CAPAC COMMUNITY SCHOOLS: TEN YEARS IN THE NUMBERS
Dear readers, tonight's ledger takes me to Capac Community Schools in St. Clair County.
Before going any deeper, I started where I always do: with ten years of financial data reported to the Michigan Department of Education.
And Capac presents an interesting picture.
From 2014–15 to 2024–25:
📉 Pupil count:
1,146.00 → 676.02
Down 469.98 pupils — 41.01%
💰 All-sources revenue per pupil:
$9,234 → $14,451
Up $5,217 — 56.50%
That is 20.67 percentage points above inflation.
📚 Instruction per pupil:
$5,745 → $7,903
Up $2,158 — 37.56%
Just 1.73 points above inflation.
🔎 Instructional support per pupil:
$841 → $1,331
Up $490 — 58.26%
22.43 points above inflation.
🏛� Business & administration per pupil:
$1,088 → $2,386
Up $1,298 — 119.30%
That's 83.47 points above inflation.
🔧 Operations & maintenance per pupil:
$966 → $1,814
Up $848 — 87.78%
51.95 points above inflation.
🍎 Average teacher salary:
$58,788 → $66,647
Up $7,859 — 13.37%
That's 22.46 percentage points below inflation.
For comparison, inflation over this period was approximately 35.83%.
Now, a district losing 41% of its pupils matters when looking at per-pupil figures. A school district has fixed costs that don't disappear simply because enrollment falls. So these numbers, standing alone, don't tell us why each category changed.
But they do tell us where to ask questions.
Over the same decade that enrollment declined 41%, business and administration spending per pupil increased 119.30%, while the reported average teacher salary increased 13.37%.
That's a difference worth noticing.
And Capac's ledger isn't closed yet. I'll be taking a closer look at staffing, followed by the district's budgets and audited financial statements.
Because sometimes the ten-year comparison answers questions.
Sometimes it tells me which questions to ask next. 🪶
Source: Michigan Department of Education, Bulletin 1014, 2014–15 and 2024–25.
Receipts aren't very useful if we only keep the convenient ones.
With receipts & respect.
#LadyBudgetdown #CapacCommunitySchools #SchoolFinance #PublicEducation #FollowTheNumbers #EducationTransparency #MichiganSchools