School of Choice decision to be made tonight

Tonight, the East Lansing Board of Education will vote on whether to increase the Schools of Choice openings by 128 students. These new openings include 30 in kindergarten, 30 for first grade, 15 for third grade, 21 for fourth grade, 19 for 5^th grade and 13 for seventh grade. No slots are being proposed for grades 2, 6 or 8-12.

In a memo to the Board, School Superintendent Robyne Thompson noted that East Lansing has participated in the Schools of Choice program since its inception in 1996.

Each year, the District begins the Schools of Choice process by counting pupils in February and then adding students from the kindergarten roundup in March. They also use an enrollment projection from Stanfred and Associates, Thompson said.

On April 11, School Finance Director Rich Pugh proposed 129 total new Schools of Choice slots. Thompson’s memo said that following Board input, the administration added four slots at the kindergarten level and reduced 1^st grade by 3 slots, and 4^th grade by 2 slots.

“It is important to remember that our projections cannot be precise and are based on past experience with this process,” Thompson wrote. “With this administrative recommendation, we do our very best with the information available to us to project where we will be in the fall, taking into consideration potential move-ins that will take place between now and the start of school in the fall. This is not an exact science, rather an educated guess.”

Currently in East Lansing, nearly a quarter of all students (23 percent) chose to come to the district from outside the borders. This is the highest percentage of Schools of Choice students in the County, followed closely by Holt Public Schools which brings in 22 percent of its students (1,251 for 2015-16) from outside the District’s borders.

These students come to East Lansing through the state Schools of Choice law. For 2015-16 school year, 829 students were Schools of Choice enrollees.

Once the slots have been approved by the Board, out of district students can apply for the slots during a fifteen day period from June 1-June 15. If there are more applications than slots, a lottery will take place. Applicants will be notified by July 1.

Last year, the Board approved 220 slots for new Schools of Choice students and received 159 new students.