The bad news for Clarkston schools: 8,123 students showed up for school on count day, 11 less than last year’s total of 8,134.
The good news: 185 kids were absent Sept. 24, and the district has 30 days before the numbers become official.
‘If everybody returns were going to be up about a hundred kids,? said Anita Banach, the district’s director of communications and marketing, noting students with excused absences can be added to the count if they return within 30 days. Those who are unexcused can be reclaimed if they return within ten days.
The official count takes place across the state on the fourth Wednesday after Labor Day each year.
A supplemental count is held the second Wednesday in February.
On paper, each new fulltime student equates to $7,555 in state funding.
Although the district isn’t likely to reclaim all 185 absent students, administrators are hopeful the numbers will be up over last year’s total.
‘Preliminary numbers are leaning toward slight enrollment growth,? Banach said. ‘As a district, we have been bracing for an enrollment decline, so if our numbers are close to being stable, we’re happy.?
The economy and the lower birth rates, she said, have led to dropping student counts in most districts across the state and are pushing financially-strapped schools into further hardship.
But, while the district, like others must scramble to account for as many of the 185 absent students as possible, Banach said the number of students not present on count day was remarkably low for a district with more than 8,000 students: only 59 of those enrolled were absent at the elementary level and 126 from the secondary schools.
‘On a district-wide level, we’re extremely blessed with a very committed, very educationally supportive community,? she said, noting the district didn’t do anything special as a whole to entice kids to school on count day. ‘Attendance isn’t an issue for us on an everyday basis.?
Sashabaw Middle School, she pointed out, only had 13 absent from a student body of 1,275; at Bailey Lake, all but three students were in school Sept. 24.
‘In our building I think we only had five kids absent and they were all legitimately sick,? said Springfield Plains Principal K.C. Leh. ‘But no, we didn’t hype it up because if you have somebody with strep throat, you really don’t want the kid coming in, even though its count day.?
Students who were in school she noted, were congratulated and issued a certificate for perfect attendance that day.
Barring an outbreak of one illness or another’not uncommon in elementary schools’Leh said Springfield Plains kids are in school when they’re supposed to be in school.
‘I think parents really care about education and want their kids to be here,? she said. ‘I think they realize there’s so many things that happen in the classroom; it’s not like they can say ‘tell me all the pages they missed in this book and I can make it up at home.? You’re missing the instruction and the activities and the hands on stuff, so generally our attendance is very, very good in this building.?
And, while some schools in the state held parades, carnivals or giveaways, things were quiet at Sashabaw Middle School, as well.
‘I would like to say we did a lot of incentives and had all these amazing programs and the whole bit,? said Principal Linda Foran. ‘No, it was just that all our kids showed up.?
Foran said she hopes parents will be as diligent about making sure the kids are in school when MEAPs are administered next week.
‘It’s hard for the kids not to be with peers when they’re taking the MEAP,? she said. ‘So please don’t schedule orthodontics or medical appointments at that time.?