News Photo by Julie Goldberg Students in Gretchen Rea’s fourth grade class at Besser Elementary School work on their Chromebooks on Thursday.

ALPENA — Wednesday was fall count day for schools around the state and some local school districts counted enrollment near where they stood last year.

The Michigan Department of Education reports that students counted in the fall represent 90 percent of schools’ per-pupil state funding, while spring count occurs on the second Wednesday in February and is 10 percent of state funding.

Schools have five weeks to submit student counts to their intermediate school districts. ISDs then have 24 weeks from the count date to provide the audited pupil counts to the state. Each student is worth $7,871 in state money.

Alpena Public Schools does not have an exact number of students yet, but Superintendent John VanWagoner said he is confident that the district is fairly consistent with numbers from last year.

“We have a lot of new programs this year that factor in,” VanWagoner said.

With students from Alcona Community Schools, Atlanta Community Schools, and Hillman Community Schools going to Alpena to take classes in the Career and Technical Education program, those students are included in Alpena’s enrollment numbers. Students who take online classes are also included.

“Even though we don’t have an exact number, I feel that we are generally consistent with last year,” VanWagoner said.

Alcona stands at 691 students this school year, Superintendent Dan O’Connor said. He said the district is down about 10 students from its student count in the winter.

“We had planned for less students,” O’Connor said. “With a large graduating class and a small incoming class, we knew we would be lower in enrollment.”

But the dip is not as bad as the district expected. O’Connor said Alcona budgeted for around 680 students, so having 691 students this year will help the district.

Posen Consolidated Schools saw a decrease from year. The district went from 222 students to 214.

“We’re lower than last year,” secretary Lucia Bruski said.

Other Northeast Michigan school districts could not be reached for comment on this story.

Julie Goldberg can be reached at jgoldberg@thealpenanews.com or 989-358-5688.

School enrollment

A look at the number of students counted on fall count day on Wednesday. Other Northeast Michigan districts either could not be reached or did not immediately have numbers available.

Districts 2018-19 2017-18

Alcona 691 727

Posen 214 222

Source: Area school districts