School superintendents face enrollment challenges, ponder solutions

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed the state’s new education budget inside Suttons Bay High School on July 20, 2023.

By Minnie Bardenhagen

Sun contributor

According to MI School Data, the Michigan state government’s official education data source, all public schools in Leelanau County have a lower K-12 student body count than they did 23 years ago. though to varying degrees.

In the 2002-2003 school year—which is how far back the available data goes—Glen Lake and Suttons Bay had similar numbers: 931 and 1050, respectively. In the 2025-2026 school year, Glen Lake had the highest student body count in the County at 779. While this is 16% less than 2002-2003, Glen Lake School has experienced rising enrollment for the past several years.

Glen Lake’s increasing enrollment is an anomaly in Leelanau County, where school-age children are increasingly harder to come by.

Northport Public School sat at 114 in the 2025-2026 school year, down 58% from the 2002-2003 school year.

“Our rate of decline, I would say, is currently less deep than the county average,” Northport superintendent Neil Wetherbee said, “But when you have a small number of kids, it’s more noticeable.”

Leland’s student count remains relatively stagnant when compared to 2002-2003, with only a 3.3% decrease since then.

Suttons Bay Schools had 321 students in this past school year, 69% less than 23 years ago. Its superintendent, Casey Petz, attributed enrollment decline to several issues, such as lack of affordable housing in the county, high cost of living, families in the district choosing other schools, and a declining birth rate.

“65, 68-year-olds and up are not having kids,” said Petz. “But they are buying houses here.”

Wetherbee felt similarly.

“It’s pretty hard for families who are working at local service industry jobs and taking care of the farms,” said Wetherbee, “Most of our decline currently is families that are leaving the county.”

So, Why Does It Matter?

Northport and Suttons Bay are both out-of-formula school districts, meaning that there is enough tax revenue from high property values to exceed the per-pupil allowance allocated by the state.

Therefore, the incentive to increase enrollment is not financial, but centered around curricular and extracurricular opportunities for students.

“We want enough kids in our classrooms to have variety in our course catalog and have those classes be full,” Petz said.

“If you have opportunities for kids that include high-quality programs and instruction, the families are going to choose you.”

He also argued that classes that have more students are easier to teach. With low numbers, “It’s hard to do group work, it’s hard to have that diversity of thought, it’s hard to have collaboration, calibration, and cooperation.”

Wetherbee said that extracurricular opportunities such as athletics play a large role as well. Northport’s athletics programs are largely partnerships with other schools, such as Suttons Bay. He says that reliance on co-op sports teams will likely rise for most county schools.

Besides opportunities for students, Wetherbee said that the decline in students in Leelanau County will affect the quality of life for residents and tourists.

“Every student that we lose in the county… that’s a summer employee.”

Solutions

On some level, the factors contributing to the decline in student numbers are beyond schools’ control.

“You can’t make people move here,” Wetherbee said.

However, both Suttons Bay and Northport see opportunities to help students and families stay in the county.

“One of the things that we recognize in our district is that in order for us to exist as a school, our young people need to be able to afford to have kids,” said Petz.

Petz emphasized the importance of offering affordable childcare, as well as free lunch and breakfast. He also stressed making sure staff have fair wages and access to good insurance.

Petz outlined ways to incentivize families to choose Suttons Bay Schools: establish clear value sets, offer high-quality programs and instruction, and connect and engage with the community.

“If somebody is here, we want them to feel that sense of belonging,” Petz said. He also emphasized the importance of establishing trust in the community: “If families don’t know you, they’re not coming here.”

Wetherbee believes it is important to focus on the students that they already have at Northport, and take steps to provide them with the best education possible.

“I love when students graduate and go off and see the world, and then want to come back to the county,” said Wetherbee, “That to me is the ultimate win… when you’ve had the chance to explore and realize this is where you want to be and not just where you default to.”

Wetherbee cited the Traverse City Northwest Ed Career Tech Center as an important partner in preparing students for the workforce and connecting students to local opportunities.

While neither superintendent predicted an overall rise in enrollment in the near future, Petz expressed optimism that enrollment at Suttons Bay will stabilize and maybe increase in some areas.

“Many of the families in our district were choosing other districts. If we were to just slowly chip away at that, we actually have the opportunity to grow as opposed to looking at our district and going, ‘oh, we’re just going to shrink forever.’”