Pickerington Local Schools — OH
1. Snapshot
Suburb-Large district in southeastern Franklin County / northern Fairfield County, ~20 minutes east of downtown Columbus. 11,729 students across 16 schools — one of the larger districts in the May 2026 OH cohort and the biggest single-issue defeat by margin in the failed Columbus-area set (3,379 votes). SAIPE poverty 7.23% — well below the state median. Demographics 41% White / 34% Black / 10% Asian / 7% Hispanic / 7.5% Multiracial — the most racially diverse suburban anchor in the seven-brief OH batch. Per-pupil expenditure $13,793 (FY2020). FY2020 capital construction outlay $3.66M (sustained capex; not a deferred-maintenance district at the headline level).
This is not a rural-rejection story. Pickerington is a Columbus growth-corridor suburb with the tax capacity to absorb the ask. The defeat was driven by sticker shock on a doubled income tax in an inflationary year — not by tax-base inability.
2. Why this was a hard sell — community context (ACS 5-yr 2022)
| Metric | Pickerington | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $109,218 | High — well above OH median |
| Median home value | $284,400 | Solidly upper-middle |
| Bachelor’s+ | 45.3% | Strong college attainment |
| Graduate degree | 15.9% | Above OH suburb median |
| Owner-occupied | 78.1% | High — homeowner-heavy electorate |
| Gini index | 0.387 | Low inequality — homogeneous tax base |
| Non-English household | 10.5% | Above OH suburb norm — reflects Asian/Black families |
| Professional occupation | 49.0% | White-collar majority |
A $109K-HHI community with $284K home values and 45% college attainment can absorb a 1.25% additional income tax. The ballot math was the problem: voters were being asked to more than double the existing 1.0% school income tax (combined would have hit 2.25%) on a continuing (no-sunset) basis. The “additional 1.25 percent” framing — not “renewal” or “5-year term” — is what flipped a high-capacity community 2-to-1 against. Superintendent Smialek’s own post-vote quote — “when you drive by the gas station and you see $4.99 as the price, I mean folks are feeling that pinch” — concedes the inflationary frame was the campaign-decisive variable. ABC6’s headline-quoted reason was inflation strain, not opposition to schools.
3. Community context — the demographic anomaly
Pickerington’s 41% White / 34% Black / 10% Asian mix is unusual for a Columbus exurb. The school district has been a magnet for upwardly-mobile Black and Asian families relocating from Columbus city — driving the 15.9% graduate-degree share and 49% professional-occupation share. The electorate that voted against the levy is broader and more heterogeneous than a typical Ohio suburban no-vote. This matters for the next-attempt strategy: a single-message campaign won’t reach this community. The 65% No vote is unlikely to fracture along the usual seniors-vs-young-families lines.
4. The gap story — what the FMX data layer would have shown voters
Pickerington has a modest facilities under-investment story relative to peer districts — not the headline-grabbing Vermilion or Eastmont gap, but enough to anchor a credible “we run lean” message.
- Plant operations spending: $996.27 / pupil vs national median $1,324 — 25% below national median. The “$1,324” framing is the cleanest single number Pickerington never put in front of voters.
- Per-pupil instruction $7,948 — middle of the FMX-peer band; Ankeny IA spends $14,342 total per pupil vs Pickerington $13,793. Pickerington is at or below every named FMX peer on total per-pupil spending.
- Capital outlay (FY2020) $3.66M — sustained capex, not a deferred-maintenance district. Voters do not have the visible-decay story Plain Local or Strongsville have. This helps explain the loss: there’s no concrete facilities-failure narrative to anchor the ask.
- Counselor ratio 518:1 (district-wide) — high. Compared to FMX-peer Ankeny CSD’s smaller buildings, Pickerington counselors are stretched.
- Chronic absenteeism 17.6% — at OH suburb median; not a campaign asset.
- Suspension rate 20.2% — elevated for a Suburb-Large; 113 expulsions is a number worth flagging in any future ask.
FMX peer operational benchmarks (live)
Pulled from fmx_profiles — these are the named, opted-in FMX-customer peers at ≥0.91 similarity to Pickerington. Pickerington itself is an FMX customer — these are the comparison neighbors already on the platform that the campaign could have cited directly.
| FMX peer | Bldgs | Total sqft | Portfolio age | Resolution rate | HVAC % of WOs | WO total | FMX hostname |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WAXAHACHIE ISD (TX, 92% similarity, 11,196 enr) | 34 | — | — | 95.2% | 2.7% | 23,159 | wallerisd-2 (validate hostname) |
| Ankeny Comm School District (IA, 92% similarity, 12,746 enr) | 31 | — | — | 92.3% | 11.0% | 7,831 | ankenyschools |
| L’Anse Creuse Public Schools (MI, 91% similarity, 9,215 enr) | 25 | — | — | 92.2% | 5.0% | 5,560 | lc-ps |
All three peers are publishing live work-order data inside FMX today. Waxahachie’s 95% resolution rate at 23K WO volume across 34 buildings is the operational benchmark for what an 11,000-student suburban district running on FMX looks like.
5. Levy history (Ballotpedia + WOSU + plsd.us)
- 2011: last new operating levy passed (per ABC6 and 10TV).
- 2012–2025: no new operating levies on the ballot — the district ran on the 2011 base plus the existing 1.0% school income tax.
- May 5, 2026: 1.25% additional income tax, continuing, failed 37.37% Yes / 62.63% No (4,997 to 8,376). First operating ask in 15 years.
This is a single-failure district, not a repeat-failer. The campaign asked for doubling the income tax on the first ballot ask in 15 years — strategically aggressive. The next attempt almost certainly scales down (e.g. 0.75% rather than 1.25%) and/or moves to a 5-year term.
6. What voters / opposition actually said
CW Columbus’s headline — “by wide margin as parents cite inflation strain” — is the diagnostic. Voter-facing concerns surfaced in ABC6 and CW Columbus coverage:
- Superintendent Smialek (post-vote): “I think the margin is a perfect storm of many negative factors for public education right now.” And: “when you drive by the gas station and you see $4.99 as the price, I mean folks are feeling that pinch.” The district is naming inflation as the cause, not opposition.
- Some Pickerington parents told reporters they’re willing to support funding because the schools were a major factor in choosing the neighborhood — a pro-school constituency exists; it just wasn’t 50%+1 of the electorate.
- No organized opposition committee named in coverage. The 65% No is diffuse — likely homeowners reacting to a 2.25% combined income tax rate without a counter-mobilized “Yes” coalition strong enough to overcome it.
7. What we could have told them
- “We are an FMX customer. So is Ankeny CSD in Iowa — same enrollment band (12,746 vs our 11,729), same Suburb-Large locale, 92% similarity. Their work-order resolution rate is 92.3% across 31 buildings on 7,831 work orders. We can publish ours side-by-side in 30 days.” Single most credible argument given Pickerington already runs FMX.
- “Plant operations spending: $996/student. The national median is $1,324. That’s $327 less per student we spend keeping our 16 buildings standing — $3.84M/year under the national average. The income tax catches us up.” Single defensible facilities under-investment number.
- “Last new operating levy: 2011. Fifteen years. The 1.25% rate isn’t aggressive — it’s catch-up for 15 years of inflation we never asked you to fund.” Reframes from “doubling” to “catching up.”
- For the next attempt: split the ballot. Pickerington’s electorate is heterogeneous (41% White / 34% Black / 10% Asian). A single income-tax ballot question is harder to message across constituencies than a two-prop approach (operating term levy + targeted facilities/safety ask). Reduces the doubling shock.
- 5-year term, not continuing. Across the May 2026 OH cohort, continuing levies have a measurably worse pass rate than term-limited (5-year) levies. The “no sunset” framing is the strongest opposition argument available to anyone running against a school tax in Ohio right now.
8. FMX outreach hook — Pickerington is already on the platform
Pickerington Local Schools is an existing FMX customer. This is not a new-logo outreach — it is an expand/engage play. The MCP isFmxCustomer: true flag is confirmed in the cohort anchor. The conversation isn’t “you should buy FMX,” it’s “you already have FMX — here’s the campaign artifact you didn’t pull from it in time for May 5.”
Contact unit: John Walsh (Treasurer/CFO) is the right primary contact — he owns the per-pupil arithmetic, the operating-deficit projection, and the levy math. The interim superintendent (Hunt, replacing Smialek) is the appropriate second-call; the next ask will be his to position. Lead with Walsh.
Opener: “You’re already running FMX. Your closest-similarity peers on the platform — Ankeny CSD in Iowa (92% similarity, 12,746 students, 31 buildings, 92.3% WO resolution) and Waxahachie ISD in Texas (92% similarity, 34 buildings, 95.2% resolution on 23,159 WOs) — publish operational data inside FMX today. The May 2026 campaign cited a $14M projected deficit by FY2028 but never put your $996/student plant-ops spend vs the $1,324 national median in front of a single voter. We can have a per-building condition + peer-comparison artifact ready inside 45 days, ahead of whatever the board lands on for November 2026 or May 2027.”
The asset Pickerington already pays FMX for would have hardened the operating-deficit narrative. The next ask is winnable if Walsh decides to lead with the data.