By Meg Peters
Review Co-Editor
After an extensive look into School’s of Choice (SOC) data last Wednesday, Lake Orion School Board trustees decided to postpone taking action on approving 100 additional students to the program.
The additional SOC students would be a short term fix to help close a $1.9 million operating deficit the district communicated in December.
To date, Lake Orion hosts about 380 SOC students in grades kindergarten through eighth.
Trustees will take action at the next school board meeting, February 10, an all day workshop from noon to 7 p.m.
The data
Of the 380 students enrolled in the program, 278 students are elementary age students.
It is also important to note that most of the SOC kids are enrolled in the neighborhood schools, Blanche Sims Elementary, Pine Tree Elementary, Webber and Paint Creek.
The two highest concentrations of SOC students attend Webber with 70 students out of 518 (17 percent), and Pine Tree with 81 students out of 441 (19 percent).
Focus schools Carpenter Elementary, Stadium Drive and Orion Oaks contain 17, 1, and 37 SOC students respectively. SOC is not offered at the focus schools unless there is an opening after the lottery.
The middle schools contain SOC students as well, along with the high school due to the graduating eighth graders from the year before. However, the discussion trustees had focused primarily on the elementary schools.
‘If this board does choose to continue its participation in the SOC program, we need to be very strategic in where we accept those students and at what grade level so we’re not overburdening one particular grade level over another with out of district students,? Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Rick Arnett said.
Trustee Steve Drakos further explained.
‘You have certain neighborhoods that are stable, that don’t get a turnover, that don’t get sold. You have certain neighborhoods that are rentals. Families come and go every two years, so you have fluctuations, and can kind of predict openings and therefore you slot the SOC students in there when you have the room.?
Superintendent of Teaching and Learning Heidi Mercer agreed, however, mentioned that this was the first year Webber Elementary’s projections were off.
While the addition of the SOC students to all the other schools did not increase the number of classes per school, the 70 students at Webber threw off the class distribution.
The 20 SOC students in the kindergarten class and 18 SOC students in the first grade required two additional sections to be added, and thus two additional teachers.
The cost of the additional two teachers to the district was approximately $150,000, at $75,000 each.
Assistant Superintendent of Business and Finance John Fitzgerald pointed out that altogether, the 380 SOC students brought in roughly $2.8 million to the district. There was still a net gain of roughly $2.6 million despite the additional teachers.
The thoughts
The concern some trustees have with an additional 100 SOC students is it would raise populations too high in some of the elementary schools. This would prevent the district from closing certain schools, due to smaller enrollment sizes, in order to save money.
‘I would suggest that without doing any analysis it’s pretty obvious we can’t close two schools because of SOC. Once we add SOC it’s a one-way street,? Trustee Bill Holt said.
Hence the strategic placement of the students.
Arnett said resizing the district, including closing any schools, could not happen overnight.
‘The likelihood is that the recommendation from this cabinet will be to probably close any first grade SOC for next year, and look to take those to other grade levels in hopes of evening those grades out.?
Arnett believes strongly that SOC is becoming a game of the market.
After all, Lake Orion is not only receiving SOC students, resident students are also leaving the district to attend other SOC programs.
This year alone, Lake Orion lost 129 students to Oxford High School.
Not to mention, the state is a big proponent of SOC, Arnett said, and offered Best Practice money to districts who participated in the program two years ago.
‘It’s basically forced districts to say, either we are going to be in the game and at least recoup some of the students we are losing, or we are going to sit on the sidelines and be givers.?