Stabilize Enrollment
The Troy School District (TSD) has experienced significant enrollment declines over the past six years that threaten its ability to provide current levels of high-quality instruction.
- If not quickly addressed, TSD will be forced to cut costs by cutting positions and programs, and possibly even be forced to closed schools.
- This crisis is partially the result of past board policies to reduce out-of-district enrollment and very unpopular decisions such as the elimination of Middle School Math Honors.
- I will leverage my experience at DPSCD and elsewhere in providing actionable insights through data and research to inform proven strategies to grow enrollment.
The Challenge:
TSD’s enrollment in 2025-26 is about 901 full-time equivalent (FTE) students lower than it was before the COVID-19 pandemic (2019-20). Furthermore, according to projections by Plante Moran, the district anticipates continued enrollment declines that will threaten its ability to sustain educational programs needed by students to achieve their full potential.
Strategic Initiatives
- Attention given to better understanding the problem: Dig deeper into the root causes behind the enrollment declines
- Better understand why an increasing number and percentage of TSD resident students are choosing another K-12 educational option: Ask the families who have left the District why they did so and consider policy changes to make TSD more appealing
- Engage the families and students more authentically and more regularly to address their concerns: Addressing families’ concerns whenever possible before they make a decision to leave the District is the best opportunity to retain TSD resident students
- More actively recruit out-of-district students: Marketing and outreach to non-resident families who would like to send their children to TSD will be necessary
Key Results for Stabilizing Enrollment
- Key Result 1.1: Achieve +20 Net Promoter score on a district-wide stakeholder survey of families (see future blog post on stakeholder surveys)
- Key Result 1.2: Achieve of 75% Completion Rate on the Family Exit Survey (see future blog post on stakeholder surveys)
- Key Result 1.3: Increase TSD resident market share to 90% by 2028-29 (from 88.4% in 2025-26; +202 FTE)
- Key Result 1.4: Re-establish total K-12 district enrollment to at least 12,250 FTE by 2028-29 (from 12,040 in Fall 2024; +210 FTE)