Paulding Exempted Village — OH

1. Snapshot

Rural-Distant district in the village of Paulding, far northwest Ohio at the Indiana state line — Paulding County, agricultural-industrial belt. 1,306 students across 4 schools (Paulding ES, Paulding MS, Paulding HS, Oakwood ES) — smallest enrollment in this 7-district batch. SAIPE poverty 12.8%. Demographics 84% White / 13% Hispanic / 2% Multiracial / 0.5% Black / 0% Asian — White-with-meaningful-Hispanic-presence, rural-distant. Per-pupil expenditure $14,452 (FY2020). The district covers a township-belt footprint with ~3,500-4,000 households across rural Paulding County (Crescent-News’ Defiance-area daily is the dominant local press).

This was Paulding’s second attempt at this PI income tax in 6 months (May 2026 was the re-run; the fall 2025 ask also failed). Per Crescent-News framing, the May 2026 version was modified from a Continuing Permanent Term to a 5-year term — exactly the structural concession most failed Ohio EIT campaigns make on their second attempt. The 5-year reduction moved the result from “failed deeper than 47% Yes” (fall 2025) to 47% Yes (May 2026) — narrowing the gap but still 131 votes short. Crescent-News’ follow-up coverage notes the district has now “outlined plan for HVAC repairs” without the levy — meaning the next ballot attempt (likely November 2026 or May 2027) will have to articulate what won’t get done if voters don’t pass it the third time.

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

Below-median income, home values at 35% of national median, college attainment the second-lowest in this 7-district batch (only Northridge at 10.8% is lower), 80% owner-occupied. This is a rural-distant, lower-college, high-homeowner community whose tax base is constrained by the home-value floor. A 0.75% PI EIT on a $62,845 median household income costs about $471/year — meaningful in absolute terms (~0.75% of HHI), and modest relative to the property-tax exposure the EIT structure was supposed to relieve.

The 5-year limited term (Crescent-News specifically notes “this levy will only be for a period of 5 years” as the differentiator from the fall 2025 attempt) is the right structural concession for this community — 80% homeowners with 14% college attainment respond to renewability as a signal of district accountability. The fact that the 5-year term moved the result from “failed deeper” to 47% Yes (close enough to be re-runnable) confirms the structural redesign worked partially. The remaining gap (131 votes) is operational-story territory, not structural-redesign territory.

3. Peer comparison

Top peers via MCP (default weights + plant-ops emphasis). FMX-customer status resolved against opted-in local benchmarking server.

Confirmed FMX customers in top 15 (2): Alexander Local (OH, slot 1, 97.1% similarity — extraordinarily high) and Central Montcalm Public Schools (MI, slot 15, 93.7% similarity).

Alexander Local at 97.1% similarity is the highest single-peer similarity score in any district in this 7-district batch. This is an essentially identical district profile — same state, same Rural-Distant locale, same enrollment (1,362 vs Paulding’s 1,306), same poverty rate (13.2% vs 12.8%), same per-pupil spending range. Alexander Local is also already an FMX customer with a mature operational profile. The Paulding-vs-Alexander comparison is the single strongest in-state peer benchmark available in this 7-district batch.

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

Paulding’s data tells a “small rural district with aging infrastructure asking for just the capital piece on a 5-year term” story — structurally honest and operationally credible:

• Plant operations spending: $1,054.38 / pupil vs national median $1,324 — 20.4% below the national median. Less severe than Norton ($779) or Ontario ($863) but still meaningfully below. Alexander Local OH (97% similarity peer): operationally publishes from FMX — 14 buildings, 17.3-year portfolio age, 97.4% work-order resolution, HVAC 5.1% of WOs. The Paulding vs Alexander gap is the single most concrete benchmark a Paulding voter could cite.
• Capital construction outlay (FY2020): $633K — modest but non-zero. Paulding has been doing some capital activity, but on the scale of a 4-building district with 20+ to 70-year-old buildings (per the district board’s own framing in The VW Independent), the backlog is real. The PI levy specifically targets HVAC, roofs, boilers — the “useful-life 5+ years” categories Ohio PI law allows.
• Per-pupil instruction: $8,505 — solidly at peer median; classroom investment is being protected. The PI ask is purely facilities; it doesn’t compete with instruction.
• Chronic absenteeism: 12.6% district-wide — better than the rural-distant peer norm (~18%). Healthy school-climate signal.
• Counselor ratio: 310:1 — the best in this 7-district batch by a wide margin. Paulding is over-invested in counseling relative to the rural-distant Ohio norm, which is exactly the kind of operating-priority story the district could lead with: “We’ve kept counselor ratios at 310:1 despite being a small rural district — that’s a deliberate operating choice. The PI levy keeps the buildings up to that same standard.”
• Total nurse FTE: 1.0 across 4 schools — 3 of 4 schools without nurse coverage. This is the largest named operational gap and an exact match for the PI-levy framing (PI dollars can fund clinic-renovation and equipment, which removes the staffing-versus-space tradeoff the district currently faces).
• Suspension rate 9.2% — below the rural-distant Ohio norm.
• Total expulsions: 0 — zero expulsions district-wide, matching Painesville’s zero-expulsion outcome.
• Total security FTE: 2 — modest but covered.

The data-supported PI-levy story: “4 schools, 1,306 kids, 20-to-70-year-old buildings. The state’s PI law lets us tax for HVAC, roofs, and boilers but NOT salaries — so this is exclusively a buildings ask. We run plant ops at 20% below national median. Alexander Local across the state (Athens County, same size, same poverty rate, same locale) publishes 97% work-order resolution on FMX — we can’t currently match that data, and the PI levy is the first step toward changing that.”

FMX peer operational benchmarks (live)

Pulled live from fmxFacilities for each confirmed FMX-customer peer above.

Alexander Local is the headline comp: 14 buildings tracked, 17.3-year portfolio age (12th network percentile — significantly younger portfolio than Paulding’s 20-70-year range), 97.4% work-order resolution (84th network percentile), HVAC 5.1% of WOs (54.6th percentile, healthy). Same state, same Rural-Distant locale, 97.1% similarity to Paulding. This is the strongest single in-state FMX peer match across all 7 districts in this batch.

Central Montcalm Public Schools (MI) is the secondary comp: 96.8% resolution rate (79th percentile), 8 buildings tracked, 2,130 total WOs, partial snapshot.

5. Bond/levy history (web search)

• Pre-2025: Paulding has run renewal levies routinely (typical Ohio 5-year cadence). No bond activity in recent decade per available coverage.
• November 2025 / Fall 2025: First attempt at the 0.75% PI EIT — failed. Specific margin not surfaced in coverage but Crescent-News’ framing implies a wider rejection (the May 2026 second attempt narrowed the gap, per the explicit “trying again” framing).
• May 5, 2026: 0.75% PI EIT 5-year, failed 46.97% Yes / 131-vote margin — this one. Structural redesign from CPT to 5-year moved the result toward yes but did not close the gap.
• Post-May 5, 2026: Crescent-News reports the district has “outlined plan for HVAC repairs” without the levy — i.e., the district is now executing a degraded-capital-plan scenario while preparing the third attempt.

The trajectory matters: two consecutive 5-percentage-point-from-passage rejections suggest Paulding has a genuine community willingness to pass something on its facilities — the gap is messaging and engagement, not fundamental opposition. The 131-vote margin is much wider than Painesville’s 10 votes but is still well within “campaign-redesign-can-close-this” territory for a 2,161-vote universe.

6. What voters / opposition actually said

The VW Independent’s “Voters reject majority of school issues” framing and Crescent-News’ “Paulding tries again” framing both treat the Paulding rejection as part of the statewide rural-Ohio May 2026 anti-tax wave rather than as a district-specific contested race. No organized opposition surfaced in coverage. The Paulding Progress op-ed (“Our kids deserve safe, efficient schools”) was the surfaced pro-levy voice; the implicit No-voter explanation is the same as East Clinton, Wynford, and Cardington-Lincoln (the other rural-distant cohort failures): structural objection to ANY new income tax, regardless of duration or purpose, in a community where every household votes its property-and-payroll exposure first.

The district’s post-defeat framing (per the Crescent-News HVAC follow-up) is moderately useful for the next attempt: by publishing “here’s the degraded capital plan we’ll execute without the levy” alongside “here’s what passes if voters say yes,” the district acknowledges the rejection without doomsaying. That’s a sophisticated rhetorical move that suggests competent board / treasurer leadership.

7. What we could have told them (data-backed)

1. “Alexander Local in Athens County — same size as us, same poverty rate (13.2% vs our 12.8%), same Rural-Distant locale — runs FMX and publishes 97.4% work-order resolution on a 17.3-year-old portfolio. We can’t currently publish ours, and our buildings are 20-70 years old. The PI levy is what closes that data gap.” The single best peer-anchored benchmark in this 7-district batch — 97.1% similarity to a known FMX-customer peer in-state.
2. “$1,054 per student on plant ops — 20% below the national median of $1,324. Alexander Local spends about $1,038 (similar — they’re a peer for a reason). Eastwood Local in Wood County spends about $1,200. The PI levy doesn’t fund operations; it funds the HVAC, roofs, and boilers that generate operations costs. Without the levy, those operations costs eat the operating fund alive over 5 years.” Ties PI to operating sustainability.
3. “Counselor ratio 310:1 — the best in our 7-district May 5 cohort, and well above rural-Ohio norms. Zero expulsions district-wide. We’re already running good school-climate outcomes; the PI levy keeps us doing that by stopping building maintenance from cannibalizing operating dollars.” Reframes from “we need money” to “we already deliver, this protects it.”
4. “Three of our four schools don’t have a nurse. The PI levy can renovate clinic spaces and equipment so that when we can hire a nurse, the building is ready. The levy is a precondition for future staffing, not a substitute for it.” Named operational gap, PI-shaped solution.
5. “This is a 5-year levy, not continuous. Vote yes now, see the work, vote on renewal in 2031. The fall 2025 ask was continuing — we heard you, and the structure changed. The 131-vote gap is what we close in November or May 2027 by publishing the work-order data your peer district (Alexander Local) already publishes.” Acknowledges the fall 2025 lesson and previews the next attempt.

8. FMX outreach hook

Paulding has the strongest single in-state peer match in this entire 7-district batch — Alexander Local at 97.1% similarity, already an FMX customer with publishable mature operational data. This is a clean small-district FMX deal with the highest-conviction peer narrative in the cohort: voters can be told “your peer district runs this software, and here is its data.”

Realistic engagement: Rural-Distant 4-building district, $19M opex, 1,306 students — a small deal in absolute revenue terms but strategically valuable as the second NW-Ohio FMX customer adjacent to Alexander Local’s Athens County footprint. Paulding is also Paulding County’s flagship district (the village is the county seat), so cluster expansion logic applies (Antwerp, Wayne Trace, other Paulding County districts likely follow).

The peer-data story is the strongest of any district in this batch if the FMX team can lean on Alexander Local explicitly:

• Alexander Local (OH, 182 mi SE, enrollment 1,362, 97% similarity, alexanderschools.gofmx.com): work-order resolution 97.4% (84th network percentile), HVAC 5.1% of WOs (54.6th percentile), 17.3-year portfolio age (12th percentile — much younger portfolio, despite being a peer). 196 total WOs YTD across 14 buildings, custodial as top request type. The cleanest in-state, same-locale, same-size, same-poverty peer match in the entire 7-district batch.
• Central Montcalm Public Schools (MI, 150 mi NW, enrollment 1,311, 94% similarity, central-montcalm.gofmx.com): 96.8% resolution (79th percentile), 8 buildings tracked, 2,130 total WOs YTD. Secondary comp — out-of-state but high resolution rate.

Opener for the call: “You came within 131 votes — a 5-percentage-point gap — on your second PI EIT attempt in 6 months. Your closest in-state FMX peer is Alexander Local in Athens County — 97% similarity to your district, same size, same poverty rate, same Rural-Distant locale. Alexander runs FMX and publishes 97.4% work-order resolution on a 17.3-year portfolio. You can’t currently match that data. The third PI attempt — likely November 2026 or May 2027 — wins with publishable operational data benchmarked against Alexander. We can have your 4-building portfolio onboarded in 60 days, in time for either ballot certification. The PI law lets you finance the work but not the data system; FMX is the data layer that closes the trust gap on attempt #3.”

Lead with the Treasurer (Paulding has a structured PI-levy communications operation per the district website’s income-tax-levy page — the Treasurer is the financial communicator). Pitch angle: “97% in-state peer match (Alexander Local) is the strongest peer-anchored case in our entire May 5 outreach batch — Paulding’s third PI attempt wins on the Alexander comparison alone.”