Pickerington Local Schools has suspended every athletic team below the varsity level and a wide range of other extracurricular activities, a move that took effect Wednesday, Nov. 4, one day after voters narrowly rejected the district’s 0.75% income tax levy. According to The Columbus Dispatch, Superintendent Charles Smialek announced the suspension in a letter to families after unofficial results showed the levy failing by around 250 votes — less than 1% of all ballots cast in the district, which spans Fairfield and Franklin counties. 10TV reported the margin as fewer than 300 votes with all 47 precincts reporting.
The levy would have run for 10 years beginning Jan. 1 and raised about $21 million a year, enough, 10TV reported, to keep the district solvent through fiscal year 2031. Instead, the district now faces a $21 million deficit, according to figures presented to the board and reported by The Columbus Dispatch. Pickerington has had a 1% school income tax since 1991, The Dispatch reported; the new levy would have raised the rate to 1.75%.
The suspension reaches well beyond sports. WOSU reported that the National Honor Society and student council are also among the activities affected, and activities such as musicals and theater productions will continue only through Dec. 31, according to Smialek’s letter as reported by The Columbus Dispatch. Because fall sub-varsity schedules were mostly complete by November, the first teams and programs to feel the freeze are winter sports and offseason training, FootballScoop reported in its account of The Dispatch’s reporting.
Varsity programs were deliberately spared. Smialek told The Columbus Dispatch the district did not touch varsity sports so the move would not damage students holding college scholarship offers. But he also acknowledged the long-term risk to two high schools — Pickerington Central and Pickerington North — known across Ohio for producing championship-level teams. Smialek told The Columbus Dispatch: “You’re not going to field high-quality varsity teams if you don’t have your own feeder system. We don’t want to take that step back and that’s why we’re going to try and make this as short-term as we can.”
Smialek told The Columbus Dispatch the district needed to protect academics in the classroom, that hard decisions needed to be made, and that he views the suspension as a short-term proposition. There is, however, a catch for families weighing their options: because both high schools still offer varsity sports, a new state law that took effect this year means Pickerington students cannot simply go play at a neighboring school, USA TODAY reported in its account of The Dispatch’s coverage.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on
What we know: the levy failed narrowly in unofficial results; the non-varsity suspension is in effect; the district reports a $21 million deficit; and this was Pickerington’s second failed levy in six months. In May, voters rejected a larger 1.25% income tax by 3,379 votes, ABC6 reported, after which the district cut more than $5 million from its budget, including staffing and program reductions and higher athletic fees, according to The Columbus Dispatch. What we are still waiting on: certified election results, a final list of every program affected, and the district’s next levy decision. Smialek told WOSU that early projections call for cutting 24 high school teachers and 17 middle school teachers, though he stressed those are “not final numbers,” as reported by FootballScoop’s summary of WOSU’s reporting.
The human stakes are easy to see in a district of about 11,500 students that recently earned a 4.5-star rating on the state report card, according to The Columbus Dispatch. Junior varsity and freshman teams are where most high school athletes actually play; for hundreds of Pickerington students, the winter season they expected has been replaced by uncertainty, and for middle schoolers the pipeline into those programs is paused as well.
Not everyone is accepting the district’s framing. A Change.org petition started by Pickerington parent Katie Cleary calls for the voluntary resignation of Smialek and all five board of education members, arguing the community has lost confidence in the district’s leadership, financial decision-making and communication around the failed levy. Cleary wrote on the petition page that she will present its findings at the next board of education meeting on Nov. 9.
Smialek told WOSU that affordability was likely the biggest factor at the ballot box, a reading that fits a year in which voters across Ohio weighed school tax requests against household budgets. The district’s own planning documents, as reported by The Columbus Dispatch, warn that even the cuts now in motion are only the first phase: additional staff, class and program reductions, along with higher athletic fees, are projected over two phases in 2027 if new revenue does not arrive.
What happens next: the board of education meets Monday, Nov. 9, where the resignation petition is expected to be presented and where the district’s financial path is likely to dominate discussion. District leaders have said they plan to look at another levy for the May ballot, while cautioning, as FootballScoop reported, that more cuts will come even if it passes. For Pickerington’s sub-varsity athletes, the immediate question is whether any part of the winter season can be salvaged — and that answer starts at Monday’s meeting.