Streetsboro City Schools — OH
1. Snapshot
Suburb-Large district in Portage County, ~30 minutes east of Akron. 1,905 students across 5 schools (Streetsboro ES, Henry Defer Intermediate, Streetsboro MS, Streetsboro HS, Rocket Digital Academy). SAIPE poverty 8.4% — comfortably below state median. Demographics 63% White / 21% Black / 7% Multiracial / 5% Asian — meaningfully more diverse than the surrounding Portage County mean. Per-pupil expenditure $14,997 (FY2020) — at the median for the OH Suburb-Large cohort.
2. Why this was a hard sell — community context (ACS)
| Metric | Streetsboro | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $77,274 | Modest-to-middle for the region |
| Median home value | $177,800 | Below Cuyahoga inner-ring suburbs |
| Bachelor’s+ | 31.0% | Mid-pack |
| Owner-occupied | 68.6% | High |
| Gini index | 0.400 | Low inequality — homogeneous tax base |
| Non-English household | 3.1% | Effectively English-monolingual |
A resident quoted by The Portager called the ask “tone-deaf” in a community “where many residents earn around $45,000 a year.” The arithmetic supports the perception: 5 mills × $177,800 median home × 35% taxable = ~$311/year — but continuing, with no sunset. In a community where the bottom-quartile household earns under $45K, that’s the structural opposition. Three consecutive defeats in 12 months are not noise.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Woodridge Local | OH | 1,983 | $16,810 | $1,036 | Same county (Summit/Portage line), 10 mi — closest geographic + demographic peer |
| Ravenna City | OH | 1,874 | $16,351 | $1,391 | Same county (Portage), 7 mi — direct neighbor, also redacted in MCP output |
| Niles City | OH | 1,877 | $14,031 | $1,219 | Trumbull Co. peer, also a redacted MCP entry |
| Poland Local | OH | 1,755 | $14,130 | $1,243 | Mahoning Co., redacted in MCP output |
| Columbia CUSD 4 | IL | 1,904 | $14,859 | $1,267 | Tightest enrollment/spending match in dataset |
| Vandalia-Butler City | OH | 2,880 | $15,500 | — | OH Suburb-Large peer (Dayton metro) |
| 3 redacted “Peer District” entries (OH) | Likely FMX customers — outreach team to validate |
4. The gap story (what the data would have shown voters)
This is an operating levy failure, not a capital ask — so the bond playbook of “buildings are failing, look at the plant ops gap” doesn’t carry the same load. What the data does show:
- Plant operations spending: $1,135.89 / pupil vs national median $1,324 — 14% under the median. Mild under-investment. Closest neighbor Ravenna spends $1,391/pp (+22%); Poland $1,243; Niles $1,219. Streetsboro is the lowest plant-ops spender in its same-county peer cluster.
- Capital construction outlay (FY2020): $21,000 district-wide. Effectively zero. With operating funds squeezed, capital is the first thing to disappear — and the bill is compounding.
- Per-pupil instruction $8,114 — middle of the peer band, but flat for years against rising costs. The operating levy is what funds the next teacher contract.
- 17 expulsions district-wide — the highest count among any of the 6-district peer comparison set (peer median: 1.5). Suggests a school-climate issue at MS/HS, where suspensions hit 25.4% (HS 12.5%, MS rate elevated). A levy campaign that ignores this delivers “we need money” without delivering “and here’s what’s at stake when discipline events spike.”
- Counselor ratio 317:1 — better than Ohio average, but the district can’t afford to lose those 5 counselor FTE in the announced cuts.
5. Levy history (Ballotpedia + news)
- 2010: levy renewal (passed)
- 2011: levy renewal (passed)
- May 2025: 5-mill continuing operating levy, failed (>60% No per WKYC)
- Nov 2025: 5-mill continuing operating levy, failed again (>60% No)
- May 2026: scaled up to $5.4M / ~$245 per $100K home, failed a third time per ideastream’s May 6 prewrite
Three failures in 12 months on essentially the same ask. The May 2026 reframe (athletics on the chopping block) didn’t move the needle. This is the same-cycle, same-ask repeat-fail pattern that defeated Vermilion — only worse, because Streetsboro is now into its third try without scaling down.
6. What voters / opposition actually said
The WKYC and Portager pieces capture the actual opposition voice, which most Ohio levy coverage doesn’t:
- “Tone-deaf” framing tied to a $45K-earning resident base.
- Pushback on continuing (vs term-limited) levies — voters object to permanent tax increases more than to 5- or 10-year renewals.
- Frustration with the state funding formula, not the district per se: “We’re at a cycle right now in the state where I think we’re not alone.” — Cynthia Deevers (Spectrum News). The superintendent herself is naming the structural issue, but the campaign hasn’t translated that into a voter-facing argument.
7. What we could have told them (and what’s still on the table for the next ask)
- “Among our closest 4 Ohio peers — Ravenna 7 miles away, Niles, Woodridge, Poland — we spend the least per student on building upkeep. $1,136 vs the others’ $1,036–$1,391, on a national median of $1,324. We’re operating leaner than every comparable district in our region.” The peer-named version of the under-investment story.
- “Capital construction last full reporting year: $21,000 across 5 schools. The state median for districts our size is millions. The operating levy is what frees up dollars for capital; without it, the building stock degrades.” Ties operating ask to the visible facility story.
- “17 expulsions last year — highest in our peer group. Of our 5 schools, the MS posts a 25% suspension rate. If we have to cut 5 counselors and consolidate buildings, those numbers go the wrong direction fast.” School-climate framing — operating dollars aren’t abstract, they’re counselor hours.
- Switch from continuing to 5-year term. Three failures on the same continuing structure. The opposition’s strongest argument is “no sunset”; remove it for the next ask.
- Athletics cuts are leverage, not strategy. The Spectrum News piece reads as the district threatening sports to coerce a Yes vote. That works once. After three failures, voters are calling the bluff. Re-package the next ask around educational risk (counselors, electives, capital) with athletics protected, and the political tone shifts.
8. FMX outreach hook
Streetsboro is a high-fit prospect with an unusual urgency profile: three consecutive levy failures means the next ask is do-or-die, and the district needs evidence-based campaign artifacts they don’t have. The contact unit is tight — Cynthia Deevers (Superintendent) and C.J. Scarcipino (CBO/CFO). No named facilities lead means Scarcipino owns plant ops by default. Lead with Scarcipino: he’s the one defending the per-pupil arithmetic in voter forums.
Opener: “You’re below your four closest Ohio peers on plant-ops spending — Ravenna, Niles, Woodridge, Poland — and your capital outlay last full year was $21K district-wide. Voters keep saying ‘tone-deaf’; what they’re not being shown is per-building condition vs peers and a 5-year capital plan. Ravenna across the county and 3 redacted peers in your closest-match list are likely already running FMX. We can get you the same condition-data and benchmarking layer in 60 days, in time for whatever’s on the November 2026 ballot.”
The redacted “Peer District” cluster in OH (Ravenna 3904468, Niles 3904449, Poland 3904834, and three others) is where the outreach team should validate FMX customer status — those are the named comparisons that would land hardest with Portage County voters.