Urbana City Schools — OH

1. Snapshot

Rural-Fringe district anchored on the small city of Urbana (Champaign County seat, ~30 miles northwest of Springfield, west-central Ohio). 1,779 students across 3 schools (Urbana ES, JHS, HS). SAIPE poverty 14.7% — the second-highest in this batch, after Waverly. Demographics 83% White / 10% Multiracial (notably high for a small Ohio rural-fringe city) / 3% Black / 3% Hispanic. Per-pupil expenditure $15,221 (FY2020). Student:teacher ratio 16.5:1.

Urbana ran alongside the Champaign County Board of Developmental Disabilities — both levies failed on the same ballot, in the same county, on the same night (per Peak of Ohio and Urbana Daily Citizen). That’s the political signal: this is not a school-specific verdict; this is a county-wide anti-additional-tax verdict. The district had explicitly campaigned that the tax would exclude retirement income — a deliberate carve-out aimed at the senior-vote bloc that drives turnout in small Ohio cities. The carve-out didn’t move the result.

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

This is a lower-income, lower-college-attainment small-city profile — HHI 13% below national, median home value less than half the national, 19.7% college attainment (below state and national). The campaign’s exclude-retirement-income framing was the structurally right move for this voter base — Urbana’s senior population was the bloc most likely to deliver a No. The fact that the carve-out failed to clear 40% Yes suggests the rejection is not principally about retirees; it’s about working-age households at $65K HHI doing the math on a 1% earned-income surcharge ($655/year on the median household) at the same time as Champaign County DD was asking for its additional levy.

The 1.4% non-English-household share + 83% White demographic means messaging-reach is straightforward — there is no language-barrier failure here. This is a “we asked, they thought about it, they said no” outcome — not a comms failure, not an opposition campaign, just a verdict.

3. Peer comparison

Top peers via MCP (default weights + plantOps emphasis). FMX-customer status resolved against the local benchmarking server.

Confirmed FMX customers in top 15 (1): Liberty-Benton Local (OH — 64 miles away in Hancock County, same rural-fringe Ohio profile). Only 1 FMX peer in Urbana’s top set — the thinnest peer match in the seven-district batch. Single-customer outreach: high-leverage if the proof point lands, but no fallback peer.

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

Urbana’s data position is under-spent on plant ops, over-stretched on counseling, climate-distressed — and the campaign didn’t tell that story:

• Plant operations spending: $844.74 / pupil vs national median $1,324 — Urbana spends 36.2% below the national median on facilities upkeep. Translated into Champaign County voter language: “For every student in Urbana schools, we are nearly $480/year cheaper than the national average on the line item voters most associate with school waste. The income tax doesn’t fund expansion; it stops the under-funding.”
• Per-pupil instruction: $8,747 — solidly invested.
• Capital construction outlay (FY2020): $318,000 — minimal. Comparable to Troy and Waverly in the same batch.
• Chronic absenteeism: 27.5% — the second-highest in the seven-district batch (after Waverly’s 39.4%). 1 in 4 Urbana students chronically absent — a climate signal that should have been part of the levy story.
• Suspension rate 17.9%, total expulsions: 0 across 3 schools. Zero expulsions in a district with 18% suspension and 27% chronic absenteeism is a striking discipline-policy choice — worth flagging.
• Counselor ratio district-wide: 445:1 — the highest in the seven-district batch (peer median for similar-size OH districts is closer to 300:1).
• 3 of 3 schools have a nurse. Total nurse FTE: 3.0. Strong relative to the cohort.

FMX peer operational benchmarks (live)

Pulled live from fmxFacilities for Liberty-Benton Local — Urbana’s only FMX peer in the top 15.

Liberty-Benton’s data layer is mostly empty — newly-onboarded FMX customer; the platform has the customer relationship but the work-order/cost/sqft data is still backfilling. Flag for FMX team: validate whether Liberty-Benton can be cited operationally before outbound, or widen the peer cone (next-tier non-FMX peers Birch Run MI and Firelands OH at 93.7-93.9% similarity) for proof points. The single-FMX-peer thinness is Urbana’s outreach handicap.

5. Bond/levy history (web search)

• Oct 2025: District places income-tax measure on May 2026 ballot (per Urbana Daily Citizen)
• May 5, 2026: 1.0% earned-income tax 5-year additional, failed 37.35% Yes — alongside Champaign County DD levy (also failed)
• No prior failed-attempt history surfaces in the available coverage — this appears to be a relatively recent (post-2020) push for income-tax-based operating funding.

6. What voters / opposition actually said

Per Peak of Ohio and Urbana Daily Citizen: levy framed by district leaders as covering day-to-day operations against deficit spending and a projected negative year-end balance “within the next couple of fiscal years.” Pre-vote messaging emphasized the retirement-income carve-out (i.e., signaling protection of seniors).

No organized opposition committee surfaces in coverage. The signal is the Champaign DD levy losing simultaneously — Champaign County voted no on both additional taxes on the same ballot. This is the broader Ohio May 5 pattern (Ideastream: only 24 of 66 levies statewide passed). Urbana is a county-pattern failure, not a district-specific verdict.

7. What we could have told them

1. “We spend $845 per student on plant operations. The national median is $1,324. We’re 36% below the national bar on the line item voters most associate with school waste — and the levy doesn’t fund expansion, it stops the under-funding from getting worse.” The frugality-first framing this campaign never deployed.
2. “27% chronic absenteeism, district-wide. One in four Urbana students is chronically absent. The Champaign DD levy lost the same night — this is a county verdict on additional taxes, not a Urbana-schools verdict. The next ask needs to be tied to a specific reduction in chronic absenteeism — staffing, transportation, climate — that voters can name.”
3. “Counselor ratio: 445 students per counselor. The Ohio peer median for similar-size districts is closer to 300. We are 48% under-staffed on counselors relative to comparable Ohio districts. The income tax would fund counselor positions — but the campaign never named the counselor:student ratio.” Specific, verifiable, ballot-shaped.
4. “Liberty-Benton Local (Hancock County, 64 miles north, same rural-fringe Ohio profile) runs operational dashboards on the FMX platform. The next campaign can publish ours alongside theirs — voters in a 19%-bachelors-plus community are not abstract-policy voters; they want a number they can audit.”
5. “For the next attempt: pair with the Champaign DD ask only if both campaigns share a common messaging frame. Running both as separate-but-simultaneous asks created the perception of a coordinated tax push — and the county voted no on both. Decouple, or co-campaign with one shared narrative.”

8. FMX outreach hook

Urbana has 1 confirmed FMX-customer peer in the top 15 set — the thinnest match in the seven-district batch. Single peer:

• Liberty-Benton Local (OH, 64 mi, enrollment 1,640, 94.6% similarity) (liberty-benton.gofmx.com): 9 buildings tracked. Operational data layer not yet populated — newly-onboarded FMX customer; resolution rate / HVAC / cost-per-sqft / work-order density not yet visible in the snapshot.

Outreach handicap to flag for the AE: Liberty-Benton may not be ready to cite as an operational proof point until the data layer backfills. If outreach goes ahead, lead with the regional rural-fringe Ohio pattern (Birch Run MI 93.9% sim non-FMX, Firelands OH 93.7% sim non-FMX) and frame Liberty-Benton as the customer we’d benchmark you against, not the customer whose dashboard you can audit today.

Opener for the call: “You lost 63-37 on the same night Champaign County DD also lost — that’s a county verdict on additional taxes, not a verdict on Urbana schools. We benchmark you against Liberty-Benton Local up in Hancock County (64 miles, same rural-fringe Ohio profile, same enrollment band) — they’re on FMX. Your $845-per-pupil plant ops spend is 36% below the national median; the next campaign needs to publish that number alongside a peer dashboard voters in a 20%-bachelors-plus community can audit. We can have your portfolio benchmarked inside 60 days, in time for a November 2026 or May 2027 re-ask.”

Lead with Supt. Charles Thiel. The Urbana engagement framing is “12-18 month operational-transparency build for the next ask — and we’ll need to either backfill Liberty-Benton’s data or widen the peer set to land the proof point.” Validate the named FMX peer above against the internal customer list before outbound — this was resolved via the local benchmarking server’s fmx_profiles join.