Sylvania Schools — OH (Sylvania City School District / Lucas County)

1. Snapshot

Suburb-Large district in northwest Lucas County, encompassing the city of Sylvania, Sylvania Township, and parts of Toledo. 7,700 students across 13 schools — the largest district in this 7-brief OH batch by enrollment after Pickerington. SAIPE poverty 7.97% — low. Demographics 76% White / 7% Black / 7% Hispanic / 8% Multiracial / 3% Asian — affluent NW Ohio suburb, increasing Hispanic and multiracial share over the past decade. Per-pupil expenditure $13,837 (FY2020). Per-pupil revenue $14,220 — district runs slightly revenue-positive. Capital construction outlay (FY2020): $3.53M — sustained capital investment.

The 2,769-vote loss (60/40 margin) is the largest absolute-vote loss in this 7-brief batch, in the largest-ask operating levy ($18M/year is more annual revenue than Plain Local’s entire bond would have generated). This is not narrowness-of-margin like Plain or Strongsville — Sylvania got cleanly out-voted.

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

Sylvania is the most college-educated community in this batch (51% bachelor’s+, 23% graduate degree). This matters two ways:

• High tax capacity exists. A 7.9-mill levy on a $240K median home runs ~$554/year — substantial in absolute dollars, but absorbable for a $95K-HHI community with 51% college attainment.
• Educated electorates demand more campaign rigor. A district with this demographic profile doesn’t lose on emotion or sticker-shock alone. The 60.33% No vote is informed opposition — voters who heard the case and rejected it. That makes it harder to convert: the campaign delivered its argument, the electorate heard it, and 60% said no.

Per WTOL’s analysis: “The surge in home values over the past several years has played a key role in shaping voter sentiment, as rising values drive up property tax bills, leaving many residents feeling financially stretched.” This is the structural ceiling on Sylvania’s Yes votes — Lucas County home values have appreciated significantly in 2022–2025, raising effective property tax bills before this 7.9-mill ask was even on the ballot.

3. Community context — the 10-year-no-ask anomaly

Sylvania had not put a new operating levy before voters since 2016. Ten years. That’s an unusually long gap for a district its size, and it’s the campaign’s strongest defensive argument: “we have stretched the 2016 dollars for a decade.” But it’s also the attack opposition can run: “what changed? If 2016 dollars worked for ten years, why is the next ask suddenly 7.9 mills (vs the 5.7 mills approved in 2016) — a 39% mill increase on top of the appreciation already in your property tax bill?”

The math: Sylvania asked voters to step up from a 5.7-mill base (2016 passage) to 5.7 + 7.9 = 13.6 mills total school-operating commitment. That’s a 139% increase in school-operating millage in a single ballot ask, in a county where home values have risen 30%+ since 2016. The combined property-tax effective increase the typical Sylvania household would have absorbed (factoring in the appreciation) is closer to 80% over the 2016 baseline. That’s the structural problem the campaign didn’t reframe.

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

Sylvania’s facilities under-investment story is essentially nonexistent at the headline level — the district is at par on plant ops. The bond/levy narrative has to be operating-model specific.

• Plant operations spending: $1,310.58 / pupil vs national median $1,324 — 1% below national median. Sylvania is at par on plant operations. No facility-underspend story to anchor the levy. This is good district stewardship; it’s bad campaign material.
• Per-pupil instruction $7,578 — at peer median.
• Capital construction outlay (FY2020): $3.53M — sustained, comparable to Pickerington ($3.66M). Capital is funded; the operating ask is genuinely about operating costs, not deferred capital.
• Utility/energy $1.48M — $192/student. Reasonable for a 13-building portfolio.
• Counselor ratio 349:1 — best-in-batch among the Lucas County subset; mid-pack overall.
• Chronic absenteeism 13.6% — moderate.
• Suspension rate 4.0% — the lowest in this 7-brief batch. Sylvania’s school-climate metrics are top-decile. The levy doesn’t have a climate-crisis hook.
• Teacher certified 99.7% — flat 100%. Strong staffing quality.
• Bachelor’s+ community share 51% — the community is invested in education at the household level.

Sylvania has the cleanest data of any district in this batch. That is the strategic problem: there is no headline-grabbing gap to defend the 7.9-mill ask. The campaign argument has to be “we have run the district well; we are now at the edge of our 2016 funding model and need the next decade’s resources.” That’s a good-governance argument, which underperforms crisis arguments in tax-fatigue environments.

FMX peer operational benchmarks (live)

Pulled live from fmx_profiles — named FMX-customer peers at ≥0.93 similarity to Sylvania. Sylvania’s top similarity score (Rockford MI at 0.962) is the highest in this 7-brief batch.

Rockford Public Schools (MI) at 96.2% similarity is the highest-similarity peer match in this entire 7-brief batch. 25 buildings, 1.44M sqft, 53.4-year portfolio age, 95.5% work-order resolution — that is the operational benchmark for what a 7,500-student affluent suburban district running on FMX looks like.

Grand Blanc Community Schools (MI) is the best-of-class comparison: 27 buildings, 1.5M sqft, 44.6-year portfolio age, 97.2% resolution, $0.036/sqft cost (top decile efficiency). Grand Blanc is the operational benchmark Sylvania can be measured against.

Elmbrook School District (WI, Brookfield — Milwaukee affluent suburb) at 7,845 enrollment is the demographic peer match: similarly college-educated, similarly affluent. 93.9% resolution.

5. Levy history (Sylvania district + WTOL + Ballotpedia)

• 2016: 5.7-mill operating levy, passed. Raised $7.8M/year (district size was smaller). Last successful operating ask.
• 2018: per Toledo Blade (“Sylvania officials react to failed levy”), there was a failed operating levy attempt in 2018. Outreach team to validate exact ballot via Lucas County BOE.
• 2018–2025: no new operating ask placed before voters.
• Jan 13, 2026: Board of Education placed 7.9-mill operating levy on May 5 ballot.
• May 5, 2026: 7.9-mill CPT levy, failed 39.67% Yes / 60.33% No (2,769-vote margin). First operating ask in ~8 years; first successful-or-failed action since 2018.

Sylvania is in the moderate-failure category — single recent loss on a large ask, in a tax-fatigue environment shared with Springfield (Lucas). Not a repeat-failer like Streetsboro; not a near-miss like Plain or Strongsville. The 60/40 margin says the next ask needs material scope/structure change, not just better messaging.

6. What voters / opposition actually said

• Supt. Veronica Motley (pre-vote, WTOL): “We’re going to our citizens at one of the worst times, when gas is going up, hamburger costs more — everything costs more.” The district named the inflation context before the vote — they knew the timing.
• Motley (post-vote): “While we are disappointed in the outcome of the levy, we recognize that a result like this reflects the voices, perspectives, and realities of our community.” Constructive acknowledgment of the loss — not a defensive “voters were wrong” frame.
• WTOL Lucas County analysis: “The surge in home values over the past several years has played a key role in shaping voter sentiment, as rising values drive up property tax bills, leaving many residents feeling financially stretched.” Same explanation that applies to Springfield (Lucas).
• No named opposition committee in available coverage. The 60% No is a diffuse Lucas County property-tax-fatigue reaction, not an organized opposition campaign.

7. What we could have told them

1. “Grand Blanc Community Schools in Michigan — 7,489 students, 27 buildings, 1.5 million square feet, on FMX — operates at 97.2% work-order resolution and $0.036/sqft cost. That’s the operational benchmark Sylvania can be measured against — and we can publish ours alongside it inside 60 days.” Specific peer benchmark in a community with 51% college attainment that will scrutinize the comparison.
2. “Plant operations spending: $1,311/student vs national median $1,324. We are at par. We are not under-investing. The 7.9 mills isn’t fixing a deferred-maintenance hole — it’s funding what comes next: the operating costs of 7,700 kids, which the 2016 dollars no longer cover. The argument is ‘we ran the 2016 dollars for ten years; here’s how we did it,’ not ‘we need more.’” Reframes the ask from crisis to stewardship-update.
3. “Last operating ask: 2016. Ten years ago. We’ve absorbed a decade of inflation on the 2016 funding base. The 7.9-mill ask isn’t on top of nothing — it’s catch-up for the decade we never asked you to fund.” Single most defensible framing the campaign didn’t lead with.
4. “$554/year on a $240K home is real money. So is the $1,500–$2,000/year your property tax has risen due to home value appreciation since 2016, with zero of that going to schools. The 7.9 mills is the school-system version of that appreciation — and it’s the only way the schools get any of it.” Connects to the home-value-appreciation tax-fatigue argument WTOL identifies as decisive.
5. For the next attempt: scale to 5.7 mills (match 2016 millage), 5-year term. Replace the 7.9-mill CPT ask with a 5.7-mill 5-year ask. The 5.7-mill millage carries the credibility of the 2016 passage. The 5-year term answers the “continuing levy” objection that has surfaced across the May 2026 OH cohort. The lower mill rate is symbolically credible (“same as 2016”) and substantively defensible (“we want to prove we can run for 5 years on this, then re-engage”).
6. Address Motley directly. She is the campaign’s strongest asset. Her post-vote framing — “reflects the voices, perspectives, and realities of our community” — is the right starting point for a Phase 2 engagement. The next ask should be Motley-led with a peer-data artifact, not a board-led tax explainer.

8. FMX outreach hook

Sylvania is a Tier B prospect — large enrollment (7,700) drives meaningful potential ARR, but the absence of a headline facilities-underspend story makes the campaign-artifact value proposition softer than Plain Local or Strongsville. Strengths:

1. Highest single-peer similarity in this 7-brief batch (Rockford MI 0.962) — the cleanest peer-match data.
2. Three named FMX-customer peers at ≥0.93 similarity — Rockford, Grand Blanc, Elmbrook. All publish work-order data inside FMX today.
3. Constructive superintendent — Motley is publicly framing the loss in dialogue-receptive terms, not defensive ones. She’s the right counterpart for a long-cycle conversation.
4. 2,769-vote loss is gettable — wider than Plain (616) or Strongsville (437), but Sylvania has higher tax capacity and a more educated electorate that responds to data-rich arguments.

Weaknesses:

• Sylvania is at par on plant ops ($1,311 vs $1,324 national median, 1% gap). The “we underspend X% on facilities” headline isn’t available.
• The campaign value proposition is peer benchmark + operational transparency, not facilities crisis. That’s a harder sell than Plain’s 31% gap or Southwest’s 43% gap.
• Not currently an FMX customer per the anchor data — this is a new-logo prospect, not an expand play.

Contact unit: Adam Koch (Treasurer/CFO, hired Aug 2022) owns the per-pupil arithmetic and the levy math. He’s relatively new (3.5 years in role) — likely receptive to bringing in new data tooling. Lead with Koch. Motley (Supt, since 2020) is the second contact and the spokesperson.

Opener: “You missed by 2,769 votes — 60/40 — on the largest operating ask in this Ohio cohort, in a community with 51% college attainment and $95K HHI that can absorb 7.9 mills but voted against the term structure. Your highest-similarity FMX peer is Rockford Public Schools (MI, 96.2% similarity, 7,509 students, 25 buildings, 1.44M sqft, 95.5% work-order resolution) — actively publishing operational data inside FMX. Grand Blanc Community Schools (MI, 94% similarity, 97.2% resolution, $0.036/sqft) is the best-of-class benchmark. Your plant-ops spend is essentially at the national median — but voters with 23% graduate-degree share want to see which of your 13 buildings the dollars are going to. We can have a per-building condition + peer-comparison artifact ready ahead of the November 2026 or May 2027 retry, scaled to the 5.7-mill / 5-year structure that matches your 2016 passage.”

The pitch is operational-transparency-for-educated-electorate, not facilities-crisis-defense. Different prospect profile from Plain or Southwest, but credible to a Treasurer who needs to defend the operating budget to a graduate-degree-share electorate.