By ZEINAB NAJM
Times-Herald Newspapers
DEARBORN — The official student Count Day numbers are in from Dearborn Public Schools, and for the 27th year in a row the district has seen an increase in enrollment.
The final audited number for the Oct. 1 Count Day is 19,685, an increase of 235 students over 2013.
School Board Trustee Aimee Schoelles said at the Nov. board meeting that when she attended a conference the previous weekend, “when I said we had a growing population, they asked me where we were getting our students from, I said from Dearborn.
“They were like, ‘How do you get more and to increase?’ Dearborn. They were surprised by that. They were really surprised that it was organic growth.”
The growth has led to several schools in the school district to be at or over capacity. Having more students is a good problem to have, Supt. Brian Whiston said at the board meeting.
The 235 student increase comes with an almost $2 million gain for the district’s per-pupil state funding, which currently is $8,412.
“With the tough economy and the lack of funding of the state, (the funding increase) is the only thing that has kept us going,” Supt. Brian Whiston said.
(Zeinab Najm can be reached at [email protected])