128 Schools of Choice slots approved for 2016-17 school year

The East Lansing Board of Education Monday approved opening up 128 slots for new Schools of Choice students for the 2016-2017 school year. There are currently 3,620 students enrolled in the East Lansing Public Schools. Of those, 829 (about 23%) are Schools of Choice students.

The slots will be allocated as follows: 30 for kindergarten, 30 for 1^st grade, 15 for 3^rd grade, 21 for 4^th grade, 19 for 5^th grade and 13 for 7^th grade. No spots were offered for 2^nd, 6^th or 8-12^th grades.

Six Board trustees voted to approve the slots. Trustee Hillary Henderson, citing increased sales of housing in the 48823 ZIP code this year, voted no.

Two teachers addressed the Board regarding Schools of Choice. Tim Akers, East Lansing High teacher and representative of the East Lansing Education Association teachers union, asked the Board to consider hiring more teachers as the enrollment numbers increase. Last year, the District paid teachers a total of $140,000 in “overages” meaning that they were teaching classes larger than the capacity set by the District. In previous years, the District paid out between $23,000-24,000 in overages.

“Massive overage” are what happens when Schools of Choice slots are opened and staff numbers are reduced, Mr. Akers said. Instead of paying extra to current teachers, the District could use those funds to hire three new teachers and prevent “unmeasurable” amounts of damage to students stemming from overcrowded classrooms.

David Price, fourth grade teacher at Marble Elementary, also questioned the decision to add an additional 128 students when his classroom and many others were over capacity.

“This raises the question of where is our District headed,” Price said. “This is strictly a financial decision being made on the backs of the teachers. … If more students are added, then more teachers should be hired.”

Parent Larry Hogue spoke in favor of Schools of Choice, saying his family chose East Lansing schools over Okemos schools because of the diversity of the student body.

“I’d like to see Schools of Choice continue and like to see an increase in teachers as well,” Mr. Hogue said.

Schools Finance Director Richard Pugh told the Board members that the District has used the same formula for many years to calculate how they predict enrollment numbers. Last year’s overages were primarily in the middle school, he said.

In the 2015-2016 school year, the Board approved opening 220 slots and filled 159 slots. The total Schools of Choice student enrollment is currently 829 students.

Trustee Henderson questioned why the District was predicting enrollment the same way today as they were through the recession in the 2000s. Based on her work as a real estate agent, Henderson said that the market in East Lansing has greatly increased in the last few years and the District should be anticipating more residents moving into the District than previously.

“I’m nervous that we are going to be in the same situation that we have been,” Henderson said. “We need to have a Plan B for what we are going to do. What is the plan to alleviate class size and overages? Let’s work with teachers on that.”

Trustee Kate Powers asked that the Board be willing to continue the dialogue of individual class sizes as the District gets a better idea of actual enrollment numbers in August. She pointed out that the District’s first priority is to its residential students and that Schools of Choice students agree to be changed to a different building if administration finds it necessary.

“Let’s see how these numbers pan out and where resident move-in is going. We may need to have another hard discussion,” she said. “We may need to move Schools of Choice students from one building to another to even out class sizes.”

In other action:

The Board unanimously agreed to move $63,700 from the 2012 capital fund to the general fund for use by the District’s elementary schools.

The Board unanimously approved spending $126,150 to refinish the high school swimming pool.

The Board unanimously approved sending a letter to the state Board of Education supporting its proposed guidelines for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered and Questioning students. Read more about that action here.

Editor's note: This article was updated after publication to include (in the first paragraph) the total number of students in the district and the percentage represented by Schools of Choice students.