t need to organize, the structural answer is reflexive at this point.

6. What we could have told them

1. “We just spent $25 million to consolidate 7-12 into a single Shawnee MS/HS campus. We need the operating budget to staff and run the building we just built. The capital case is closed — the operating case is what’s on the ballot.” Names the unique strategic posture.
2. “Plant ops $1,113/student vs national $1,324 — 16% below median. We are running tight on the maintenance side, not just the staffing side.” The standard operational-under-investment frame.
3. “Climate is healthy: 16% chronic absenteeism (below Ohio norms), 5% suspension, 0 expulsions. The students are showing up and the discipline picture is clean. The operating dollars protect that — the cuts will degrade it.” Names what’s working, what’s at risk.
4. “Switch from EIT to a property-tax levy for the next attempt. Three EIT failures in 24 months is structure failing, not amount failing. 80% of Clark-Shawnee is owner-occupied; a property-tax renewal speaks the voter base’s language.” The structural pivot Amherst also hasn’t tried.
5. “North Marion SD 15 in Oregon — same Rural-Fringe locale, similar enrollment — publishes 99% work-order resolution inside FMX. Lewisburg Pennsylvania (Rural-Fringe, 58-yr portfolio age) runs 92% resolution and $3.83/Ksf. Both are FMX customers at 90%+ similarity. We don’t publish those numbers. The next ask needs to.”

7. FMX outreach hook

Clark-Shawnee is 3 named FMX peers + a unique strategic story (just completed $25M consolidation, now operationally under-funded). The pitch is a 12-18 month engagement to build the operational proof layer for the next ask, with the headline framing: we built it, we need to run it, here’s how comparable districts spend per square foot to do that.

• North Marion SD 15 (OR, 2,000 mi, enrollment 1,604, 91% similarity, north-marion-schools.gofmx.com): 12 buildings, 99.3% resolution, 4.8% HVAC burden.
• Lewisburg Area SD (PA, 369 mi, enrollment 1,810, 90% similarity, lewisburg.gofmx.com): 7 buildings, 403,000 sqft, 57.8-yr portfolio age, 92.4% resolution, 3.83 WO/Ksf, 4.9% HVAC burden.
• Rockford Public School District (MN, 622 mi, enrollment 1,565, 89% similarity, rockford-area-schools.gofmx.com): 11 buildings, 88.9% resolution.

Opener for the call: “You just lost a 1% earned-income tax for the third consecutive time, 38% Yes, in a statewide cycle where 24 of 42 failed measures were EITs. The structure isn’t working. You also just finished spending $25M to consolidate 7-12 into the new Shawnee MS/HS — meaning the campaign argument is uniquely strong: ‘we built it, now we need the operating budget to run it.’ But the data layer to make that argument doesn’t exist publicly today. Lewisburg PA — same Rural-Fringe locale, 7 buildings, 58-year portfolio age — publishes 92% work-order resolution and $3.83/Ksf inside FMX. North Marion Oregon runs 99% resolution. We can have your 2-building portfolio benchmarked inside 60 days, with per-building cost data your next ballot — likely a property-tax pivot — needs.”

Lead with Superintendent Brian Kuhn (named in Springfield News-Sun coverage) and Treasurer/CFO (name not in OSBA data — source via clark-shawnee.k12.oh.us). Operations head if listed. The reduction-plan execution starts at the 2026-27 school year — meaning the political pressure for a near-term re-attempt (Nov 2026 or May 2027) is high, and the data layer needs to be built into that timeline.