Original Research by School Decision on Waterford Durant High School
Waterford Durant High School is an alternative public high school in the Waterford School District, sitting on North Cass Lake Road in Waterford Township, Oakland County. It serves grades nine through twelve, though its enrollment is small and dramatically weighted toward upperclassmen, with the vast majority of students in twelfth grade and a substantial share in eleventh. No ninth graders are currently enrolled. That grade pattern is consistent with what alternative schools often do: serving students who arrive needing a different path to a diploma, whether through credit recovery, a smaller setting, or a fresh start after a transfer. The school's racial and ethnic mix is diverse, with white students forming a slim majority, Hispanic students the next largest group, and Black students well represented. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Data on individualized education programs and English learner status was not reported, so those populations cannot be characterized here.
State assessment results were not available for this school, and no graduation rate, chronic absenteeism figure, or proficiency index was reported. The neighbor comparison set, which positions this school relative to districts in Oakland County, could not place Durant on any of those metrics because the underlying values are missing. This is common for alternative schools, which often sit outside standard accountability measures because of their specialized purpose and transient enrollment. A parent may want to ask the school directly about how it tracks student progress and completion if those figures matter to their decision.
Waterford Township itself is a sprawling charter township roughly thirty miles northwest of Detroit, defined by its dozens of named lakes and its suburban, low-density residential character. There is no traditional walkable downtown. Civic life clusters around the Civic Center Complex on Civic Center Drive, which holds the township hall, police station, and district court, along with the public library. Commercial activity runs along strip corridors like Dixie Highway and M-59. The township has weathered economic difficulty after losing two major commercial tax sources, the Summit Place Mall and a General Motors facility, both now closed. Major employers today are largely governmental and educational, including Oakland County government, Oakland Schools intermediate district headquarters, and Oakland Community College's Highland Lakes Campus. The Oakland County International Airport is also a significant infrastructure anchor.
The housing market around Durant is moderate for Oakland County. Typical home values in the school's zip code sit below both the state and national benchmarks, making this one of the more affordable corners of an otherwise affluent county. Rents are modest relative to income. Countywide, the market shows healthy listing activity with a moderate pace of sales, and median listing prices have softened somewhat year over year.
The Waterford School District is in a period of consolidation. In June 2025, the board voted to close Kettering High School, the district's oldest, and redistribute its students into Mott and Durant beginning in the 2026-2027 school year. The move follows a long enrollment decline and is expected to produce budget savings. For Durant, this means the school will be absorbing displaced Kettering students, which could change its size and character in the near term. The district has also passed two bond measures recently, one in late 2022 and another in mid-2024, funding roof repairs, safety upgrades, technology, STEM lab conversions, and athletic facility improvements across its buildings.
For a family considering Durant, the central question is whether an alternative setting fits the student. The school offers a small environment with an older peer group, and its role is about getting students across the graduation finish line rather than providing a conventional comprehensive high school experience. With Kettering's closure reshaping enrollment patterns, the school is also entering a transition period that a parent would want to understand before committing.
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