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High hopes at APS

For first time in years, district projects enrollment up

News Photo by Julie Goldberg Alpena High School students are seen in the hallway at the end of the school day on Wednesday.

ALPENA — After years of declining enrollment, Alpena Public Schools is projecting an increase in its student count.

This year, the district has about 25 fewer students than it did last year, when it counted 3,753 students, Superintendent John VanWagoner said. The district projects enrollment to fall again next year, down to 3,673 students.

However, VanWagoner told the Board of Education’s Finance Committee on Wednesday enrollment should increase to 3,725 students in the 2021-22 school year.

The district is projecting 3,726 students in both the 2022-23 and 2023-24 school years.

Michigan schools get most of their money through state payments based on enrollment.

The district’s last enrollment hike happened in 2015, when the number of students climbed to 3,937 from 3,856.

The district has had back-to-back years of more than 300 kindergarten students, which contributes to the increase in enrollment, VanWagoner said. This year’s kindergarten class is 317 students, and it’s expected kindergarten enrollment will stay above 300 for a few years.

“We really feel like from all the projections and everything that we professionally can get done with a non-biased opinion, we think we’re looking at essentially around that 310 to 320, in that area, of being our new norm, based on the birth rates that are in the county,” VanWagoner said.

The district is seeing smaller classes at Thunder Bay Junior High School, VanWagoner said. This year’s senior class is 305 students, while its sixth-grade class is 275 students.

The district is asking voters in March for approval to sell $33.9 million in bonds to raise money for facilities repairs and improvements.

Before it could do so, however, the district had to show the state that it uses all classrooms in every building. It also had to complete enrollment projections.

VanWagoner said district buildings are 90 to 100% full, and the district has no plans to close any buildings, as it has done in the past.

“We’re not looking into a situation where we’re putting money into a building and then having it closed,” he said. “We really have to prove that to the state before the state will allow us on the bond to be able to put something into a building. We really anticipate that our buildings are going to be at that capacity, if not a little more than we have right now, for the foreseeable future.”

Avery, Baldwin, Bingham, Hubbard Lake, Long Rapids, Maple Ridge, and McPhee elementaries have closed over the years because of declining enrollment and budget constraints. Sunset Elementary School closed at the end of the 2009-10 school year because of declining enrollment and budget constraints, but reopened last school year for homeschool students.

Seeing enrollment stabilize after years of declining enrollment is a good thing for the district, VanWagoner said.

“We’re feeling hopeful, but they’re just projections,” he said. “We’re hoping this can be a new norm and allow us to have a sustained budget and not have to do cuts or reductions like the district has had to do for over a decade.”

Julie Goldberg can be reached at 989-358-5688 or jgoldberg@thealpenanews.com. Follow her on Twitter @jkgoldberg12.

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