Elyria City Schools — OH
1. Snapshot
Suburb-Midsize district seat of Lorain County. 5,702 students across 10 schools — Elyria HS, three middle schools (Eastern Heights, Northwood, Westwood), six elementaries, plus an Early Childhood Center. SAIPE poverty 22.7% — the highest of any district in this 7-district set. Demographics 45% White / 19% Multiracial / 18% Hispanic / 18% Black — the most diverse district on your list. Per-pupil expenditure $25,017 (FY2020) — sounds high but is inflated by federal/state revenue making up 62% of total funds; local share is only 38% versus 75–80% in most peer districts.
2. Why this was a hard sell — community context (ACS)
| Metric | Elyria | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $50,124 | Lowest of any district on this list except Madison-Mansfield |
| Median home value | $128,200 | Below state median; lowest among the 7 |
| Bachelor’s+ | 14.6% | Lowest in cohort — half the state rate |
| Owner-occupied | 57.9% | Lower than neighbors (renters are a third) |
| Gini index | 0.433 | Moderate inequality |
| Non-English household | 5.5% | Notable Spanish-speaking population |
This is a lower-income, lower-college-attainment, higher-renter community — and a third of households don’t pay property tax directly. That’s the politics of the Elyria ask in one sentence: half the voters don’t see the levy on their tax bill, but the half who own homes are renters’ landlords being asked to absorb the cost. 4.9 mills on a $128K median home × 35% taxable = ~$220/yr. Not enormous, but it’s been 15 years since voters last said yes to new money, and the people being asked are the lowest-income, lowest-education base in the 7-district set.
3. Peer comparison
Top peers identified via MCP (enrollment 0.18, poverty 0.15, perPupilExp 0.15, locale 0.12, demographics 0.10, staffing 0.10, plantOps 0.20):
| Peer district | State | Enrollment | Per-pupil | Plant ops/pp | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leominster | MA | 6,193 | $17,459 | $1,138 | Highest similarity score; same locale type, same-poverty cohort |
| Central York SD (PA) | PA | 5,535 | $16,658 | $1,017 | Redacted in MCP, ~300 mi |
| Van Buren SD | AR | 5,703 | $12,494 | $1,187 | Same enrollment, similar poverty |
| Yelm | WA | 5,671 | $25,384 | $1,152 | Per-pupil twin, very different locale |
| Evanston CCSD 65 | IL | 6,136 | $23,868 | $1,352 | Spending peer, much wealthier community |
| Arlington SD | WA | 5,588 | $16,396 | — | Suburb-Midsize peer |
| Brainerd Public | MN | 6,079 | $26,114 | — | Northern Minnesota Town-Remote |
| 3 redacted “Peer District” entries (PA, MI, MI) | Likely FMX customers — outreach team to validate |
4. The gap story (what the data would have shown voters)
- Plant operations spending: $1,094.03 / pupil vs national median $1,324 — 17% under the median. Among same-state OH peers and across the broader 6-district comparison set (peer median $1,145), Elyria is at the bottom: $1,094 vs Yelm $1,152, Leominster $1,138, Central York $1,017, Van Buren $1,187.
- Capital construction outlay (FY2020): $43.1M — Elyria is the outlier in the opposite direction. They were spending heavily on capital construction in 2020 (driven by a 2017 bond that built/renovated three buildings — Eastern Heights Middle, Westwood Elementary, et al.). The story isn’t “we’ve neglected buildings”; it’s “we built them and now can’t afford to operate them.”
- Per-pupil instruction $9,096 — middle of the peer band ($6,380–$12,755). Defensible but not generous.
- 151 expulsions district-wide — far and away the highest count in the peer set (peer median: 3, range 0–151). Concentrated at Eastern Heights MS (76 expulsions in one building), where chronic absenteeism is 47% and suspension is 38%. This is the unspoken second-issue in the Elyria story — and the place where “we need a levy” runs into “fix discipline first” voter pushback.
- Hamilton Elementary chronic absenteeism: 47.6%. Eastern Heights MS: 47.2%. Westwood MS: 39.8%. Three of ten buildings have chronic absenteeism worse than 1-in-3 students. Building condition correlates with attendance; without operating funds for nurses, counselors, and climate staff, this only gets worse.
- 8.5 security FTE district-wide — high for the peer set, reflecting the disciplinary load. Cuts here drop where the schools are visibly struggling.
5. Levy history (Ballotpedia + news)
- 2010: New operating levy, passed (the last one)
- 2012: Emergency Requirements Tax Levy Increase Question — Ballotpedia has an entry, indicating an attempt (result not captured)
- 2017: Capital bond, passed — funded the building program that drove the FY2020 $43M capital outlay
- May 2025: 4.9-mill emergency operating levy, failed (1st attempt of cycle)
- Nov 2025: 4.9-mill emergency operating levy (Issue 17), failed again — 4,552 No / ~3,652 Yes (~900-vote margin)
Fifteen-year drought on new operating money. District passed the buildings, can’t pass the operations.
6. What voters / opposition actually said
Cleveland 19 and WKYC coverage carry the official “we’ll discuss cuts” framing but no organized opposition quotes. The financial forecast — out of cash by FY2029 — is the load-bearing fact. With a 900-vote margin, this is a close-but-not-passing campaign that lost on turnout and intensity, not on landslide opposition. Yes-voters underperformed; No-voters were energized. The 15-year gap means an entire generation of taxpayers has never voted for an Elyria levy and didn’t have a habit of saying yes.
7. What we could have told them
- “We built three new schools with the 2017 bond — voters said yes. Now the buildings need staff. The operating levy is what makes the bond worth the money you already approved.” Ties the capital success to the operating ask and inoculates against “we keep asking for money” fatigue.
- “Eastern Heights MS had 76 expulsions and 47% chronic absenteeism last year. That’s the school the next round of cuts hits hardest — security, counselors, climate staff. Without the levy, the building that already needs the most help loses the support.” Specific, school-named, hard to dismiss.
- “$1,094 per student to operate our buildings. National peers spend $1,324. Leominster MA, our closest demographic match, spends $1,138. We are not over-spending.” The peer comparison the campaign didn’t make.
- Three of our ten buildings have chronic absenteeism over 35%. Pair the building list with the financial ask.
- “15 years without a new operating levy is the longest dry spell in any Lorain County district. State funding hasn’t filled the gap — we’re $6.4M short, projected to zero out by FY29. The May 2026 ask is a 3rd attempt; we need it down to 4 mills or split into two questions.” Honesty about the campaign-design problem.
8. FMX outreach hook
Elyria is a complex prospect: they already have a recent capital story (2017 bond, new buildings as of FY2020), so the under-invested-buildings narrative doesn’t fully fit. The pitch shifts to operating efficiency and condition-data continuity — they’ve invested in new plant; they need to defend that investment with maintenance data when the next operating ask hits the ballot.
Contact unit is clear: Ann Schloss (Superintendent), Colleen Aholt (Treasurer), Brian Kokai (Director of Operations). Lead with Brian Kokai — he’s the named operations head, and unlike most districts on this list, Elyria has a recent capital investment to protect. That’s the right entry point.
Opener: “You passed a $43M capital build in 2017 and your buildings show it — but now the operating levy is failing on a 15-year drought. The story your voters need is ‘we built it well and we’re maintaining it efficiently,’ backed by per-building condition scores and work-order data. Three of your top-15 peers (PA, MI, MI in our matching engine) are likely already running FMX. We can have your portfolio benchmarked against Leominster MA and the closest OH peers in 60 days, in time for whatever’s on the May 2026 ballot before the FY29 cash-out date.”