Enrollment in the Detroit Public Schools Community District is up 3.8% this year - a gain of 1,808 students over what the district projected -- boosting the count to its highest levels in years.

The total increase was nearly 5,000 students - with enrollment rising from 45,500 in fall 2016 to 50,100 this school year.

Some of it is due to the return of students who previously were enrolled in the now-defunct Educational Achievement Authority. But the district's data also indicates hundreds of students who formerly attended charter schools enrolled in the district this fall, likely due to the closure of a handful of charters.

It's the first enrollment increase in the district in 15 years, Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said Thursday. And the gains will mean an additional $11 million in per-pupil funding from the state.

"This allows us to have some stability with our budget," Vitti said.

At some schools, the gains were in the double and triple digits. Ronald Brown Academy grew the most, gaining 172 students. A few more examples: Mumford High gained 127; Noble Elementary-Middle, 109; J.R. King Academy of Performing Arts, 85; and Western International High, 77.

The gains were announced at a news conference at Charles Wright Academy on the city's far west side.

"We're in a different place this year than we were last year," said Angelique Peterson-Mayberry, vice president of the DPSCD board of education.

What's happened since last year? Detroit voters elected a new, empowered board of education. In the previous eight years, the district was operated under the control of an emergency manager who had broad powers. The new board in turn hired Vitti to lead the district.

"Right now we're in a good place," Vitti said, responding to a question about what enrollment targets the district would need to meet to remain stable. He said the district "will be more analytical" in determining what those targets are, but he said he has no doubt the enrollment gains will continue.

"I honestly believe that the average Detroiter wants their child in traditional public education. There's a legacy. That's our advantage. We have roots and we have tradition. Now we just have to deliver something that's different and unique and scalable."

In addition to the enrollment numbers, Vitti laid out a strategic plan he said would guide work in the district over the next three years.

The big priorities of that plan include improving student achievement, transforming the district's culture, championing a "whole child" approach, building a strong team and being responsible stewards of the district's resources.

The plan was exciting to Kari Jordan, a parent at the Wright school who spoke during the news conference.

"I am fired up now," she said after hearing Vitti speak. "And I'm ready to take on this challenge."

Ivy Bailey, the president of the Detroit Federation of Teachers, who attended the news conference, said it's the first time a leader in the district has laid out such a bold plan for the future.

"We had no vision, no mission, no priorities. Nothing," she said, describing what it was like under emergency management. "That wasn't on everybody's mind because they just wanted to destroy the district."

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Part of the increase has to do with the return of students from the Education Achievement Authority, the state reform district for some of the worst-performing schools in the city. The EAA was dissolved on June 30 and the schools that were a part of it are now a part of DPSCD.

But the district had built in the return of the EAA students into its budget projection. So the gain of nearly 2,000 above its predictions indicate more.

For instance, a news release from the district said more than 1,600 students entered the district from charter schools. The district heavily recruited students from charter schools that closed their doors in June.

And, the district said in its release, DPSCD saw the lowest exodus of students to charter schools in four years and a decrease in the number of students who left the district to attend surrounding school districts.

Alycia Meriweather, a deputy superintendent in the district who's in charge of enrollment, said there was an all-out effort to recruit students. Staff knocked on doors, and they did what she described as an "intense data drive," to map out neighborhoods where there is a high rate of chronically absent students.

They also made personal phone calls to the parents of EAA students, who weren't obliged to enroll in DPSCD when their district closed.

Vitti said increasing enrollment is just a first step. That's why the strategic plan is important, he said.

The district first started working on developing the plan during a board retreat in August. The district then held more than a dozen meetings with students, families, staff, teachers and community stakeholders, collecting 800 ideas for improving the district.

They developed a new mission, which states: "We educate and empower every student, in every community, every day, to build a stronger Detroit."

They also developed a set of core values, in addition to establishing priorities.

One of those core values - integrity - is all about doing "the right thing, even when no one is looking. Be honest. Be trustworthy. Be accountable."

Vitti said that core value will help address "some of the malfeasance, some of the cronyism" that has existed in the district.

"We're going to shed that and start making decisions ... that are transparent," Vitti said.

Over the last couple of years, more than a dozen principals and administrators in the district either pled guilty or were convicted of taking bribes from a vendor.

Jordan, the parent, said the core values Vitti unveiled "are the same values Detroit has always had," but were lost over the years.

"We were creative. We were innovative. That's who we are," Jordan said.



Contact Lori Higgins: 313-222-6651, lhiggins@freepress.com or @LoriAHiggins