By Meg Peters
Review Staff Writer
Overall enrollment is up approximately 173 students this year in Lake Orion Schools, thanks to the 218 schools of choice students who joined the district.
Without the students from outside districts, overall school count would be down about 45 students.
About 559 new kindergarteners are entering the district, according to Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum Heidi Mercer, a 24-student increase from last year.
In total, about 7,585 students are enrolled in the entire district for 2014-2015, with last year standing at 7,412 full time equivalent students.
If voters pass the nonhomestead millage renewal for Lake Orion schools November 4? securing the state’s contribution towards the foundation allowance per student’Lake Orion will receive approximately $7,927 per student for 2014-2015, or about $50 more per student than last year.
The district also offered a pre-kindergarten option for students this year, housed at Blanche Sims and Webber Elementary schools, which brought in about 60 students, or three classes in total.
Although residency full-time equivalent students’those from the immediate Lake Orion district’have been on the decline since the mid 2000s, slow increases have been tracked in the last couple of years, according to Assistant Superintendent of Business and Finance John Fitzgerald.