Plymouth-Canton School Enrollment Hit Not As Sharp As Projected

The opening of Liberty Middle School in Canton offered good publicity for Plymouth-Canton Community Schools, which is dealing with declining enrollment. (Photo via Google Maps)

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Plymouth-Canton Community Schools took a 123-student enrollment hit, but officials are still happy with the total K-12 enrollment of 17,128 because the student loss this year less than had been projected.

School funding is largely based on the district’s head count.

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“We could be looking at 400 to 500 fewer kids and we’re looking at 123 and that’s success,” Superintendent Mike Meissen told school board members Tuesday, Hometownlife.com reports.

The Oct. 1 enrollment count showed numbers are down mainly at the district’s 14 elementary schools, where 6,772 students are enrolled, compared with 6,918 last year. The losses there were offset by a gain of five students in the district’s five middle schools, bringing enrollment to 4,092, and a gain of 18 at Plymouth-Canton Education Park’s three high schools, which have a combined enrollment of 6,141 students.

Brandon is leading a district marketing campaign to steer students back from private schools, charter schools and home-schooling situations. The opening of the new Liberty Middle School, which replaced Central Middle School, brought some positive publicity to the district, he said.

However, the district is still losing students, and that’s a concern for Trustee Mike Maloney, who said the state’s school-of-choice program offset the losses.

“We’re still losing what I consider to be market share,” Maloney said. “The management of our enrollment is something we need to continue to do.”

The next head will be Feb. 1. State per pupil funding is determined on those two counts.