Mesa Public Schools will focus more on retaining its students as the head count continues to drop in the state’s largest district. Officials said last week that the number of students projected for the 2024-25 school year in MPS was 54,306 – a loss of 970 K-12 students or a 1.75% drop from the prior academic year. The projection was based on Oct. 1 enrollment data from the Arizona Department of Education.