Enrollment appears to be moving up in the Detroit Public Schools Community District.
Superintendent Nikolai Vitti announced an enrollment increase this school year via Twitter Monday afternoon.
“Proud to say that DPSCD increased its K-12 enrollment by another 700 students. We are now over 51K. Three years ago we were at 45.5K. Enough said …”
It was unclear Monday whether the numbers he cited were based on Count Day enrollment tallied earlier this month. The state sets aside two days during the year for an enrollment count, and state aid to schools is based on those numbers. Students absent on Count Day can eventually be counted if their absences are excused.
Count Day numbers also must be audited.
Enrollment increases are an important part of the district’s turnaround, given how closely tied they are to financial health.
Last year, the district’s Count Day number showed a slight decline, though Vitti said in December that hundreds of students had enrolled in the district after the 2018 enrollment count.
Vitti became superintendent in 2017, tasked with not only improving academic achievement in the district but also enrollment. In October 2017 the Detroit school district posted enrollment gains that were largely due to students enrolling in the district after the dissolution of the Education Achievement Authority. The controversial EAA operated for five years as a district for poor-performing schools.
One of the district’s recent goals is to increase enrollment by 500 students annually.