Meigs Local Schools — OH

1. Snapshot

Rural-Fringe district in Pomeroy on the Ohio River, Meigs County (southeast Ohio Appalachian region). 1,586 students across 4 schools — Meigs HS, Meigs MS, Meigs Intermediate, Meigs Primary. SAIPE poverty 25.7% — one of the highest in the May 2026 brief set, reflecting “one of Ohio’s poorest counties” framing in WSAZ coverage. Demographics 94.6% White / 3% Multiracial / 1.6% Hispanic — homogeneous. Per-pupil expenditure $15,163 (FY2020) — high for the poverty level, reflecting heavy state-aid reliance ($18.4M state / $5.3M local / $3.5M federal = 68% state-funded).

Already an FMX customer (per cohort flag isFmxCustomer: true) — this is an expansion / re-engagement outreach, not a cold pitch.

2. Community context (ACS)

A 1% EIT on a $38,616 household = $386/year — in a county where the median home is worth $92,800 and the typical voter is on fixed or near-fixed income. That’s 0.42% of median home value annually, every year the EIT continues. The 66/34 split is the structurally-predictable result. EIT was the wrong structure for this voter base in November; running it again in May with no structural change produced the same 66/34 split — identical rejection percentage across two attempts six months apart.

3. Gap story — finance / staffing / school climate

• Plant operations spending: $1,526.89 / pupil vs national median $1,324 — 15.3% ABOVE the national median. This is one of the only districts in the 7-brief set spending more than the national median on plant ops. That’s not the under-investment narrative the FMX pitch usually leans on.
• Per-pupil instruction: $8,192 — solidly mid-pack for the peer set; classroom investment is being maintained.
• Capital construction outlay (FY2020): $20K — effectively zero. The plant-ops spending isn’t being supplemented with capital improvement.
• Chronic absenteeism: 41.5% district-wide — second-worst in the brief set after North College Hill. Meigs HS: 53.9%. Meigs MS: 44.9%. Meigs Primary: 31.7%. Meigs Intermediate: 28.4%. More than half of the high school is chronically absent. This is the headline equity stat.
• Suspension rate: 14.1% district-wide — concentrated at the MS (25.1%) and HS (19.2%).
• Counselor ratio: 297:1 — best in the brief set (well below 419:1 peer median). Counseling capacity is being protected.
• Nurse coverage: 2 FTE for 4 schools — every school has a nurse but coverage is thin (0.5 FTE per building average).
• Total expulsions: 1 — clean discipline numbers despite the climate metrics.
• Federal share of revenue: 12.8% — above peer average, reflecting Title-I/E-rate dependence.

FMX peer operational benchmarks (live)

Single live FMX-customer peer (westsenators.gofmx.com), and it’s a same-state Rural-Fringe peer 60 miles away — strongest possible relatability. Washington-Nile is at 94.6% resolution rate against Meigs’s unknown baseline (Meigs is itself an FMX customer per anchor flag — outreach team should pull the Meigs fmxFacilities snapshot directly before the call to enable a self-vs-Washington-Nile comparison).

4. Levy history

• Nov 2025: 1% EIT, 5-year, additional — failed ~66% No / 34% Yes (matches May 2026 split almost exactly)
• May 5, 2026: 1% EIT re-submitted — failed 66.13% No / 33.87% Yes (1,226 vs 628)

Two attempts, same structure, identical 66/34 split. This is the cleanest “same ask, same result” repeat-failure pattern in the brief set. WOWK noted three Meigs County levies failed in the May primary — Meigs Local was not alone, but the cross-Meigs-County failure pattern reinforces that the county’s voter base is systemically rejecting school tax measures right now, not Meigs Local specifically.

5. What voters / opposition said

Coverage is thin — WSAZ aired the result without quoting opposition; Signal Ohio’s statewide round-up grouped Meigs with the broader “voters reject school levies” framing. The implicit story is county-level economic stress: SAIPE 25.7%, MHI $38.6K, MHV $92.8K. The structural picture is that a 1% EIT lands as a meaningful annual cut to median household disposable income in a county where the active electorate is disproportionately retirees and disability-income recipients — for whom an EIT either doesn’t apply (frustrating-looking-but-irrelevant) or applies in ways that feel punitive (Social Security earnings, 1099 work). Neither response converts to a Yes vote.

6. What we could have told them

1. “We spend $1,527/student on plant operations — 15% above the national median of $1,324. That’s not the deferred-maintenance story other districts in our region are telling. We’ve been protecting facilities investment. The levy is what lets us keep doing that.” Inverts the usual FMX pitch — Meigs is above the national median, and that’s a defensible narrative if framed correctly.
2. “More than half our high school students are chronically absent (53.9%). The MS is 44.9%. The cuts that follow this No vote land on the support staff who keep these students in seats. This is a vote about whether 53% becomes 60% next year.” Specific, building-level data tied to the cut consequences.
3. “Counselor ratio 297:1 — best in our peer set, by a wide margin. We’ve been investing where it counts. The levy is to keep that, not to grow it.” Combats the “cut administration first” framing.
4. “68% of our revenue comes from state and federal sources. Local funding share is 19.5%. The 1% EIT moves the local share toward the state median — without it, we’re an outlier dependent on state-budget cycles we don’t control.” Frames the EIT as de-risking, not new burden.
5. “Washington-Nile Local — a same-state, same-locale, 60-mile peer — runs on FMX and resolves 94.6% of work orders. We’re already on the same platform. The data peer comparison is publishable the day after this conversation, in a way no other Meigs-County campaign artifact has been.”

7. FMX outreach hook

Meigs Local is already an FMX customer. The outreach is expansion + campaign-data activation, not net-new acquisition. Two thrusts:

1. Activate the existing FMX dataset for campaign use. The district has been on platform — outreach team should pull its fmxFacilities snapshot and prepare a Meigs-vs-Washington-Nile side-by-side as a leave-behind. The single most powerful artifact this district could publish before the next ask is “here is our operational data alongside our 60-mile peer’s — both in FMX, both publishable, both verifiable.”
2. The 41.5% chronic absenteeism + 53.9% HS chronic absenteeism numbers are the climate-narrative anchor. FMX doesn’t measure absenteeism directly, but per-building work-order data (“how often does this HVAC system fail in classrooms with the worst attendance”) creates a building-condition-to-attendance through-line that the campaign hasn’t been making.

Contact unit: Not published in OSBA — outreach team has account-team relationship on file. Lead with whoever owns the Meigs FMX account today; CFO/Treasurer is the secondary contact (meigslocal.org does not surface a clear ops/business contact publicly).

Opener: “You’re already in FMX. Two EITs failed at the same 66/34 split six months apart — the next attempt needs a fundamentally different campaign artifact, not a refined version of the prior one. Your Washington-Nile peer is 60 miles up the road, same state, same locale, and resolves 94.6% of work orders inside FMX. Let’s pull your own snapshot, build the side-by-side, and have you ready to publish it 90 days before whatever the November or 2027 ask becomes. The data is yours — we just need to put it in a shape that voters can read.”