Original Research by School Decision on White Pine Academy
White Pine Academy was a tuition-free public charter school serving kindergarten through eighth grade in Leslie, Michigan. It is no longer operating. The school closed as of June 30, 2023, which means families in the area no longer have access to this charter option and must seek alternative placements for their children. Student records, publicly reported, are available through a forwarding address in Southfield.
Because the school has closed, there is little current data to evaluate. State assessment results from the final reporting year show every tested grade and subject with zero test takers, and all proficiency rates are suppressed as a result. This does not reflect poor performance. It reflects a school that had already wound down by the time testing would have occurred, or had too few students in each grade to produce reportable results. There is no enrollment figure, no demographic breakdown, no free-or-reduced-price lunch rate, no staffing data, and no program information available in the records we reviewed. A parent looking at historical academic outcomes will not find them in the available data.
The school sat at 510 Russell Street in Leslie, a small rural-residential community in Ingham County positioned between Lansing to the north and Jackson to the south. Publicly reported sources describe Leslie as having a real Main Street with shops, eateries, and services, but the overall character is primarily residential with a small-town feel. Huntoon Creek runs through downtown past the city's Little League fields. Most residents commute elsewhere for work, and the city relies almost entirely on personal vehicles. The housing market in the school's zip code sits below the state benchmark for typical home values, and well below the national benchmark, which is consistent with Leslie's affordable, owner-occupied housing stock. Year-over-year home value growth has been modest.
Leslie itself is not experiencing rapid development. Population has been relatively stable to slightly declining. Recent capital activity has centered on public infrastructure rather than new housing, including the demolition of an old middle school building in 2023. The broader Leslie Public Schools district operates four buildings serving the community, and according to publicly reported information, the Leslie Learning Center was formerly White Pine Academy. That suggests the building or program may have been absorbed into the local district in some form, though the charter entity itself is closed.
For a parent encountering this school in a search, the essential fact is that White Pine Academy is closed and cannot be chosen. Families who previously enrolled here would have needed to transition to other schools, likely within the Leslie Public Schools district or neighboring charter options. The closure eliminated the only school in the charter district, so there is no successor charter within this entity. A parent interested in charter school options in the Leslie area would need to look at other charter schools in Ingham County or surrounding areas, or consider the traditional public schools in Leslie, which serve students across four buildings from elementary through high school.
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