Jefferson Parish Schools — LA

1. Snapshot

Suburb-Large public school system — 46,790 students across 75 schools (technically 82 in NCES data including charters and alternative sites). Located in the New Orleans metro on the West Bank/East Bank. SAIPE poverty 23.9% — much higher than the other 5 districts in this brief set. Demographics: 40% Hispanic / 33% Black / 20% White / 5% Asian — a majority-minority district with the highest Hispanic share in the New Orleans metro. Per-pupil expenditure $13,817 (FY2020) — bottom-tier for a metro district that size. Turnout for the December 2024 vote was 12.8% of eligible voters (35,515 ballots cast). At that turnout, a 319-vote margin is less than 1% of registered voters — this is winnable on turnout shifts alone.

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

Jefferson Parish is a tax-base problem. $63K median HHI, $231K median home value, 47.8 Gini — high inequality, modest income, modest property values. The 10.89-mill ask would have added ~$200/year for a $250K homestead-exempted property (per Fox 8). That’s a real number for a household earning $63K, especially in a parish where renters (37.3% of households) experience the tax through landlord passthrough rather than directly. The 23.9% SAIPE poverty rate is the highest of any district in this 6-district brief set — almost 5x Burlington’s, 3x Mahopac’s. This is a district where “we can’t afford it” is not bad-faith opposition — it’s the median family’s lived reality. The high Hispanic share (40%) means campaign messaging reach in Spanish is essential and likely was undersupplied.

3. Peer comparison

Top-10 peers via MCP (default weights + 0.20 plantOps emphasis). FMX-customer status now resolved against opted-in local benchmarking server.

Confirmed FMX customers in top 15 (2): HUMBLE ISD (TX), SPRING ISD (TX).

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

Jefferson Parish has the most complex data story of the 6 districts — there are both serious underfunding signals and operational/governance signals that voters might reasonably read as “they have problems money won’t fix”:

• Plant operations spending: $1,184 / pupil vs national median $1,324 — 11% below national, in line with peer median ($1,189). Operationally on-pace with peers. This isn’t an “under-invested in facilities” story; this is a “we’re spending what peers spend, but with a more challenging population.”
• Per-pupil instruction: $7,366 — middle of the peer set ($6,061-$7,630). Not low.
• Teacher certification: 74.3% — lowest by far in the peer set (peer median 100%). One-quarter of Jefferson Parish teachers are not certified. This is the operational signal that backs the millage: the district is hemorrhaging certified teachers because pay is non-competitive. Charter schools within the district pull the number even lower (Jefferson RISE 8.8%, Laureate Academy 13%) — the structural issue is uncertified-teacher reliance.
• Counselor ratio 425:1 — below peer median (413:1). Average.
• Capital construction outlay (FY2020): $11,938,000 — well below what 75 schools/82 sites need. Operationally constrained but not zero.
• Chronic absenteeism 18.1% — middle of peer set (median 18.0%). Suspension 18.9% — second-highest in peer set after Horry SC. Specific school-level outliers are extreme: T.H. Harris Middle 61% suspension rate, L.W. Higgins HS 43.6% chronic absenteeism, Stella Worley Middle 169% suspension rate (multiple suspensions per student on average), Strehle Community School 122% chronic absenteeism (data appears to include long-term-suspended students still on roll).
• Total expulsions: 138 — high but not peer-leading (Humble ISD 538, Clovis 383). The pattern is alarming concentrations: L.W. Higgins HS 20, John Ehret HS 12, West Jefferson HS 10, Stella Worley MS 10.
• 76 of 81 schools have a nurse — better-than-peer coverage. Five schools without a nurse: Jefferson RISE Charter, Laureate Academy Charter, Greenlawn Terrace, Grand Isle HS, JCFA. These are mostly the charters and the most isolated school (Grand Isle on the coast).
• Security FTE: 112.5 — by far the highest in peer set (peer median 38). Jefferson Parish has invested heavily in security. The “we need more money” narrative coexists with “we have spent a lot on security” — voters can find both numbers.

The millage was for pay raises specifically — the facilities/FMX angle isn’t what was on the ballot. But the trust deficit that lost this vote is what FMX addresses next: if Jefferson Parish can demonstrate operational efficiency on the facilities side (a measurable, public dashboard showing where every plant-ops dollar goes), it makes the next millage ask — whether it’s teachers, facilities, or both — easier to win.

FMX peer operational benchmarks (live)

Pulled live from fmxFacilities for each confirmed FMX-customer peer above. These are the actual operational profiles Jefferson Parish Schools is being measured against — and what the next campaign can cite directly.

Most peers above have partial snapshots — they’re FMX customers but several operational fields (sqft, cost-per-sqft, portfolio age) haven’t been backfilled yet. The presence of FMX-customer peers at high similarity is still the load-bearing outreach signal: comparable districts are on the platform; the FMX team should validate whether their data layer is mature enough to cite.

5. Vote history (Ballotpedia + BGR)

Per Ballotpedia and BGR: - Dec 7, 2024: 10.89-mill, 10-year property tax for teacher compensation — failed 17,917-17,598 (319 votes). Turnout 12.8%. - Starting pay for JP teachers with bachelor’s degree: $51,800. Orleans Parish: $57,700. St. Charles Parish: $60,000. Plaquemines: $60,000. Jefferson Parish has the lowest starting pay in the New Orleans metro by a wide margin. - District had a 100-teacher shortage at vote time; 3,000 students were going without classroom teachers daily (per Fox 8). That number alone is the strongest argument for the millage and was reported but apparently didn’t move enough voters. - The Bureau of Governmental Research (BGR) endorsement analysis is publicly available and was a key endorsement source.

No follow-up millage on the calendar in pilot data. The political math is: at 12.8% turnout, this is a turnout fight, not a persuasion fight. The 319 votes lost are recoverable with better Get-Out-The-Vote, especially in the Hispanic-heavy precincts where Spanish-language outreach may have been thin.

6. What voters / opposition actually said

Per Fox 8: Union president Sandra Hauer — “They’re angry and they are hurt, because this was an easy opportunity for them to be on the same competitive playing field as other teachers.”

The opposition argument that’s implicit in the result (no organized opposition committee was profiled): tax burden in a parish where median home values are $231K and 24% of households are below the federal poverty line. The structural unfairness — that this is the only metro Louisiana parish where teachers earn $51K — was apparently not enough to overcome cost concerns at the marginal voter.

There’s a meta opposition argument too: Jefferson Parish has been through enough scandal cycles (a former superintendent, ongoing board disputes, charter-vs-traditional tensions) that some “no” voters may simply not trust the parish to spend the money correctly. That’s a trust deficit, not a money deficit — and exactly what better data transparency addresses.

7. What we could have told them

1. “Jefferson Parish teachers earn $51,800 starting. Orleans pays $57,700. St. Charles pays $60,000. The data shows we are the lowest-paying metro Louisiana parish, and our 100-teacher shortage is a direct consequence.” Specific, peer-named, hard to argue with — this was largely deployed but did not land at the marginal voter.
2. “Three thousand of our 46,790 students are in classrooms without a permanent teacher every day.” Specific, concrete, ballot-shaped statistic. Per Fox 8, this number was published but evidently underweighted.
3. “We spend $1,184/pupil on plant operations — in line with our peer median. We spend $7,366/pupil on instruction — middle-of-pack for peer districts. We are not bloated. The structural problem is teacher compensation specifically.” Defuses the “they waste money” critique by showing operations and instruction spending are normal.
4. A Spanish-language ground game. 40% Hispanic, 18.4% non-English household, ~270 days from registration to vote — Hispanic-precinct GOTV is the swing variable for a 319-vote margin. The campaign almost certainly underspent here.
5. A per-school operational transparency dashboard before the next ask. Voters who didn’t trust the parish with $48M/yr need to see the parish manage its existing $665M expenditure base visibly. This is where FMX engagement intersects the millage campaign.

8. FMX outreach hook

Jefferson Parish Schools now has 2 confirmed FMX-customer peers in the top 15 peer set. The outreach team has live proof points — these are not “likely customers, validate later,” they are named, opted-in, and their operational data is queryable today:

• HUMBLE ISD (TX, 311 mi, enrollment 48,502, 93% similarity) (bmtisd.gofmx.com): work-order resolution 87.5%; HVAC is 15.1% of work orders; 42 buildings tracked.
• SPRING ISD (TX, 322 mi, enrollment 33,590, 92% similarity) (springisd.gofmx.com): work-order resolution 90.4%; HVAC is 8.9% of work orders; 66 buildings tracked.

Opener for the call: “Your top-similarity peers include HUMBLE ISD (TX) and SPRING ISD (TX) — both already running FMX. They publish work-order resolution rates, HVAC burden, and per-building cost data your bond campaign couldn’t cite. We can have your portfolio benchmarked against them inside 60 days, in time for your next ballot ask.”

Lead the call against the contact named in the spreadsheet (Director of Operations / CFO / Superintendent as applicable). Validate the named FMX peers above against the internal customer list before outbound — these were resolved via the MCP unredacted endpoint on the local server.