We continue to monitor student numbers on a daily basis. At this time our district enrollment is not at the projected count of 20,600. We are optimistic that numbers across the district may end up above the projected count. That would be good news for our budget because we are funded on a per pupil basis. Until we can verify student numbers in the district and in each school we will not add additional staff. However, as mentioned we will monitor this daily. It is often the case that we do not get our enrollment stabilized until we are a couple of weeks into the school year. We will especially monitor elementary class size. Please be aware that our class size at the elementary level has been very low over the past two years. In fact the lowest that I can remember since I have been in this district going back 24 years.
In addition, we are also monitoring Lansing. To this point we still do not have an approved budget by the State. The Governor’s budget would provide an additional 6 million dollars for Dearborn Schools vs. the House budget which does not put students first. We would be able to hire more teachers if the Governor’s budget came to fruition. Thank you to everyone in our outstanding school community as we start the new year. We are excited to have our students back in school. I will visit every school over the course of the first two weeks to welcome our students, parents, community members, and staff.