Painesville City Local vs New Castle Community School Corp
OH · 2,744 students • IN · 2,881 students • fiscal year 2024 • swap sides
In one line
- Painesville City Local spends 6% more per student than New Castle Community School Corp after adjusting for local price levels.
- Both direct a similar share of each operating dollar to classrooms.
- New Castle Community School Corp reports fewer students per teacher (11.4 vs 16.9). This is a staffing ratio, not an average class size.
Are these even comparable?
Establish the shape of each district before reading a single dollar figure.
| Painesville City Local | New Castle Community School Corp | |
|---|---|---|
| Students enrolled | 2,744 | 2,881 |
| Schools | 6 | 9 |
| Grades served | PK–12 | PK–12 |
| Setting | Suburb | Town |
| County | Lake County | Henry County |
| State | OH | IN |
| Local price level (US = 100) Above 100 means a dollar buys less here than the national average. | 93.9 | 93.3 |
The headline dollar
Current operating spending per student, shown three ways. The first is what each district reports. The second and third are the honest ones for comparison.
| Painesville City Local | New Castle Community School Corp | |
|---|---|---|
| Per student, as reported | $16,172 | $15,099 |
| Per student, price-adjusted Divided by the local price level, so both figures are in the same money. | $17,218 | $16,179 |
| Per student, price-adjusted, excluding transport Transportation provision varies enormously between districts and states. Removing it compares the parts both districts actually do. | $16,669 | $15,660 |
| Capital spending per student Buildings and land, never folded into the operating figures above. It is lumpy: a district mid-build looks expensive for two years. | Locked | Locked |
Painesville City Local
New Castle Community School Corp
Where the money comes from
The funding mix determines how exposed a district is to local property values, to state politics, and to federal programmes ending.
Painesville City Local
- Local 23.9% Locked
- State 62.5% Locked
- Federal 13.7% Locked
New Castle Community School Corp
- Local 22.4% Locked
- State 59.1% Locked
- Federal 18.4% Locked
| Painesville City Local | New Castle Community School Corp | |
|---|---|---|
| Local share of revenue Mostly property tax. A high share means school budgets track local property values, up and down. | 23.9% | 22.4% |
| State share of revenue | 62.5% | 59.1% |
| Federal share of revenue | 13.7% | 18.4% |
| Total revenue | Locked | Locked |
How OH funds its districts
Fair School Funding Plan: a computed base cost per pupil, shared between state and district by local capacity.
How IN funds its districts
Tuition support: a per-pupil foundation grant with complexity funding, almost entirely state-funded.
Where the money goes
The same slices in the same order for both districts, plus the differences by function — because two pie charts side by side hide exactly the thing you want to see.
Painesville City Local
- Instruction 58.7% Locked
- Instructional staff support 4.8% Locked
- Student support 6.8% Locked
- Operations & maintenance 9.1% Locked
- Transportation 3.2% Locked
- Food service 4.6% Locked
- School administration 5.5% Locked
- District administration 3.8% Locked
- Other support 3.6% Locked
- Other current 4.6% Locked
New Castle Community School Corp
- Instruction 57.4% Locked
- Instructional staff support 5.2% Locked
- Student support 5.4% Locked
- Operations & maintenance 10.3% Locked
- Transportation 3.2% Locked
- Food service 5.2% Locked
- School administration 6.7% Locked
- District administration 2.0% Locked
- Other support 1.7% Locked
- Other current 5.2% Locked
What is actually different
Share of each district's operating dollar, Painesville City Local minus New Castle Community School Corp. Two pie charts side by side are almost impossible to read against each other; this is the same data as one chart.
| Painesville City Local | New Castle Community School Corp | |
|---|---|---|
| Cents of each operating dollar reaching classrooms Instruction plus instructional staff support, as a share of current spending. | 63.5% | 62.6% |
| Administration share District office plus school administration. | 9.2% | 8.8% |
| Transportation share | 3.2% | 3.2% |
What the money buys
Staffing levels are the most direct thing a budget converts into.
| Painesville City Local | New Castle Community School Corp | |
|---|---|---|
| Students per teacher This is a staffing ratio: total enrollment divided by teaching staff. It is NOT average class size. Actual classes are larger than this number in every district. | 16.9 | 11.4 |
| Students per counselor | Locked | Locked |
| Students per administrator | Locked | Locked |
| Total salaries All staff, not teachers alone. | Locked | Locked |
Who they serve
The answer to "but they serve different kids" — which is usually a fair objection.
| Painesville City Local | New Castle Community School Corp | |
|---|---|---|
| Child poverty rate Children aged 5 to 17 in poverty within the district boundary. Used instead of free-lunch eligibility, which community eligibility has made unusable for comparison. | 21.8% | 20.2% |
| English learners | — | — |
| Students with disabilities | — | — |
| Enrollment change, 5 years | -4.8% | -5.4% |
Results, and results for the money
Stability and risk
The homebuyer’s real question: what is likely to change after I move in?
Painesville City Local
No stability flags raised.
New Castle Community School Corp
- Declining enrollment Enrollment fell more than 5% over five years. Enrollment decline is the single best predictor of school closures and programme cuts.
| Painesville City Local | New Castle Community School Corp | |
|---|---|---|
| Enrollment change, 5 years | -4.8% | -5.4% |
| Long-term debt per student | Locked | Locked |
| Debt service share of spending | Locked | Locked |
Enrolling a child
Is a seat at your zoned school guaranteed?
Painesville City Local
We have no such statement from this district — which is not the same as a promise that your zoned school has room. Most districts never publish the policy in either direction. Ask the school office directly whether your address’s school is enrolling at your child’s grade level before you sign anything.
New Castle Community School Corp
We have no such statement from this district — which is not the same as a promise that your zoned school has room. Most districts never publish the policy in either direction. Ask the school office directly whether your address’s school is enrolling at your child’s grade level before you sign anything.
- This is the district’s own published wording, not our summary of it. Policies are rewritten between enrollment seasons and a page can be out of date the day after we read it — the school office is the only authority on whether a particular grade at a particular school is full right now.
- A warning here is about capacity, not about your address. It does not mean your child will be moved; it means the district has told you in writing that it may move them.
Comparability notes
- Cross-state comparison. Dollars below are shown both as reported and adjusted to a common price level, because a dollar buys different amounts of teacher in OH and IN.
- At least one district sits outside a metro area with its own published price index, so its cost adjustment uses the statewide index. That is a coarser adjustment.
What these numbers are, exactly
Who decides, and what it costs you
Every band above this one asks what a district spends. This one asks who chose to.
Painesville City Local
The district levies its own school tax
This district raises property tax in its own name. Who sets the rate varies by state — an elected board in some, a public vote in others — but the levy is the school system’s own, and it is the part of a tax bill that school politics moves most directly.
New Castle Community School Corp
The district levies its own school tax
This district raises property tax in its own name. Who sets the rate varies by state — an elected board in some, a public vote in others — but the levy is the school system’s own, and it is the part of a tax bill that school politics moves most directly.
| Painesville City Local | New Castle Community School Corp | |
|---|---|---|
| School property tax levied, per student Only for districts that levy in their own name. Blank where the county or town levies instead — see the cards above, and read the next row. | $3,346 | $2,292 |
| Appropriated by the county or town, per student What the parent government handed the schools, for dependent systems. This is a general appropriation, not solely property tax. | — | — |
| Property tax as a share of all revenue How much of the budget rides on local property values, and therefore on local votes. | 17.5% | 13.4% |
| Long-term debt already owed, per student The balance at the end of the year, for scale. Repaid over decades, so it is a commitment made by earlier boards rather than a bill arriving now. | Locked | Locked |
| Debt service as a share of spending Interest plus principal repaid this year, against total spending. This is the part of the debt that is being paid now, out of money that would otherwise reach a classroom. | Locked | Locked |
| New long-term debt issued, per student Money borrowed during fiscal year 2024. What this figure does and does not tell you is set out under the table. | $0 | $0 |
- Painesville City Local: issued no new long-term debt in fiscal year 2024. That is a reported zero, not a gap in the data.
- New Castle Community School Corp: issued no new long-term debt in fiscal year 2024. That is a reported zero, not a gap in the data.
- A figure in the borrowing row is not a bond voters approved. It records debt issued, and that includes refinancing existing debt at a new rate — which changes nothing about what a district owes — as well as certificates of participation and lease-revenue debt, which in many states a board can issue with no referendum at all. To find out what was actually on a ballot, check the county election office.
- Debt is repaid over decades. A large balance per student is a commitment made by earlier boards and earlier voters, not a bill arriving this year. The debt service row above it is the part being paid now.
Who sits on the board
Painesville City Local board of education
- Dorothy "Drez" Jennings — President
- Frances Webb — Vice President
- Jessica Sams — Member
- Steve Costell — Member
Read from the district’s own board page on 2026-08-24. Boards change; the district’s page is the current record, not ours.
These seats are elected, and what this board decides — the budget, the attendance boundaries, the calendar — is decided at a meeting the public may attend. The district’s own board page, linked above, is where it publishes the schedule and the agenda. We do not hold meeting dates or contact details for these people.
Funding measures on the ballot
Painesville City Local
We have not read OH’s election results, so this column is empty because of us and not because of Painesville City Local. Whether it has asked its voters for money is a question its county election office can answer and we cannot, yet.
Nobody has read OH’s school election results yet — that is a gap on our side, not a fact about this district. Its county elections office holds what it asked its voters for and what they answered, and that is a public record you can request. What it says is worth asking about at a board meeting.
New Castle Community School Corp
We hold every school funding measure the state of IN published since 2009, and this district appears in none of them.
What this state publishes: School referenda certified by the Department of Local Government Finance, November 2009 to date, from the department's four historic listings. The index states its own empty election periods, so a year with no measure is a year no Indiana school district asked. Indiana publishes the certified outcome and never the vote: no row here carries a yes-share, because the DLGF reviews ballot language and certifies levies and never sees a canvass. The ballot question and the dollar figure come from the determination filed with each referendum, and every determination before 2020 is a scan with no text layer, so most rows before then carry a district, a date, a type and an outcome and no amount.
The detailed figures for Painesville City Local and New Castle Community School Corp
The verdict, the headline dollar, the funding shares, who is served and every comparability caveat are free above, and stay free. What is behind the lock is the detail you would want before acting on any of it:
- capital spending per student
- total revenue and total current spending, and the funding mix in dollars (the percentage shares stay free)
- the ten-line per-student breakdown of where the money goes
- counselor and administrator ratios, and the total salary bill
- the debt behind the risk flags — per student, and as a share of spending
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Compare something else
Painesville City Local on its own · New Castle Community School Corp on its own