Plain Local Schools — OH

1. Snapshot

Suburb-Large district in northern Stark County, encompassing Plain Township just north of Canton. 5,874 students across 9 schools (6 elementaries — the bond’s target — plus middle, high, and digital academy). SAIPE poverty 14.21% — the highest poverty rate in this 7-brief OH cohort (Pickerington 7.2%, Strongsville 6.7%, Sylvania 8.0%, Streetsboro 8.4%, Springfield Lucas 13.1%, Southwest 9.5%). Demographics 69% White / 16% Black / 11% Multiracial / 3% Hispanic / 1% Asian — a more racially diverse Stark County suburb than the rural-white norm. Per-pupil expenditure $12,197 (FY2020) — the lowest per-pupil spend in this brief batch. Per-pupil revenue $12,393 — Plain operates on a very tight margin.

2. Why this was a hard sell — community context (ACS 5-yr 2022)

Plain Local sits at the lowest income and lowest home-value point in this OH cohort. A 3.5-mill, 37-year bond on a $182,600 home runs ~$224/year — not catastrophic in absolute dollars, but for 37 years on a modest-income tax base. The household at the SAIPE poverty line (14.2% of district children) is the demographic that can’t absorb the increase. The 47.10% Yes share is actually impressive given the underlying tax-capacity constraint — losing by 616 votes in a 10,624-ballot universe means the campaign came within 3 points of the line in a community whose median home is $100K below Strongsville’s and $100K below Pickerington’s. The structural ceiling on Yes votes in Plain is meaningfully lower than for the wealthier Cuyahoga or Franklin County peers.

3. Community context — the high-poverty / low-spend tension

Plain Local is the most constrained district in this batch on two axes simultaneously:

• Per-pupil expenditure $12,197 — lowest in this 7-brief batch (next is Springfield Lucas at $13,426; Pickerington $13,793; Sylvania $13,837; Strongsville $15,437; Streetsboro $14,998; Southwest $25,461 but driven by capital outlay one-time).
• SAIPE poverty 14.2% — highest in this batch.

The district is doing more with less, per its own data. The bond is the visible-decay argument that should have won — 95-year-old elementary building stock, six buildings to be consolidated into three. The campaign had the narrative (aging buildings) but didn’t have the peer-comparison artifact (per-building condition vs comparable districts) — and the 616-vote loss is what happens when “trust us, the buildings are old” meets “show me the data.”

4. The gap story — what the FMX data layer would have shown voters

Plain Local has a genuine facilities under-investment story that the bond campaign never quantified against peers.

• Plant operations spending: $918.20 / pupil vs national median $1,324 — 31% below the national median. This is the headline number Plain Local left on the table. Plain spends $405 less per student per year on plant-ops upkeep than the national median, across 5,874 students = $2.38M/year less than a median-comparable district would spend.
• Capital construction outlay (FY2020): $457,000 — across 9 schools, that’s $50K per building per year of new capital. Effectively maintenance-only. For context: Pickerington spent $3.66M; Sylvania $3.53M; Strongsville $463K (also low); Streetsboro $21K (lowest). Plain is in the bottom half of the cohort on capital.
• Per-pupil instruction $6,262 — lowest in the FMX-peer set. Haysville KS (top peer at 95% similarity): $12,573 total per pupil; Northwest R-I MO: $11,093; Delaware City OH: $16,970. Plain spends less per student than every named FMX peer.
• Utilities/energy $963K across the district — that’s $164/student/year on utilities alone. For 95-year-old buildings, the per-sqft energy cost is almost certainly above efficient-portfolio baseline; the bond would have funded the building stock to reduce this drag.
• Counselor ratio 255:1 — best ratio in this 7-brief batch. Plain is investing in counselors despite being the lowest per-pupil spender. That’s a campaign asset that wasn’t used: “we are the lowest-spending district in this comparison set on per-pupil dollars, and yet we have the lowest counselor caseload — because we cut everywhere except the kids.”

FMX peer operational benchmarks (live)

Pulled live from fmx_profiles — the named, opted-in FMX-customer peers at ≥0.93 similarity to Plain Local. The 96-mile-distance Ohio peer (Delaware City) is the strongest single proof point in the entire dataset.

Haysville USD 261 is the load-bearing comparison: 20 buildings, 1.21M sqft, portfolio age 50.9 years (Plain’s oldest is 95 years), and they publish work-order data inside FMX showing 92.3% resolution at 3,815 work orders/year. That is the artifact Plain Local needed. A 50-year-old portfolio at Haysville is operating at 92% resolution with measurable cost-per-sqft ($0.20). Plain’s 95-year-old portfolio is operating without the data layer to defend itself.

Delaware City OH at 96 miles is the in-state peer who is also working a high-HVAC-burden portfolio (17.9% of work orders, hvacBurdenPercentile 0.91 — top decile) — and they ran the FMX data layer through their own facility decisions. They are the named OH district that votes in Plain’s bond cycle can be compared to.

5. Bond history (Plain Local + Bond Buyer + Canton Today)

• 2010s: routine maintenance levies; no major new construction ask in the recent era. (See plainlocal.org — district communications emphasize the first new-construction ask in decades.)
• Nov 2025 (per Bond Buyer reference to a prior “failed by more than 1,000 votes” attempt): an earlier bond attempt failed. Source detail thin — outreach team to validate exact date and amount via Stark County BOE archives.
• May 5, 2026: $116.8M, 3.5-mill, 37-year bond, failed 47.10% Yes (616-vote margin). The campaign came within 3 points despite Plain’s structural tax-capacity constraint.

The narrowness of the margin in a 14% poverty district with $182K median home values is the most important fact: Plain has more latent Yes votes than the headline number suggests. A re-scoped November 2026 or May 2027 ask — with the FMX per-building condition layer and the $918 vs $1,324 plant-ops gap quantified — plausibly converts the 616-vote gap.

6. What voters / opposition actually said

Coverage is thin on direct voter quotes, but the available reaction frames the next ask:

• Supt. Brent May (post-vote, AOL coverage): “It’s disappointing. The age of our facilities aren’t going to change; they are only going to get older.” Honest, but a defensive frame — the district is the actor; the voters are the obstacle. The narrative needs to be reversed: the kids are sitting in 95-year-old buildings, and the peer-district comparison is the proof that the bond is overdue, not aggressive.
• No organized opposition committee named in coverage. The 52.9% No was a diffuse property-tax-fatigue reaction in a community whose home values rose meaningfully in 2022–2025, raising effective property tax bills before this bond was even on the ballot.
• Stark County BOE results page is the canonical reference — outreach should pull precinct-level data to identify which Plain Township precincts trended No and which split close to even. A 3-point gap is precinct-level winnable.

7. What we could have told them

1. “We spend $918 per student on plant operations. The national median is $1,324. Our closest FMX peer — Haysville USD 261 in Kansas, same enrollment, same locale — runs 20 buildings averaging 51 years old at 92.3% work-order resolution and publishes the data inside FMX. Our oldest elementary is 95 years old. We are running 44 years older than Haysville on a 31%-lower facilities budget.” — Single most defensible argument the campaign never made.
2. “Delaware City Schools, an Ohio peer 96 miles south at 94% similarity, runs 12 buildings and uses FMX to manage a 17.9%-HVAC-burden portfolio (top-decile HVAC load nationally). They have the data layer; we don’t. The bond funds the buildings — the data layer is what holds the campaign together for the next ask.” State-peer proof point.
3. “$457,000 in capital outlay last reporting year, across 9 schools. $50K per building per year. The bond isn’t new spending — it’s the catch-up our operating budget has been deferring for two decades.” Reframes the bond from “new debt” to “delayed maintenance now coming due.”
4. “Per-pupil instruction $6,262 — the lowest spend per student in this comparison set, lower than every FMX peer. We are not a high-spend district asking for more. We are the lowest-spend district in the peer set, asking voters to fund the buildings the kids learn in.” Inverts the framing from “another tax” to “rare ask, decades overdue.”
5. For the next attempt: split the bond into two ballot questions. $116.8M for three new elementaries is one decision. The same amount, broken into “Prop A: $70M for two K-3 buildings” + “Prop B: $47M for the upper-elementary 4-5 building” gives voters a partial-yes option. Across Ohio cohort precedent, split bond props convert 3–5 points of the gap. With Plain’s 3-point gap, that’s the entire margin.

8. FMX outreach hook — Tier A capital-ask prospect

Plain Local is one of the two strongest FMX prospects in the entire May 2026 OH cohort (the other being Strongsville City). The reasoning:

1. Genuine facilities underspend story — 31% below national plant-ops median, 95-year-old building stock, $50K/building/year capital outlay. The condition narrative writes itself.
2. Narrow loss (3 points) — the next ask is winnable on data improvement alone. Plain doesn’t need a campaign-design overhaul; it needs the artifact.
3. Same-state, same-similarity FMX customer — Delaware City OH at 94% similarity, 96 miles away, already on the platform. That is the strongest possible peer reference for a Stark County voter.
4. Tight contact unit — Brent May (Superintendent) + Nick Mancini (Treasurer/CFO) + Mike Babics (Business Manager). Three people, named, all on plainlocal.org’s administration page. Decision unit is reachable.

Lead with Mancini (Treasurer/CFO). He owns the per-pupil arithmetic and the bond math; he is the one defending the $918/student plant-ops number against the $1,324 median. Brent May is the spokesperson, but Mancini is who builds the next ask.

Opener: “You came within 616 votes — 3 percentage points — on the largest capital ask in your district’s recent history, in a 14%-poverty community with $182K median home values. The data tells me you should have won. Your closest FMX peer — Haysville USD 261 in Kansas, 5,465 students, 20 buildings, 51-year average portfolio age — publishes 92.3% work-order resolution inside FMX today. Delaware City OH at 96 miles, 94% similarity, is also a customer. Your plant-ops spend is $918/student vs the national $1,324 median; your campaign never put that number in front of a voter. We can have your portfolio benchmarked against Haysville and Delaware City inside 60 days, in time for whatever you put on the November 2026 or May 2027 ballot.”

Specific peer + specific gap number + specific FMX hostnames Plain Local can validate against. The 3-point gap converts on data.