Area school districts report decline in student count

TRI-CITY AREA — The numbers are in for area school districts following Fall Count Day as staff work to crunch numbers and see where they stand with state funding. 

State financial support is based on student counts in the fall and late winter.

Officials in the Imlay City Community Schools district will spend the next several weeks analyzing count totals and looking for areas to improve.

At Weston Elementary School, the district reported 395 students in 2025. This year, the headcount fell to 359, translating to a full-time equivalent drop of more than 36 students, or 9.16%.

Meanwhile, at Borland Elementary School, enrollment dropped from 389 students in 2025 to 374 this year, a loss of 15 students, or 3.86%.

At Imlay City Middle School, the district reported a more than 3% increase in students. In 2025, the middle school had 409 FTEs compared with 422 this year, an increase of 3.11%.

The high school and Spartan Bridge program had a combined total of 557 students a year ago and 546 this year, a decline of 2.09%.

Imlay City Christian School stayed about even, moving from 28 FTEs a year ago to 29 this year, an increase of 3.57%. Total FTEs for the Imlay City district dropped from 1,789 in 2025 to 1,747 this year, a decline of 2.35%.

Superintendent Stu Cameron told The Tri-City Times that district enrollment figures point to a sharp, unexpected drop over the past year.

“In total, we have 42 fewer students attending our programs and extension programs than at this time last year,” Cameron said, noting that the steepest loss occurred at Weston Elementary, which saw a drop of 36 students.

District officials are actively evaluating the data to see what might be driving the change.

“We are digging into these numbers and will do our best to identify why we are seeing a decline, and whether it is due to any factors that we at ICS can control,” Cameron said.

However, he acknowledged that past drops have typically stemmed from broader societal and economic trends.

“Unfortunately, when we have experienced enrollment declines in the past, the reasons are often widespread and well outside of the control of the district,” he said, citing lower local birth rates, job-related family relocations, and a shortage of local housing.

Cameron stressed the importance of focusing on internal operations that the district can influence directly.

“Either way, we want to be assured that any factors we can control, such as the quality of our teachers, the instructional programming we offer, the support services we have in place for students and families, the quality and utility of our facilities, the extra-curricular programs offered to students, our school safety measures, and our relationships and responsiveness to students and families, make the district an attractive option for students and families,” Cameron said.

With Fall Count Day completed, administration officials plan to use the coming weeks to analyze performance metrics across schools.

“With count day just behind us, we’ll be conducting this examination over the next several weeks,” Cameron said, noting that local feedback will play a major role in their evaluation. “One additional data set we’ll collect will be generated through a community satisfaction survey that will be administered to our school community in January.”

According to Cameron, the loss in enrollment equates to a proportional loss in state per-pupil funding, which provides the revenue used to operate the district and its programs.

Compounding the financial issue is that Michigan school districts face a July 1 deadline to adopt an operating budget for the upcoming school year. 

The state, however, does not adhere to a similar timeline. As a result, school districts must establish an operating budget without knowing how many students will enroll or how much funding the state will provide per pupil.

Cameron said the process is tantamount to creating an entire annual household budget, including committed expenses, without knowing what the household income will be.

“This is, to put it mildly, a significant and profound flaw in the state’s school funding system,” he said. “To the state’s credit, they have developed a mechanism to help mitigate the effect of sudden and unexpected enrollment declines such as the one we are currently experiencing: they use a three year ‘blended enrollment count’ formula that smooths out — somewhat — the funding effects of a sharp decline, but make no mistake, any enrollment drop affects the ‘bottom line’ for all school districts that experience them.”

In the Almont Community Schools district, Superintendent Kyle Wood and his staff reported a fall 2026 count of 1,306 students: 383 at Orchard Primary School, 422 at Almont Middle School and 501 at Almont High School. A year ago, the Almont district had 1,354 students: 408 at Orchard Primary, 441 at the middle school and 505 at the high school.

In Capac Community Schools, Superintendent Amy Nelson reported 2026 FTE numbers at 595, with a total headcount of 612. Reports show 286 FTEs at the elementary school, 255 at the junior-senior high school and 51 students in the district’s Virtual K-12 program. In 2025, the district had about 40 more students, reporting 634 FTEs: 297 at the elementary school, 291 at the high school and 46 in Virtual K-12.

Dryden Community Schools did not report fall count numbers upon request.

State funding for Michigan public school districts hinges largely on attendance snapshot dates known as “Count Days,” which use a weighted formula to calculate per-pupil revenue.

Fall Count Day, held on the first Wednesday in October, carries 90% of a district’s state funding formula to establish the bulk of the annual operating budget. Because state aid relies heavily on this tally, minor fluctuations can translate to a variance of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Spring Count Day, held on the second Wednesday in February, accounts for the remaining 10% of the formula. Midyear shifts caused by moves, dropouts or transfers are captured during the spring tally to ensure state allocations reflect population changes.

Under the state’s blended membership formula, a district’s total per-pupil funding is determined by combining 90% of the current October count with 10% of the previous February count. State reimbursement for each student is currently $10,300.