By Megan Kelley
Editor
mkelley@mihomepaper.com
INDEPENDENCE TWP. — At its meeting on Feb. 10, the Clarkston Community Schools Board of Education heard a presentation from John Lucido, Assistant Superintendent of Administrative Services and reviewed and discussed the district’s School of Choice (SOC) data.
Last March, the board approved a limited open enrollment for the 2024-25 school year which consisted of an increase of 25 spots for young fives through fifth grade, making the total slots available 75.
“As promised, a year ago, I said that when it came time to review or in that review period of our school of choice programs we were going to focus on an open enrollment one. Specifically tonight, we want to be able to share some information broadly on all of the elements but kind of dig into that and give a little bit of a reflection of what that cohort looks like and get some dialogue and some direction from the board as we proceed forward,” said Superintendent Dr. Shawn Ryan. “On the whole, I feel like we were successful in our endeavor this year and to reiterate from Mr. Lucido’s presentation in the fall, per-pupil accounting, that we managed for the first time in a long time to be flat which was considered a major success in terms of overall program integrity and long term health of our school district.”
According to Lucido, the district currently offers nine SOC programs which include International Baccalaureate, Clarkston Virtual, Career Immersion Pathways, Construction Technology, CSMTech, Young Fives/Kindergarten, Employee Non-Resident, Project Search and Prior Program Participant.
In the fall of 2024, the district had 452 total SOC students, an increase from the fall of 2023 when the district had 370 SOC students.
The district also looked at attendance, behavior referrals and academic success in math and reading for kindergarten to fifth grade SOC students compared to non-SOC students.
Attendance wise, the average number of absences by SOC students is 18.29, compared to 15.97 for non-SOC students.
“With our School of Choice students, there was one student that had 146 absences and two that had in the 40s. So, it is skewed a little bit but it was pretty close here,” Lucido said.
On the behavior front, just 1% of students across the board received behavior referrals, this includes both SOC and non-SOC students.
Academically, SOC students outperformed non-SOC students in both reading and math. District data showed that the average FastBridge reading percentile for SOC students was 54.5 compared to the average non-SOC percentile which was 50.6. In math, SOC students averaged 61.4, a slight increase from non-SOC students which averaged 60.8.
“This was something that was actually anticipated. There is a lot of thought that the parents driving their students here and don’t have the (district) transportation, that they are very committed to their students’ academic success and we did see that,” Lucido said.
In 2024, a capture rate analysis done by Plante Moran showed the district to be up four students while the birth rate capture indicated the district would be up 30 students, Lucido said. In the end, the district was only up two students but did take in 74 SOC students for young fives and kindergarten.
“We would have been down 72 students had we not run the program as we did last year,” Lucido said. “This year, having the students to be able to place (in) young fives through fifth grade, it helped us to have balanced class sizes – not collapse sections. And we did follow the board’s directive to place most of those students in young fives and kindergarten.”
Lucido provided the recommendation to continue secondary SOC programs as unlimited 105c programs and continue the elementary SOC program for young fives through kindergarten as a limited program.
Board members had some conflicting opinions on SOC enrollment with Trustee Amanda Love expressing that she doesn’t believe SOC is something that is necessarily wanted within the district while board Secretary Cheryl McGinnis praised the program and the students involved stating that the numbers help the district continue to provide services and opportunities for all students.
Trustee Steve Hyer expressed his desire for administration to seek out alternative methods for retaining in-district students, adding that he did not want the district to rely on SOC to keep student counts where they want them.