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South-Western City
3.5 of 5 stars overall · Ohio School Report Card 2025-26South-Western City’s school levies cost a home about $785 a year for every $100,000 of its value. Its pupils’ test scores rank 492nd of Ohio’s 607 districts, and in 2024-25 it spent $16,173 per student to run its schools, under the Ohio average of $17,609. All three are the state’s own figures: the Department of Taxation’s certified tax rates, the School Report Card and the District Profile Report.
Its homes are in Grove City, Harrisburg, Jackson Township, Urbancrest, Franklin Township, Pleasant Township, Prairie Township, Columbus and Darby Township.
What South-Western City’s school levies cost a home
$785 a year for every $100,000 of a home’s value, tax year 2025
That is South-Western City’s part of the property tax bill on a home its owner lives in: 22.42 mills, after House Bill 920’s reduction and the state’s rollback credits. A home the county values at $200,000 pays about $1,570 a year for its schools; at $300,000, about $2,354.
About $148 of every $785 pays for buildings, equipment and the loans for them — its bond and permanent-improvement levies. The rest is day-to-day money.
Its day-to-day levies stand at 20.79 mills on the state’s 2025 rates, above Ohio’s 20-mill floor, so when the county revalues homes their rate is cut and they collect the same dollars.
A home’s value here is the county’s value for it, not a sale price. The homestead exemption, for owners 65 and over or disabled, lowers it more. The county’s, your city’s or township’s and any library levies are on the same bill on top of this: check your own bill for all of it, or see every levy behind this figure.
Homeowners 65 and over in the South-Western City school district
29% of the homes their owners live in, in the South-Western City school district, belong to someone 65 or older — about 10,000 homes, give or take 2 points.
Franklin County: 28% · Ohio: 33%
Owners who are 65 or older, or disabled, can claim Ohio’s homestead exemption, which takes part of a home’s value off the bill; most must have an income under the state’s limit. From the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, 2020–2024 five-year estimates (table B25007, owner-occupied homes by the age of the householder). A survey, so every figure has a margin of error.
2Home values
What homes are worth against what they are taxed on
What homes in South-Western City are worth, and what they’re taxed on
Since January 2009, homes in the zip codes that make up South-Western City have risen 120% in value. The district’s taxable value of homes and farms rose 96% — not smoothly, but in steps each time values are reset — and inflation 60%.
How much each has risen since 2009
What homes are worth: Zillow’s typical home value in the district’s zip codes, monthly. What they are taxed on: the district’s taxable value of homes and farms, which moves when values are reset. Inflation: U.S. consumer prices.
- What homes are worth+120%
- What they are taxed on+96%
- Inflation+60%
| Tax year | Taxable value | Change | Values reset |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | $3.59B | 0% | |
| 2024 | $3.58B | +1% | |
| 2023 | $3.53B | +52% | Reappraisal |
| 2022 | $2.33B | +4% | |
| 2021 | $2.24B | +1% | |
| 2020 | $2.22B | +21% | Update |
| 2019 | $1.84B | +1% | |
| 2018 | $1.83B | +1% | |
| 2017 | $1.82B | +13% | Reappraisal |
| 2016 | $1.61B | 0% |
Swipe sideways for more columns.
Taxable value is 35% of what the county appraises, for the district’s homes and farmland, so it also grows as new homes are built. Zillow publishes home values by zip code, not school district, so this follows the zip codes that make up the district, each counted by how much of it lies inside; a month in which one zip’s figure jumps by more than any market moves is left out. Values reset every three years, alternating a full reappraisal and an update, on Franklin County’s schedule. Sources: the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce’s District Profile Report and the Department of Taxation’s abstracts, Zillow’s Home Value Index and U.S. consumer prices (CPI-U).
3Levies & the ballot
Every levy collected here, and what is on the ballot
Every South-Western City levy still on the bill
These are the school district’s own levies. Anything else on the same bill — the county’s, your city’s, village’s or township’s, and any library, park or career-centre levy — belongs to someone else and is not in this list.
14 school levies approved by voters are still on South-Western City tax bills. The most recent was first approved in 2018, and the oldest in 1976 or earlier — the state’s records do not say which year, and why is below. Together they are 19.05 mills on a home its owner lives in, after House Bill 920’s reduction and after the state’s rollback credits — which is what is actually charged, not what the ballot said.
South-Western City crosses into Pickaway County. These are the rates on a bill in Franklin County, where most of its home and farm value is. Each county applies its own reduction, and a bill across the line carries the same levies at 19.05 mills in Pickaway County.
| First approved | Purpose | Mills on a home | Share of the district’s rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Bond repayment $93,400,000 borrowed | 1.510 | 6.7% |
| 2012 | Bond repayment $148,000,000 borrowed | 1.409 | 6.3% |
| 2009 | Current expense | 3.149 | 14.0% |
| 2005 | Current expense | 3.277 | 14.6% |
| 2005 | Permanent improvement | 0.851 | 3.8% |
| 1998 | Bond repayment $128,000,000 borrowed | 0.464 | 2.1% |
| 1994 | Current expense | 2.550 | 11.4% |
| 1988 | Current expense | 2.221 | 9.9% |
| 1977 | Current expense | 1.022 | 4.6% |
| 1976 or earlier | Current expense | 1.035 | 4.6% |
| 1976 or earlier | Current expense | 0.491 | 2.2% |
| 1976 or earlier | Current expense | 0.425 | 1.9% |
| 1976 or earlier | Current expense | 0.372 | 1.7% |
| 1976 or earlier | Current expense | 0.279 | 1.2% |
| Never | Inside millage — no vote was ever taken on it | 3.369 | 15.0% |
| All | The district’s school rate | 22.422 | 100% |
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1 of them cost you more than the rate says
Ohio stopped paying the 10% and 2.5% rollback credits on new levies approved from the November 2013 ballot onward; renewals and substitute levies for older ones keep them. So 1.51 of these 22.42 mills arrive at full price, and the same millage on an older levy would cost a homeowner about an eighth less. The state’s rate file marks which levies qualify, and that mark is what this counts.
What these purposes mean
Current expense is the day-to-day money — salaries, heat, buses — and it is most of any district’s rate. Emergency and substitute levies are also day-to-day money, written to raise a fixed number of dollars a year rather than a fixed rate. Permanent improvement pays for buildings and equipment and may not be spent on salaries. Bond repayment is paying back money already borrowed, usually for a building, and it ends when the borrowing does. Classroom facilities is the state’s school-building programme, where the state pays a share and the district votes the rest.
Why some of them say “1976 or earlier”
House Bill 920 — the law that stops a levy collecting more money when values rise — took effect in 1976, so that is the first year the state tracks a reduction for. Everything voted before it is filed under 1976 and the certified records do not say which year it actually was. Statewide, 610 of Ohio’s 611 school districts have at least one, and here they are 2.60 of these 22.42 mills. So the honest reading of that row is “half a century ago at least”, not “1976”.
Tax year 2025, from the Department of Taxation’s certified rates: the school levies on one real bill, in the taxing district holding the most of this district’s home and farm value. The year is the one the state files each levy under, which is when it was first approved: a levy voters have since renewed keeps its original year, and an incremental levy’s later steps are shown with the vote they belong to. Each purpose is the state’s own, spelled one way — the certified file files “current expense” under eight different spellings. Inside millage is the up-to-ten mills a government may levy with no vote, and it is the part House Bill 920 does not hold down. Why a bill rises when a value does explains the rest.
South-Western City Schools on the November 3, 2026 ballot
South-Western City Schools has no tax issue on this ballot, on the Ohio Secretary of State’s list of local questions and issues as of September 18, 2026.
4Schools
Scores, spending and budgets
Test scoresSpendingSuperintendent payBudgetThe Report Card's figuresWhere the money comes from
South-Western City’s test scores: 492nd of 607 districts
Ohio’s Performance Index scores every district on its pupils’ state tests, from 0 to 120. In 2025-26 South-Western City scored 79.3: 492nd of Ohio’s 607 school districts, in the 80–90% band from the top. The state rates that achievement 3 of 5 stars, and its Progress — how much pupils grew compared with what their own earlier scores predicted — 4 of 5.
These are test scores, and test scores follow family income closely; Progress follows it much less. On the state’s own list, which also ranks community and STEM schools, South-Western City is 547th of 871.
| Year sorted descending, activate to sort ascending | Overall activate to sort by Overall | Score activate to sort by Score | Rank activate to sort by Rank | Achievement activate to sort by Achievement | Progress activate to sort by Progress |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-26 | 79.3 | 492 of 607 80–90% |
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| 2024-25 | 78.5 | 508 of 607 80–90% |
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| 2023-24 | 76.3 | 518 of 607 80–90% |
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| 2022-23 | 76.8 | 524 of 607 80–90% |
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| 2021-22 | — | 76.4 | 492 of 607 80–90% |
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Its schools, 2025-26
Of its 30 schools on the state’s list, Hayes Intermediate School has the highest test scores: 100.7 on the Performance Index, 410th of Ohio’s 2,933 ranked schools.
| School activate to sort by School | Overall activate to sort by Overall | Grades activate to sort by Grades | Score activate to sort by Score | Rank sorted descending, activate to sort ascending | Achievement activate to sort by Achievement |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Hayes Intermediate SchoolElementary School, grades 5-6. Each school year: its Performance Index, its place among Ohio’s ranked schools, and its stars overall.
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5-6 | 100.7 | 410 of 2933 10–20% |
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Buckeye Woods Elementary SchoolElementary School, grades K-4. Each school year: its Performance Index, its place among Ohio’s ranked schools, and its stars overall.
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K-4 | 100.6 | 423 of 2933 10–20% |
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JC Sommer Elementary SchoolElementary School, grades K-4. Each school year: its Performance Index, its place among Ohio’s ranked schools, and its stars overall.
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K-4 | 94.4 | 870 of 2933 20–30% |
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Jackson Middle SchoolMiddle School, grades 7-8. Each school year: its Performance Index, its place among Ohio’s ranked schools, and its stars overall.
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7-8 | 94.2 | 891 of 2933 30–40% |
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Monterey Elementary SchoolElementary School, grades K-4. Each school year: its Performance Index, its place among Ohio’s ranked schools, and its stars overall.
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K-4 | 92.3 | 1040 of 2933 30–40% |
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Grove City High SchoolHigh School, grades 9-12. Each school year: its Performance Index, its place among Ohio’s ranked schools, and its stars overall.
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9-12 | 91.5 | 1106 of 2933 30–40% |
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Park Street Intermediate SchoolElementary School, grades 5-6. Each school year: its Performance Index, its place among Ohio’s ranked schools, and its stars overall.
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5-6 | 86.5 | 1542 of 2933 50–60% |
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Richard Avenue Elementary SchoolElementary School, grades K-4. Each school year: its Performance Index, its place among Ohio’s ranked schools, and its stars overall.
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K-4 | 86.0 | 1589 of 2933 50–60% |
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Highland Park Elementary SchoolElementary School, grades K-4. Each school year: its Performance Index, its place among Ohio’s ranked schools, and its stars overall.
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K-4 | 85.2 | 1648 of 2933 50–60% |
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Darbydale Elementary SchoolElementary School, grades H,K,1-4. Each school year: its Performance Index, its place among Ohio’s ranked schools, and its stars overall.
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H,K,1-4 | 85.2 | 1650 of 2933 50–60% |
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Central Crossing High SchoolHigh School, grades 9-12. Each school year: its Performance Index, its place among Ohio’s ranked schools, and its stars overall.
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9-12 | 83.2 | 1787 of 2933 60–70% |
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James A Harmon Elementary SchoolElementary School, grades K-4,P. Each school year: its Performance Index, its place among Ohio’s ranked schools, and its stars overall.
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K-4,P | 83.2 | 1788 of 2933 60–70% |
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Darby Woods Elementary SchoolElementary School, grades K-4. Each school year: its Performance Index, its place among Ohio’s ranked schools, and its stars overall.
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K-4 | 80.9 | 1947 of 2933 60–70% |
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Finland Elementary SchoolElementary School, grades K-4,P. Each school year: its Performance Index, its place among Ohio’s ranked schools, and its stars overall.
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K-4,P | 77.1 | 2167 of 2933 70–80% |
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Beulah Park Middle SchoolMiddle School, grades 7-8. Each school year: its Performance Index, its place among Ohio’s ranked schools, and its stars overall.
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7-8 | 76.9 | 2174 of 2933 70–80% |
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Pleasant View Middle SchoolMiddle School, grades 7-8. Each school year: its Performance Index, its place among Ohio’s ranked schools, and its stars overall.
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7-8 | 76.9 | 2178 of 2933 70–80% |
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Franklin Heights High SchoolHigh School, grades 9-12. Each school year: its Performance Index, its place among Ohio’s ranked schools, and its stars overall.
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9-12 | 75.8 | 2229 of 2933 70–80% |
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Alton Hall Elementary SchoolElementary School, grades K-4,P. Each school year: its Performance Index, its place among Ohio’s ranked schools, and its stars overall.
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K-4,P | 75.4 | 2242 of 2933 70–80% |
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Galloway Ridge Intermediate SchoolElementary School, grades 5-6. Each school year: its Performance Index, its place among Ohio’s ranked schools, and its stars overall.
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5-6 | 74.5 | 2273 of 2933 70–80% |
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Westland High SchoolHigh School, grades 9-12. Each school year: its Performance Index, its place among Ohio’s ranked schools, and its stars overall.
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9-12 | 74.1 | 2285 of 2933 70–80% |
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Prairie Norton Elementary SchoolElementary School, grades K-4,P. Each school year: its Performance Index, its place among Ohio’s ranked schools, and its stars overall.
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K-4,P | 73.4 | 2302 of 2933 70–80% |
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Holt Crossing Intermediate SchoolElementary School, grades 5-6. Each school year: its Performance Index, its place among Ohio’s ranked schools, and its stars overall.
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5-6 | 73.1 | 2319 of 2933 70–80% |
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Finland Middle SchoolMiddle School, grades 7-8. Each school year: its Performance Index, its place among Ohio’s ranked schools, and its stars overall.
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7-8 | 72.3 | 2340 of 2933 70–80% |
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West Franklin Elementary SchoolElementary School, grades K-4. Each school year: its Performance Index, its place among Ohio’s ranked schools, and its stars overall.
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K-4 | 71.8 | 2355 of 2933 80–90% |
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Bolton Crossing ElementaryElementary School, grades K-4,P. Each school year: its Performance Index, its place among Ohio’s ranked schools, and its stars overall.
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K-4,P | 69.1 | 2434 of 2933 80–90% |
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Franklin Woods Intermediate SchoolElementary School, grades 5-6. Each school year: its Performance Index, its place among Ohio’s ranked schools, and its stars overall.
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5-6 | 67.9 | 2468 of 2933 80–90% |
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Prairie Lincoln Elementary SchoolElementary School, grades K-4. Each school year: its Performance Index, its place among Ohio’s ranked schools, and its stars overall.
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K-4 | 65.9 | 2519 of 2933 80–90% |
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Norton Middle SchoolMiddle School, grades 7-8. Each school year: its Performance Index, its place among Ohio’s ranked schools, and its stars overall.
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7-8 | 61.4 | 2611 of 2933 80–90% |
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East Franklin Elementary SchoolElementary School, grades K-4,P. Each school year: its Performance Index, its place among Ohio’s ranked schools, and its stars overall.
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K-4,P | 60.6 | 2627 of 2933 80–90% |
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Stiles Elementary SchoolElementary School, grades K-4,P. Each school year: its Performance Index, its place among Ohio’s ranked schools, and its stars overall.
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K-4,P | 60.3 | 2633 of 2933 80–90% |
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Ohio Department of Education and Workforce, Performance Index and Value-Added rankings and the Report Card’s overall and component ratings, School Report Card downloads. Ranked here among the traditional districts (and their schools); a tie shares a rank. Every district and county.
What South-Western City spends per student
In 2024-25, South-Western City spent $16,173 per student to run its schools. That pays for teachers, buses, utilities and supplies for its 21,175 enrolled students; the cost of building schools and paying off their loans isn’t included. 59% of it went to teaching, compared with 57% statewide. The figures are the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce’s District Profile Report.
It had the equivalent of 1,445 full-time teachers that year, 14.7 students for each, against 14.2 across Ohio.
The state’s School Report Card shows $11,248 for the same money, because it divides by weighted pupils: why the two differ.
Ohio overall: 57%
Ohio overall: 10%
Ohio overall: 111
Ohio overall: 14
What each South-Western City student’s $16,173 pays for
Where it went in 2024-25, in the state’s own categories, with its building category split into running buildings, buses and school meals. They add to the $16,173 per student to the dollar, because they are the state’s own split of it.
- Teaching$9,617 per student 59%
- Administration$1,746 per student 11%
- Buses$1,128 per student 7%
- Pupil support$1,125 per student 7%
- Running buildings$1,111 per student 7%
- Staff support$846 per student 5%
- School meals$600 per student 4%
Administration is the state’s category and it includes every building principal’s office, not only the board and the central office, as the state’s Expenditure Flow Model handbook sets out.
How that share has moved
The teaching share for this district, every year we hold, drawn as one line per set of the department’s definitions. The gaps are deliberate: the categories were re-cut in FY2013 and the pupil count changed in FY2022, so a line across either would draw a definition as a decision this district made.
Share of South-Western City’s spending that goes to teaching
Ohio District Profile Reports for this district, as published. One district’s single year can move several points and come back — a building project, a grant, a year a category was filed differently — so read the run rather than the point. FY2014’s revenue figures are a known bad workbook statewide; its spending figures, which are what this chart draws, are not affected.
- FY22–FY2559.47%
- FY13–FY2163.94%
- FY10–FY1256.93%
What South-Western City pays its superintendent
In 2024-25, South-Western City paid its superintendent $265,000, typical for a district of its size: the middle half of the 12 districts with 10,000 or more pupils paid $214,978 to $267,400. With what a contract usually adds, the retirement pickup, an annuity and allowances, that comes to about $320,000. The salary is 3.2 times its average teacher’s, $83,050; in Ohio’s middle district it is 2.0.
Its treasurer, who keeps the district’s books, was paid $142,034, the average yearly rate of those who held a post that changed hands.
From 2005-06 to 2024-25, its superintendent’s salary went from $148,506 to $265,000: +78%, against +43% for Ohio’s middle district and +60% for prices.
South-Western City’s superintendent, 2005-06 to 2024-25
Salaries as paid in each year, one person in the post all year. A step is often a new superintendent.
- This district$265,000
- Ohio's middle district$135,594
The state’s figures; the package is our estimate. Every district in Franklin County, and how the estimate is made →
South-Western City’s budget forecast
What the district itself forecasts, in the budget it files with the state — the Fiscal Year 2027 First Required Forecast (Fall).
- Cash, June 30, 2026
- $127.3M
- Runs short
- FY2029
- New levy in the forecast
- None
4.4 months of that year’s spending
on its own forecast, if its levies are renewed and no new one passes
it counts no levy voters have not approved
The full budget: cash, unencumbered and unreserved balances, and every line of the forecast →
South-Western City’s own notes and assumptions for this forecast (PDF) →
Why the state’s Report Card shows different numbers
Ohio publishes two sets of school spending figures, and both are the state’s own. This page uses the District Profile Report: day-to-day spending divided by the pupils actually enrolled. South-Western City’s School Report Card works it out differently:
- Its per-pupil figure is lower. It divides by weighted pupils (Financial Data Technical Documentation): students with disabilities, economically disadvantaged students and English learners count as more than one pupil. In 2024-25 South-Western City spent $342,462,100 on day-to-day costs. This page divides that by the 21,175 pupils enrolled: $16,173. The Report Card divides the same money by 30,446 weighted pupils: $11,248. Its newest edition may be for a later year than this page.
- Its classroom share is higher. Its “classroom instruction” adds pupil support (counselling, nurses, psychologists) and staff training to teaching. Counted that way, this page’s figures come to 72% here.
Where South-Western City’s money comes from
2024-25: every dollar that came in, from every source — $16,470 a student — and who it came from. It is not all spent on running the schools in the same year, so it does not match the spending above.
| Source | Total | Per student | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Local taxes | $124.1M | $5,859 | 36% |
| The state | $165.8M | $7,831 | 48% |
| Washington | $31.3M | $1,478 | 9% |
| Fees, tuition and interest | $27.6M | $1,302 | 8% |
| All of it | $348.8M | $16,470 | 100% |
Swipe sideways for more columns.
Where the money comes from is the state’s split, by the accounting code each district files it under. A district’s bookkeeping can put local money, such as payments from development (TIF) districts, in another column.
Property tax billed for tax year 2024, on every kind of property in the district (the career-tech district’s levies aside): $6,329 a pupil — of which the state pays $566 as rollback and homestead credits, and owners pay the rest. It is not a slice of the local line above: that line is money received in the 2025 school year, the two cover different years, and not every bill is paid.
Taxable value behind it: $234,249 a pupil, so each mill of tax raises about $234 a pupil. Where the state’s share comes from, including the lottery.
The rest of Franklin County
Every district with homes in the county, largest presence first. South-Western City is one of 22.
Columbus City Schools District · Hilliard City · Dublin City · Upper Arlington City · Worthington City · Westerville City · Gahanna-Jefferson City · New Albany-Plain Local · Groveport Madison Local · Bexley City · Reynoldsburg City · Canal Winchester Local · Licking Heights Local · Grandview Heights Schools · Hamilton Local · Whitehall City · Madison-Plains Local · Pickerington Local · Olentangy Local · Jonathan Alder Local · Teays Valley Local
Franklin County’s own page has what its homes are billed and where that money goes; the statewide picture has the same figures for all 606 districts in the state’s report, the ones it leaves out, and what the data cannot say.
This is an estimate built from public records — not tax, legal or financial advice, and not an appraisal. Only your county’s own statement is authoritative about your bill. If you’re thinking of challenging your value, confirm the details with your county’s Board of Revision or a property-tax professional. The full terms.