By Harold C. Ford

Heading into the new year, Flint Community Schools (FCS) remains troubled by declining student enrollment and low standardized test scores.  

Student enrollment

“We’re going to have to look at enrollment,” said a chagrined Joyce Ellis-McNeal, president of the Flint Board of Education (FBOE), at a December 17, 2025 meeting. “We got to get this enrollment [up] … got to get out of debt.”  

Ellis-McNeal was likely reflecting upon the latest enrollment data provided by the Michigan Department of Education at its MI School Data website. That data shows FCS enrollment has fallen to 2,605 students, down from 2,888 in March 2024 – and far further down if you consider the district served over 40,000 students in the 1960s.

That makes FCS the eighth largest of Genesee County’s 21 public school districts, despite its location in the county’s most populous city. The top ten enrollments in the county, in order, are now: 1. Grand Blanc (7,489 students); 2. Davison (5,460); 3. Flushing (4,094); 4. Carman-Ainsworth (3,500); 5. Swartz Creek (3,483); 6. Fenton (2,872); 7. Kearsley 2,835); 8. Flint (2,605); 9. Clio (2,491) and 10. Linden (2,351). 

Ellis-McNeal’s coupling of “enrollment” and “debt” may have also been a reference to state aid, as each enrolled student brings with them a record $10,050 in funding, up by $442, or 4.6 percent, from the previous year.  

Thus, a loss of just 10 students means a loss of $100,500 in state aid. A loss of 100 students means a loss of $1,005,000. And so on.  

A 2024 EVM report found that FCS lost about $100 million each year in state aid given that about 80 percent – or some 10,000 students in the district – did not enroll in Flint’s public school system. Projected over a decade, that would equate to a staggering loss of more than $1 billion.  

EVM’s research has also shown that students with City of Flint addresses have enrolled in every one of Genesee County’s twenty other public-school districts via Michigan’s schools of choice program. Other options that siphon off Flint’s students include high school-college hybrids, home-schooling, online schooling, and charters. Spurred by the pandemic, some students also simply stopped attending school.

Adding to that loss are the 15 public charter schools in Genesee County. Their combined enrollment – 7,047 students – would make charters the county’s second largest school district. State aid for those public charter students totals nearly $71 million annually. 

“When we look at the [test] data … we know there are problems.”

The bulk of a prior FBOE meeting on Nov. 19 was spent examining the school district’s latest round of disappointing standardized test results.  

“When we look at the data, no one at this table likes the data as it is,” said Kevelin Jones, FCS superintendent, at the start of the meeting. “We know there are issues. We know there are problems.”

“Proficiency remains low across most grade levels,” added Kelly Fields, the district’s executive director of academics, while addressing the board. “We know your north star is proficiency,” she said. “We can’t just focus on growth.”

Proficiency

Proficiency in Michigan on a state assessment, such as the Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress (M-STEP), measures the “understanding and application of key academic content standards defined for Michigan students,” according to the state’s Department of Education. 

Spring 2025 testing of Flint students found the following percentages of students proficient in math in eight FCS buildings: Brownell, 1.3%; Doyle Ryder, 2.3%; Durant-Tuuri-Mott (DTM), 6.7%; Eisenhower, 4.7%; Freeman, 1.8%; Holmes, 0.0%; Neithercut, 8.0%; and Potter, 3.9%.

Testing of Flint students in English Language Arts found the following percentages of students proficient in the same FCS buildings: Brownell, 7.7%; Doyle Ryder, 10.3%; DTM, 6.8%; Eisenhower, 18.8%; Freeman, 8%; Holmes, 5.8%; Neithercut, 13.1%; and Potter, 7%.

Growth

Test data in math found 42.3% of all FCS students “meeting their growth projections” in math, according to the presenters, which included Fields as well as Natoya Coleman, FCS chief innovation officer; and consultants Tracy Davis and Wanda Cook-Robinson. Only two schools of the district’s ten – Neithercut at 50% and Southwestern at 56.5% – met growth projections or expectations.

The other FCS buildings that did not meet growth projections included: Accelerated Learning Academy (ALA) at 30.6%; Brownell at 43.1%; Doyle Ryder, 25.7%; DTM, 52.7%; Eisenhower, 43.5%; Freeman, 32.4%; Holmes, 30.5%; and Potter at 40.9%. 

The presenters also included “baseline data” from spring 2022, which showed that only DTM and Brownell had an increased percentage of students meeting growth projections since that time. All other schools had a lower percentage (many by roughly nine or 10%) than the prior baseline data.

In reading for all grade levels, only 36.6% of the district’s student population met growth expectations. Neithercut was the only FCS building that met growth expectations at 50.4%. All other FCS buildings fell short.

“Moving forward” or “absolutely horrendous”?

“It shows we’re moving forward,” concluded Ellis-McNeal, following the presentation of test data. 

The comment drew strong rebukes from her board colleagues.

“I believe that what we’ve been doing is not working,” said Trustee Melody Relerford.  

“The student scores are terrible, absolutely horrendous,” added Laura MacIntyre, the board’s vice president. “Our students are failing.”

Ellis-McNeal then pointed to student behaviors and classroom management as causal factors. “Board members, we got to look at this classroom management,” she said. “We got to stop allowing these kids to get to a level where the teacher cannot teach.”

Ellis-McNeal added, “If we don’t get ahold of this [student] behavior … it’s not gonna work.”

“A way forward”

“We believe we have a way forward,” Jones said. 

He told the Board that the district’s goal – in partnership with the Genesee Intermediate School District, Michigan State University, and the Michigan Department of Education – is to increase M-STEP scores measuring proficiency by one percent every year over a three-year period. He did not clarify if that period included the current 2025-26 school year.

“We’re going to make sure that we’re turning the ship around,” said Jones. “Big ships turn slowly.”

The FBOE is scheduled to meet: Jan. 21; Feb. 11 and 18; March 11 and 18; April 8 and 15; May 13 and 20; and June 17. Meetings typically start at 6:30 p.m. and are broadcast on the district’s YouTube page. Visit the FCS website for meeting times and locations.  

Editor’s note: This article originally ran in East Village Magazine’s January 2026 print edition. At print time, the FBOE was scheduled to meet on Jan. 14 as well as Jan. 21. The Jan. 14 meeting was rescheduled.