The number of students attending Niles Community Schools is at a high not seen since spring 2008, according to preliminary figures released by the school Thursday afternoon.

Supt. Richard Weigel said the district has a preliminary fall student count of 3,925 — an increase of 55 students when compared to last year’s fall count of 3,870.

It is the largest number of students the district has seen since the spring 2008 count of 3,927.

“I am pleased to see the numbers,” Weigel said. “We’ve worked really hard to continue to build our programs … and it shows that our new programs are helping support the district.”

Michigan student count day was Wednesday. Student counts are done twice a year — once in the fall and once in the spring — to determine how much state aid a school district will receive.

The Niles district budgeted for a loss of 30 students, meaning they are in much better shape than anticipated, if the preliminary figures hold true. Weigel said the audited number could go up or down a few students.

“It will help us financially,” Weigel said.

The increase can be attributed in large part to the WAY Niles and WAY Forward programs. WAY Niles had an increase of 60 students, while WAY Forward had an increase of 20 students. WAY Forward is a new program this year.

Niles had a decrease of 10 students in grades kindergarten through 12.

Brandywine count holds steady

Brandywine’s unaudited student count sits at 1,400, just under the audited fall 2011 count of 1,401.

“We budgeted for about 1,395, so we’ll probably end up around where we expected to be,” Jarpe said. “We are about even with where we were at this time last year.”

Brandywine saw a decrease in alternative education students from around 40 last year to 33 this year.