Keep Our Teachers · Sycamore Community Schools
A parent-led effort
Sycamore Community Schools · Parents

Our teachers, our kids — and a public school worth keeping.

A parent-led effort to defend public education in Sycamore Community Schools — class size, teacher retention, and the November 3 operating levy that keeps it all funded.

§ 01

What's active right now

§ 02

The library

Four pieces of work parents can read, share with neighbors, or quote at the next board meeting. Every figure comes from primary sources — the district's own filings, state law, and peer-reviewed research.

§ Research
The case on class size
Forty years of randomized trials, long-run follow-ups, and replicated studies on K–3 class size — and what they say about classrooms of 26 versus classrooms of 18.
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§ Finance
How the budget grew $51M
A five-act fiscal history of Sycamore — the 2016 levy stretched past its term, the $58M reserve drawn to zero, the 2019 bond's hidden operating tail, and why a single teacher position became a flashpoint.
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§ State Policy
Ohio's funding crisis
Fifty years of state-level decisions — HB 920, DeRolph, the Fair School Funding Plan, vouchers, the HB 96 freeze — that set every Ohio district up for the squeeze Sycamore is feeling now.
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§ Comparison
Class size in all 50 states
A primary-source table of every state's K–3 class-size statute. Only fourteen states impose a true per-classroom cap. Ohio is not one of them — and the difference is doing real work in our buildings.
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§ Data · National
The U.S. funding landscape
Four charts on how America funds K-12: the per-pupil real-dollar trend, the federal/state/local mix, the 50-state ranking (NY $34.5k vs ID $11.0k — a 3-to-1 ratio), and the ESSER COVID-relief surge. Built from 33 years of NCES district-level data.
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§ Data · Ohio
How Ohio funds its schools
Six charts drawn from 19,000+ Ohio district-years. Ohio is structurally more local-funded than the U.S. average — and the gap has widened ten points since 1989. The companion to the Ohio policy page, with the underlying numbers.
Read →
§ 03

What you can do

Showing up at the meeting matters. Showing up between meetings matters more. Five things any parent can do this month, in roughly the order of impact.

  1. Vote yes on November 3.
    If you're not registered, or you've moved, fix it now — Hamilton County Board of Elections. The deadline to register for the November election is October 5, 2026.
  2. Talk to one neighbor this week.
    A levy doesn't pass on a website. It passes when parents talk to other parents, and when grandparents talk to neighbors who don't have kids in the schools anymore. Forward levy.html with one sentence about why you care.
  3. Email the school board.
    Board members read constituent email — especially the ones who write back. Names, bios, and contact info: Sycamore Board of Education.
  4. Show up to a board meeting.
    Next regular meeting: May 27, 2026 · 6:00 PM · Kenwood Learning Commons. Work session May 13 at the same time and location. Public comment opens at every regular meeting. Even sitting in the audience signals that parents are watching — full calendar.
  5. Sign up for updates.
    Email [email protected] with "sign me up" in the subject line. We send a short update before every board meeting and when there's something new in the library — never more than once a month otherwise.
§ 04

About this site

Keep Our Teachers is run by parents in the Sycamore Community Schools district. We are not affiliated with the district administration, the Sycamore Education Association, or any political committee. Everything published here is sourced from primary documents — the district's five-year forecasts, the certified salary schedule, Ohio Revised Code, and peer-reviewed research — all of it linked.

If you find an error, we want to know. Email [email protected] and we'll correct it and credit you.

Why this site exists
The teachers our children learn from are worth keeping — and keeping them is a thing the rest of us have to choose to do.