Career Connections Academy

Career Connections Academy, a rural-scale high school in WAYLAND, Michigan, operated by Wayland Union Schools, educates 37 students, covering grades 9 through 12. By comparison, Michigan's public schools average about 460 students each, so Career Connections Academy sits 92% smaller than that benchmark.

Within Wayland Union Schools, which oversees 7 schools and 2,708 students, Career Connections Academy is one campus in the system.

Demographically, Career Connections Academy lists that 95% of students identify as White, making the school strongly White-majority; the rest reads as 3% Hispanic, 3% Black.

On the income-and-resources front, Staff filings list 28 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 1.3:1 students per teacher. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 21.6:1 average. An estimated 54% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, often used as a Title I proxy. By comparison, Allegan County runs at roughly 43%, so the school's eligibility rate is somewhat above the surrounding baseline.

Around the school, community-level numbers for Allegan County indicate median household earnings sit near $83,283, about 27% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and the poverty rate sits near 5%. Across Allegan County's 55 public schools (combined enrollment of about 17,174 students), Career Connections Academy is one campus in the mix.

Wayland High School is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.0 miles from this campus. 5 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius.

Geographically, the school is in a town-center area.

Over the past 7-year window. Career Connections Academy's enrollment has declined 42% since 2018, when it stood at 64 (now 37). White enrollment moved from 88% to 95% across the same window. Class-load math has narrowed: from 22.9:1 in 2018 to 1.3:1 in 2025.

On the community side, members of the Career Connections Academy community share and discuss pickup logistics, teacher feedback, and after-school programs. Members of the school community can share what they know.