(WXYZ) — Monday is the first day of school for the Detroit Public Schools Community District, the largest district in the State of Michigan.
Enrollment is anticipated to be about 48,500 students, according to DPSCD Superintendent Dr. Nikolai Vitti.
This is the second year the district has gotten a waiver from the Michigan Department of Education to start before Labor Day — a move Vitti pushed for last year in an effort to improve student recruitment and retention.
Vitti said it has worked. Last year, he said the district improved student average daily attendance numbers and reduced chronic absenteeism, especially toward the end of the school year by no longer having those hot days in mid-June on the calendar. Those were days where many kids were just skipping class he explained.
Watch Alicia Smith's full interview with Vitti below
This year, Vitti said the district is still looking to hire more teachers. There are about 30 teacher vacancies.
"I would say, most of our schools are fully staffed with teachers. There are about maybe 20 [schools] that have one teacher vacancy, and there are maybe three [schools] that have two [teacher vacancies]. So, you know, we are very close to fully staffed but not completely fully staffed with teachers. Our challenge, like other districts, are in special education and then secondary math and science," he said.
Vitti said considering where the district was five or six years ago — with 400 or more teacher vacancies — the district has made great strides in recruiting, retaining, and even developing new teachers from within the district.
"We're the first district in Michigan to receive approval to do in-house teacher certification. So we've been taking para-educators and academic interventionists, which are individuals with college degrees that work with students in small groups," he said. "They get into our teacher prep program, and they actually teach in our classrooms while we work with them to get certification. So, we're actually building our own bench of teachers."
For parents who have been wondering about the status of the district's $700 million, 20-year facility plan, Vitti said new schools are in the works.
According to Vitti, Cody High School will be demolished and a new school will be built.
Pershing High School will be renovated and a new building will be added to it.
A new school will also be built in Southwest Detroit focused on the arts.
Vitti also said in the next five years, all DPSCD schools will have air conditioning.
"What is your top priority for the school district this year?” 7 Action News Morning Anchor Alicia Smith asked Vitti.
“Our priority is always to raise student achievement. And when we talk about student achievement, we're talking about moving more students to being ‘at’ and ‘above grade level’ in reading and math and then more students being 'college ready' when we think about the latter part of middle school and high school," Vitti said. "(I'm) really proud that when we look back at last year, we made improvement when you look at 2021-2022 versus 2022-to-2023 school year in all areas. But [I'm] really proud of the fact that when the state data is released in literacy, we're going to be above where we were before the pandemic in literacy, right where we were in math, but definitely higher in college readiness.”
Vitti said this year, the key is to reduce student absenteeism. He said educators know when students miss less than nine days in a school year, they are 3-5 times more likely to be "at" or "above grade level" in reading and math and to be 'collegeready.'
So, Vitti is reminding parents that it's important for your child to come to school the first day and every day after, and to make tardiness and absenteeism the exception — not the norm or even a monthly occurrence.
