Declining enrollment is contributing to West Michigan school closings
GRAND HAVEN, Mich. (WOOD) — West Michigan school districts are beginning to consolidate and close schools as student enrollment declines.
This week, Grand Haven Public Schools became the latest local district to announce consolidation of its elementary schools and updates to their early childhood programming in the face of declining enrollment and future enrollment projections.
Parents in Grand Haven at a contentious meeting Monday night, calling for more transparency from the district on its decision process and the data behind it.
Elementary school in Grand Haven to become early learning center
'Why is my daughter's chance of having a nature-based curriculum in this great area being ripped away from her for students that don't even exist yet?' one parent said.
Kristin Perkowski, superintendent of Grand Haven Area Public Schools, emphasized this was a financial decision largely motivated by a decade of declining enrollment and a five-year projection of another 650 lost students.
'If we do nothing. We will not be able to keep our doors open in two years. That's the current state with 10 years of loss in students,' she said.
It isn't just a Grand Haven problem. Statewide, enrollment for K-12 has fallen by more than 100,000 students since 2015, and more than 10,000 since 2020.
Enrollment decline: GRPS numbers dropped 26% since 2008
News 8 spoke with the consulting firm that Grand Haven and most districts in Michigan use to crunch their future enrollment projections.
'I know what the enrollment is for every single school district in the state going backwards for this year going back 15 years,' Frederick Ignatovich of StanFred Consultants explained. 'I also know it for 30 years, 35 years, 40 years. We have been at this a long time.'
StanFred Consulting has managed the state's enrollment database and made statewide projections since 1975, when Ignatovich met his late co-founder while the two taught at Michigan State University. Since, they have been hired by countless school districts to do the same at a local level.
They use a few major data points: Resident births per year for the area they are analyzing, the number of new kindergartners that show up for class each fall and the number of students lost year-to-year.
Higher education enrollment dropping in Michigan
'We can see the relationship between birth and kindergarten and we can see what happens as a kindergarten class progresses through the system.'
Ignatovich told us that in 1957 there were 207,000 births in Michigan. This year's projection is for less than 100,000.
Local districts are hoping to curb some of that projected loss by attracting future students with robust Great Start Readiness and preschool programs.
'I do know the anecdotal information is if they come to a district for that program, then there is every likelihood they will stay for kindergarten,' Ignatovich added.
There are other factors that they have noted that keep people in a school district, including available and affordable housing, robust and consistent job markets and public amenities.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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