Gayle Iverson, principal of Hayes Elementary School in Fridley, thinks a lot about the children who don't attend her school, at least not yet.
She visits nearby preschools and kindergartens and encourages families who have many options to send their child to preschool. And she's quick to take photos and videos of fun school traditions to share on the district's social media.
"You went to a local school and you didn't have a choice of where else to go, but that hasn't been the case for a long time," said Josh Collins, director of public relations for Fridley Public Schools.
The number of traditional public schools in Minnesota has declined for the third year in a row as families choose other options. Charter and private schools are seeing enrollment growth, and the number of homeschoolers in the state has increased during the pandemic. When the new school year begins Tuesday, district officials hope to reverse that trend.
This means that they think about how and who to target their schools. State funding is awarded to the student, so student engagement and retention is critical to the district's bottom line. With each student contributing nearly $10,000 to the school, losing that money can be expensive for even a few families.
The words "customer," "marketing" or "brand" are considered dirty words in education and community relations, said Julie Schultz Brown, the recently retired director of marketing and communications for Minneapolis Public Schools. But that has changed in recent years, thanks to the rise in student numbers and the spread of social media.
"We're going to keep a 150-year-old institution like Minneapolis [Public Schools], and if we're being real, we have to think about what our audience wants," Schulz-Brown said.
To address declining enrollment?
MPS, which served about 35,000 students in 2016, has dropped to 28,000. With further cutbacks forecast, Minneapolis school district officials stepped up efforts to support the city's schools.
County staff participated in community events and demonstrations and prioritized targeted marketing efforts. This includes distribution of distribution information, billboards and video messages at gas stations in the city.
"We try to reach out to families after the baby is born so they get something at least once a year to let them know that MPS is one of their options," Schultz-Brown said.
The province will also launch a new website later in the year.
St. Paul schools, where enrollment will drop by nearly 1,000 between 2021 and fall 2022, has released a catalog to help parents understand the many options available to the district's 33,000 students. These offerings include language immersion and magnet schools, as well as International Baccalaureate and Montessori programs.
"With so many options inside and outside the public school district, families can have a hard time finding something else," said Erika Wacker, director of community relations for St. Paul Public Schools, said.
This year St. Paul shares at six schools: Hamlin Elementary School, Haywood Hills Elementary School, Riverview Elementary Spanish/English Dual Immersion Elementary School, Cherokee Heights Elementary School, Dayton Bluff Elementary School and Upper Tuxudge launched a marketing effort to increase student engagement. University of Hmong Language and Culture. These schools will each receive $50,000 in marketing support. The new East African magnet school will have a similar marketing budget, Walker said.
The district also uses billboards, digital displays and social media displays to promote the district's school choice fair and recently partnered with Shelta Brundage, a local radio host and podcaster.
A survey under St. However, Paul parents found that most parents used "recommendations from friends and family" to find and choose a school.
“Word of mouth is still important,” Walker said. And marketing efforts "should never be a substitute for a quality product, and if it's behind it, it won't be effective."
Selling success and community
Enrollment at Minnetonka Public Schools has remained stable in recent years, reflecting the district's aggressive open enrollment strategy to attract unenrolled students. 40% of the students of the district study openly.
According to Jacqui Getty, Minnetonka Schools' executive director of communications, the district uses "authentic content" as "the best way to get our schools out there." That means sharing student success stories and videos and meeting with families more often, she said.
The principal's Instagram account has more than 5,700 followers in the district and has about 11,000 students. And last spring, the curator began hosting a podcast that offers a new way to connect with families.
While metropolitan parents may have more school choice than rural parents, small-district leaders are considering what message to send to the community.
Kari Juntunen, principal of Proctor Public Schools in northern Minnesota, has two daughters who work in marketing. According to Juntunen, dinner table conversations often center around, "Dad, what's the history of Proctor Public Schools?" That is the question.
She answered. The district's small class size of about 1,800 students, vocational and technical education in the high school career education program and commitment to school-community partnerships.
"One of the things I have noticed about the children and parents here is that they are very helpful. They have a strong sense of community and know what to do for each other," Juntunen said. "We can sell."
Even though the district is too small to have a dedicated public relations team, Proctor schools staff are getting help from #SocialSchool4EDU, a Minnesota-based company that is helping to train more than a dozen schools in the state to "the storytellers on social learn media. "Respect your students and staff from the crowd of other schools and reach thousands of people in your area every day," the website said.
School scenes
For Fridley school leaders, the return to a distance learning culture during the pandemic was an opportunity to rethink marketing efforts.
Fridley schools had about 2,500 students last school year, up from 2,900 in 2017-2018. About 25% of students in the district chose to enroll outside the district last year.
But attracting students from elsewhere bucked that trend somewhat, with more than 40% of students at Fridley schools enrolling directly elsewhere last year.
"I think one way to promote our school is to share stories about its beauty," Hayes Principal Iverson said.
The key to success, says PR director Collins, is to show parents something real, not a high-end product.
This can be a photo or a short video of the school.
"Who could be a better storyteller than a happy child?" - he said.
