Total enrollment down 124 students

By Joseph Goral
Staff Writer
jgoral@mihomepaper.com
 LAKE ORION — Lake Orion Community Schools Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Adam Weldon gave the district’s annual enrollment presentation to the district’s board of education on Nov. 6.
The presentation provided a snapshot from Student Count Day on Oct. 7, and included a student headcount of current enrollment, historical data and future projections.
Weldon said the presentation was only a “snapshot” because “enrollment is very fluid” and can change on a daily basis. He also said enrollment numbers changed between Oct. 7, and the day of the presentation, which did not include FTE, center-based programs and shared-time services.
Total enrollment numbers
Blanche Sims had 425 students on Oct. 7, Carpenter had 468 students, Stadium Drive had 445 students and Webber Elementary had 494 students, while Orion Oaks had 517 students and Paint Creek Elementary had 506 students. Paint Creek saw the largest decrease in elementary students at 20 fewer than last year, while Webber Elementary’s enrollment remained the same, Weldon said.
There are 1,474 middle school students enrolled in the district’s three middle schools, according to the presentation. Oakview had 512 students and Waldon had 516 students while Scripps was at 446 students. Oakview is the only school in the district that increased in total students with 59 more students than last year, while Scripps had the largest decrease at 36 students.
At the high school level, 2,085 total students are enrolled at Lake Orion High School and 74 are enrolled at Learning Options High School. These totals include 54 fewer students at the high school and five fewer at Learning Options High School than one year ago.
Total enrollment of 6,488 students is 124 fewer students compared to one year ago, according to the presentation, while the district’s projected total enrollment for the year was 6,479.
This number has declined every year for the last 17 years, according to enrollment change total numbers in the presentation.
“Since the mid 2000s, you have red (declining) numbers,” Weldon said. “That shows what we talked about just a little bit ago about more students leaving than there are coming in.”
Although Weldon said some tables included in the presentation are skewed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he added that lower county birth rates also account for lower enrollment.
K-11 enrollment change showed mostly positive growth over most years since 2004. Weldon said this shows that the districts continues to grow as students come in.
Schools of Choice
Across the district, there are 549 School of Choice elementary students – making up around 8.5% of the population, according to Weldon. This is Lake Orion’s 12th year participating in the School of Choice program, which allows the district to accept students who live within other districts.
Weldon also said the district has a target School of Choice percentage of 10% per building. The elementary level is at about 8.86% per building and all buildings are under 10%, he said.
“I take some pride in that,” Weldon said. “As a district a couple years ago, two of our elementary buildings, Carpenter was at 14.38% and Blanche Sims was at 11.21%. Prior to our redistricting several years ago, we had some big imbalances with our School of Choice percentages.”
These imbalances brought about a decision to cap the level of School of Choice students at each building, according to Weldon. Carpenter and Blanche Sims are at 9.62% and 8.71% respectively.
Weldon called School of Choice numbers a “delicate balance each year,” and said the district makes decisions based on trends and anticipation. With enrollment being fluid, the percentages can be greatly affected even if one or two resident students leave per grade level.
The middle school level is at 9.5% School of Choice students. Scripps and Waldon middle schools are at around 11% School of Choice students. There are 10 fewer of these students at Waldon and two fewer at Scripps, Weldon said.
A few years ago, the school board changed enrollment boundaries by moving some district students into Scripps and “moving them to Oakview,” Treasurer Jake Singer said.
“But now, a very concerning number is we only have 114 resident sixth graders at Scripps, and across the district, we now have two of our grade levels that are below 500 students,” Singer said. “So how are we running teams with 114 sixth graders, or, I guess, a total of 131 or 148 seventh graders at Scripps?”
Weldon told Singer that the district absorbed a retirement at Scripps because of lower numbers.
Still, Singer called these enrollment numbers concerning, and said it does not seem like they will improve when looking at the elementary level because Kindergarten and first grade classes are “down around 400.”
This year’s incoming Kindergarten enrollment is 373 students and projected enrollment for the next three years are 383, 388 and 374 respectively, according to the presentation.
Weldon said this year’s freshmen class is currently the first class below 500 students, “but that will be the trend.” This trend is part of what the district has seen over the years moving up through the district.
“When you look at the numbers long term, how we continue to run three middle schools will certainly be the challenge,” Singer said. “And if it ties to needing some bond money to make that happens, for whatever reason, that’s obviously something we would want part of this bond study.”
Elementary class sizes
The highest average class size in Lake Orion elementary schools is at Webber Elementary (26) followed by Stadium Drive (23.42,) Carpenter (23.4,) Paint Creek (23,) Orion Oaks (22.48) and Blanche Sims (22.37.) The only buildings with overloads in their classes are Carpenter and Webber elementaries, said Weldon.
“Over two-thirds are below the targeted, or our desired class size per contract,” Weldon said.