SchoolAdvancement (TM) Helping Schools Advance Toward Their Vision

MARKETING

Click here for this week's free marketing tip, Marketing Matters ^(SM)!

ENROLLMENT

Click here to find out more about BASICS - a FREE TOOL to help bring more students into your school! Enrollment Estimators (TM) are now available for the 12-13 school year!!

DEVELOPMENT

Development Development

A monthly article to help you form a development mindset from a fundraising one. Click here for this month's artilcle!. If you're already developed in Development, and want to advance toward an Advancement mindset, check out Advancementality:. Every week, a new post is made to advance your ability to attain an attitude necessary for Advancement.

PRESENTATIONS

Access to presentations given throughout the year can be found here!

* "Miracle Marketing" - For those in the Diocese of Harrisburg, click here to view or download the presentation. For those in the Diocese of Buffalo, click here to view or download the presentation.

* "Retention: The First Step To Growing Your Enrollment"

For those in the Diocese of Harrisburg, click here to download handouts from the presentation.

For those that attendend the NYSCIRS Conference in Albany, click here to download handouts from the presentation.

For those that attended the Alliance of Catholic Schools of Lancaster County, click here to download handouts from the presentation.

For those that attended the West Virginia Christian Education Association Conference, click here to download handouts from the presentation.

Welcome to Duality

Now that school is back in session, and, for many schools, the second semester has started, a very interesting time period has begun. It's a time when school administrators live in two different worlds simultaneously - utilizing managerial skills to get through the rest of this year, and employing leadership strengths to see the future to plan for the next school year.

For many administrators, this is a very difficult time. First, allow me to offer a word of encouragement to say that this is nothing new. In fact, it is what every believer struggles with on a daily basis. We are in this world, but we are not of it. For Christians, we are a people of duality, following one who was duality personified, both true God and true Man. As Christians, we must recognize the power of the "and."

It is the same with systems thinking. As it pertains to your school, remember that it's not just development, it's not just enrollment, and it's not just great marketing. It's all those things - AND more - all working together.

As your school begins to plan its budget for the coming school year, this may be the time you are to consider raising your tuition. You may not want to because of difficult economic times that your parents are experiencing. However, you may be looking at your cash flow at this point of the year, realizing that every December, January and February are your most difficult financial times of the year. Not because it's the "middle of year syndrome" (as one school told me), but because there are other "obligations" that parents feel take a higher priority - like Christmas gifts, and the ability to pay for them; or, perhaps a family lost their main source of income unexpectedly at the end of the calendar year; or, perhaps heating and electric bills are taking their toll on the family's budget right now.

Then the rumblings begin...and the grumbling begins.

If you have parents that are then openly discussing potential tuition increases, or, worse, potential closure because they can't figure out how the school is going to continue to attract and keep students if you announce a tuition increase, then how can they be expected to provide the positive word of mouth marketing that is essential to bring new parents to your school so they can enroll their children? If that's what keeps you up at night at this time of the year, it's time to have a conversation with your parents - all of them...not just the ones that come to the PTG meetings.

Just as businesses and corporations have meetings to discuss marketing, this is a great time to meet with your marketing team - not just the small group of people that meets monthly to come up with ideas on how to market the school, but with the entire marketing team - your current parents and guardians. They are your best marketers, and must provide positive word of mouth about your school to help it to grow. If they leave, your marketing force shrinks. Further, a family that leaves means you must bring in even more children just to keep enrollment steady. And since tuition is a function of the number of families in the school, any family that leaves has just made it more difficult for everyone else to remain a part of the school community.

Catholic Schools Week is coming up in a couple of weeks. Some Christian schools have even banded together to create Christian Schools Month in February. These are the times to celebrate with your current parents and guardians - and I'm sure there will be some point at every celebratory event where you can speak a few words of thanks and encouragement, but also convey the truth about remaining as a vital part of the school community and become evangelists for the school. It is the message that you must share with them. In the spirit of celebration, they need to spread the word of celebration to their friends and neighbors so that others will come and see what all the energy, excitement, and enthusiasm is all about!