Davison Community Schools - 10-YEAR Staffing & Enrollment Snapshop

[Shadowninja]

Dearest Readers,

We have looked at Davison Community Schools' finances. We have looked at employee compensation.

Now, let us look at staffing and enrollment.

Using Michigan Department of Education data, Lady Budgetdown compared 2014–15 with 2024–25.

And the two trends moved in opposite directions.

🎓 STUDENT ENROLLMENT
5,617 → 5,460
Down 157 students, or 2.8%

Meanwhile...

👥 ALL STAFF — HEADCOUNT
1,221 → 1,404
Up 183 people, or 15.0%

📊 ALL STAFF — FTE
595.10 → 765.01
Up 169.91 FTE, or 28.6%

A closer look shows where some of that change occurred.

🏛� Administrators
Headcount: 31 → 36 (+16.1%)
FTE: 26.84 → 35.20 (+31.1%)

🍎 Teachers
Headcount: 299 → 409 (+36.8%)
FTE: 297.03 → 351.47 (+18.3%)

👩�🏫 Paraprofessionals/Aides
Headcount: 70 → 77 (+10.0%)
FTE: 61.52 → 60.07 (−2.4%)

🏢 Non-Instructional
Headcount: 535 → 688 (+28.6%)
FTE: 209.71 → 318.27 (+51.8%)

There is also an important distinction between headcount and FTE.

Headcount tells us how many individual people were reported. FTE  full-time equivalent reflects the amount of staffing those positions represent.

That is why, for example, Davison's teacher headcount increased 36.8%, while teacher FTE increased 18.3%.

Day-to-day substitutes are included in the headcount data, but are not reported as separate categories in the FTE data, so Lady Budgetdown does not manufacture an FTE comparison where one isn't provided.

The broader ten-year picture is fairly straightforward:

157 fewer students.
183 more staff by headcount.
169.91 more staff by FTE.

Those numbers alone do not tell us why staffing changed. They don't tell us whether positions were necessary or unnecessary, nor whether the changes improved services for students.

But they do show how the district's staffing structure changed while enrollment declined slightly.

And that is precisely why we look at the records.

With receipts and respect.

Source: Michigan Department of Education staffing and enrollment data, 2014–15 and 2024–25.

Data compiled and visualized by Lady Budgetdown using publicly available records.

#DavisonCommunitySchools #GeneseeCounty #SchoolStaffing #PublicSchools #TaxpayerTransparency #PublicRecords #WithReceiptsAndRespect