Over the last few years here at Spring Lake Schools, school enrollment has decreased. Less families are moving here and there is one main reason for that: housing prices are too high and few homes are ever available for sale.
Here in Spring lake, young families with school-aged children are mostly affected because they are the most sensitive to high prices and limited housing choices. Due to them not being able to afford housing here, they choose affordable housing in other school districts.
Additionally, longtime residents are staying in their homes much longer than later generations did. The benefits of keeping your house for a decade or more allow for low interest rates on mortgage or low tax outcomes. This causes the age makeup of the Spring Lake community to be on the older end, away from young kids who would go to school.
Due to Spring Lake’s high water table and large amount of wetland, it is difficult to build new homes. Although there are a lot of physical and geographical limits, there is still buildable land but building companies focus on building expensive and large homes that not many people can afford. So while there are houses for sale, the only option ends up being high priced ones.
All of this information is credited to https://www.housingnext.org/.
Another interesting fact regarding enrollment was the most recent “count day” for Spring Lake Public schools, on February 11. February 11 was the day after mid-winter break for the district—which is really unlucky due to people still being out of town. The recorded number of students ended up to be a record low.
The amount of students counted determines the amount of money the school will receive. Not getting a valuable amount of money can affect students academically, the amount or quality of teachers hired, and materials able to be provided.
