BY MATT MACKINDER
Clarkston News Staff Writer

Even after losing almost 160 students from the 2018-19 school year, Clarkston Community Schools is actually up in student enrollment due to its virtual program gaining just over 500 students.
The result is a net gain of 348 students for the current 2019-20 school year, which also has the district’s largest Kindergarten class in 15 years.
Overall, the student count for the district is 7,069.
A recent study by Plante Moran is only projecting a loss of 17 students heading into 2020-21.
“I don’t foresee any new open enrollment programs coming this year,” said Superintendent Shawn Ryan. “I think we need to maximize the ones we currently have on the books. I’m satisfied because I feel they have really added some elements for the Clarkston students.”
Moving forward, Ryan recommends the district continue monitoring enrollment trends for approaching staffing and budget cycles, continuing general and special programming open enrollment, increasing Kindergarten and Young 5’s open enrollment to 30 students until enrollment stabilizes, and closely following shared service legislation and advocating where appropriate to our elected officials.
Ryan followed up with an email to the district’s families earlier this month by saying how impressed he is with the staff and students following through with the mission of all the schools.
“As I travel through the district visiting with students and staff, I see our mission and vision statements come to life every day,” Ryan said. “Based on what I see and feel when I walk into our schools, I know without question that Clarkston Community Schools creates a learning environment where students, staff, and families are challenged, healthy, engaged, safe, and supported.”
Ryan noted that when a student returns to visit a favorite former teacher and says that they’re finally seeing the fruit of a seed first planted at CHS, it’s evident that “Clarkston Community Schools students are well-prepared for a future that excites them, and believe that they can achieve their dreams.
“There are many ways to tell our story and demonstrate what we value in Clarkston,” said Ryan. “As a result of last year’s strategic planning, we’ve spent the past several months digging deeper into data and looking at the quantifiable information that helps us tell our story.”
One of the ways the district will monitor progress as a district is through “check up” surveys.
“The idea is healthy people don’t just see a doctor when they’re feeling under the weather, they also make time for regular checkups to stay in top shape,” explained Ryan. “In the same way, healthy organizations like ours rely on checkups to detect potential issues and ensure a strong future.”
The first survey was administered for two weeks in November, and it asked parents to share feedback related to school culture and communication.
“I am pleased to report that our parents had great things to say about our schools and that overall parent satisfaction in every building is high,” said Ryan. “We’ve also created a data-based dashboard of measurable information related to our district’s Four Pillars of Excellence (Whole Person Development, Foundational & Academic Skills, Student-Focused Learning, and Future Pathways). These pillars are the cornerstones of our strategic plan, and we wanted to be able to demonstrate these values with data. While not an exhaustive list of everything we’re doing in our district, the infographic we created provides at-a-glance evidence of our efforts in each of the pillar areas.
“When our students take state assessments like the M-STEP and SAT, we remind them that there is much more to their story than the numbers. As a district, we know that the numbers we’re examining represent small slivers of our story, but these slivers, when combined with the intangibles, help us understand who we are, what we value, and what makes Clarkston a truly special school district.”