News Photo by Steve Schulwitz Students at Alpena High School enjoy lunch between classes on Wednesday. Alpena Public Schools saw an increase in the number of students enrolled compared to last school year, the fall headcount shows.

ALPENA — Preliminary student counts at school districts around Northeast Michigan revealed a mixed bag, with some school districts adding kids while others lost a few.

Schools rely on student headcounts to determine how much money they will receive from the state.

On Wednesday, schools across Michigan got preliminary counts of how many students they have, but the numbers won’t be finalized until the state signs off on them in November. Wednesday’s count determines a bulk of the school systems’ funding, however.

School systems in Michigan have two count days, with the next happening in February.

Alpena Public Schools saw a significant increase in the number of students in classrooms, as officials counted 3,816 students, up from 3,722 in October of last school year. That means the district will see an increase in state funding.

Lee Fitzpatrick, director of communications for APS, said the school system receives $9,150 for each student who receives 1,098 hours of instruction per year. He said that sounds like a lot of money, but the dollar figures aren’t as impressive as they seem.

“Their education costs taxpayers $8.33 an hour, which is less than the Michigan minimum hourly wage of $9.87,” he said.

The number of students attending school in Alcona Community Schools is nearly on par with fall of last year, Superintendent Dan O’Connor said. He said the school district has 675 students, a drop of six kids.

“That is consistent with our estimates,” O’Connor said in a text message.

Hillman Community Schools interim Superintendent Pamela Rader said preliminary student totals from kindergarten through 12th grade came in at 415, a touch higher than last year.

She named two reasons why the student body continues to grow. She said that, during the COVID-19 pandemic, some people moved to more remote communities like Hillman and now their children are in the school system. Rader added that she also believes the quality of education the school system delivers makes it attractive for parents.

“I’m very thrilled with the numbers,” she said. “I give the credit to our staff and teachers who work so hard to give the kids a proper education, and I think people are taking notice of that and we are seeing that in our headcount.”

Atlanta Community Schools saw an increase in students, too.

Wednesday’s preliminary total showed 267 students, up from 262 last October. Superintendent Tony Suszek said the school is holding its own and he believes things are moving in the right direction.

“I think that number shows we’re doing pretty good,” Suszek said. “I think we are making progress every day and that we’re doing some positive things.”

Onaway schools had a headcount of 543 on Wednesday, well above the 531 recorded last fall.

Rogers City Area Schools’ total on Wednesday was 453 and Posen Consolidated School District Superintendent Michelle Wesner said the Posen school system had 216 students counted on Wednesday.

Kids who were absent from school on Wednesday during the count can still be added to Wednesday’s totals, Fitzpatrick said.

“There is a frequent misunderstanding that a student missing count day means the district doesn’t get funded for that student,” he said in an email to The News. “It does cause the burden of some additional paperwork to be filed, however, but a student missing count day can still be accounted for by a district.”