Improving School Enrollments

(This was the final portion of my "No Cost, High Impact School Makeover" workshop that I hosted at the national NCEA Conference in April of 2023.)

What is the first priority in a good admissions program?

1. Masking sure all admissions brochures and flyers look professional. Hiring a graphics designer to give them a polished look.
2. Getting prospective families on campus as often as possible.
3. Personalizing all the interactions with prospective families. Emphasizing relationships over efficiency. 
4. Lowering the attrition rates of current students by being responsive to their needs and their families’ concerns.

I asked this question in preparation for my workshop and about a third responded. I personally believe all of these are good practices. 18/27 said personalizing was most important. 6/27 said getting families on campus. 3/27 said lowering the attrition rates. So there was divided opinion in the room! 

Even so, I believe lowering attrition rates (or the flip: improving retention rates) is the first priority!  And often, that’s the one we forget about, probably because it doesn’t fit neatly into one person’s job description. Indeed, it must be the emphasis of every person in the school—principal, teachers and all staff members. The admissions office can keep track of who leaves, but it has very little influence upon those who do. 

Why should improving retention be the #1 priority? 

When families choose our schools, they re-orient their life to that school. A student’s friendships are formed there. Parents begin to associate with other parents, developing friendships of their own. We are familiar to them, especially compared to the unknown alternative. It ought to be far easier to retain a family than to persuade a new one to join us! So to begin with, it’s good tactics! But it’s much more important than that, as I will explain in this article.

But how do we retain families? By going above and beyond. 

When my daughter got married, she thought it would be a great idea if the entire wedding party—groomsmen, bridesmaids and immediate family members—all decided to stay in the same hotel for the few days leading up to the wedding. She picked a very nice hotel in downtown Mobile, called the “Battle House Hotel,” with an antebellum theme: furniture, a ballroom, and the like, playing into Mobile’s pre-Civil war heritage. The first morning I was there, I went to the hotel lobby, looking for a newspaper. “Is there a copy of the New York Times I can purchase in the hotel?,” I asked the clerk. “No,” he said apologetically, “but there’s a  news stand just around the corner. ” “Thanks,” I said, and happily went there to purchase one. But the next morning, folded neatly against my hotel room door, was the new day’s copy of the New York Times. Ever since, when someone asks me about the Battle House, I say instantly, “Oh, that’s a REALLY good hotel” without much thought. Why? Because some clerk had gone “above and beyond” to make me happy over a decade ago. 

We need to start thinking this way in our schools. I have a few ideas how:

1. As principals, we’re often required to meet with parents about something they’re unhappy about. Parents come into our meetings worried that we’ll regard them as “Karens,” but they also know that it’s our job to meet them. But what they do NOT expect is what I call the “Two Week Follow-up.” When I have a meeting, I mark my calendar two weeks from the meeting to call the parents back and ask if the “situation is getting any better.” Or more often, I just ask the kid. Rest assured, that one minute interaction with the child gets back to the parents! And it does three things:  First, it assures the parent I have taken them seriously and I  don’t regard them poorly. Second, the parent and child know I care for them. Third, it helps me as the school’s leader—follow up is an important leadership trait—and the looping back improves accountability for whatever arrangements were made.
2. Offer to meet face to face when you get the ugly email. Don’t argue over email! It just gets worse. Instead, ask parents to meet you. It’s disarming, and often, the parents have calmed down a bit and can have a rational discussion. My go to line is “Let’s see if we can meet to resolve this issue.“ Even if we can’t fully agree, they appreciate that we’ve taken them seriously and are willing to invest our personal time to resolve the matter. My wife once wrote the mayor to complain about the widening of a road near our home. To her astonishment, he called her on the phone and explained why he disagreed with her and thought the widening was good for the neighborhood. She voted for him in every subsequent election. 
3. Do the unexpected. A mother called an 8th grade teacher whom the girls greatly admired, expressing worry about her daughter’s social relationships with the other girls. The teacher said, “I’ve noticed that Susie seems a bit down lately. I will ask her to sit with me at lunch today and ask her to tell me what’s going on.” The mother, in telling me about this teacher’s kind response, was nearly in tears. I guarantee you this family will not be transferring their younger children anywhere else!

And that raises an important point about “above and beyond.” When TEACHERS develop this mindset, special things happen! When we started St. Michael in Fairhope in 2016, all 12 of the first teachers were fully bought into this notion, and we increased enrollment by almost 100 students each of the next two years! 

If teachers balk on going the extra mile, because "that’s not in his or her contract," challenge that attitude! And if they don’t respond to the challenge, find a way to let them go. We can do better.

Do we remember the three most important things about real estate? Location, location and location, right? Well the three most important things about retention are similar: Relationships, relationships, relationships. 

Another important way to improve retention rates is to focus on the student to student relationships. A class is a lot like a spinning top. Those students on the outer edges—the kids who are not the “ insiders”— feel the centrifugal forces most powerfully when it spins, and as the class matriculates  year to year, they’re the ones most likely to be spun off and withdraw. That’s especially true if the “insider” students (and their parents) are inclined to be  “cliquish.” So as principal, I go right to the core students and challenge them to bring the outsiders into the center with them. They know exactly what I mean. 

Another idea: Every other year I do a “school activities audit,” asking this simple question: Is there a place for everyone here? If kids can join up with other kids and participate in something they enjoy, it pulls them into the life of the school.  A good place to begin that audit? Go out to the parking lot at dismissal and pay close attention to who leaves campus first. They’re the ones most likely to withdraw. Look at our offerings through their eyes: is there something for them? That’s why we started our bowling team at St. Michael. We realized it would appeal to a completely different type of kid than our other athletic programs. We were right!  They had so much fun together, even though most of them weren’t very good bowlers, but who cares? 

Another: Consider starting a peer ministry program. About 4 years ago, we assembled a group of kids whose sole mission was to look out for their peers—particularly freshmen and transfers. In the first few weeks of school especially, they were trained to watch out for students eating alone at lunch, for example, and if they saw someone, they’d go sit next to him or her and begin a conversation. They’d invite him or her to eat with them the next day, to come to the ball games with them, and to sit with them at school events. It was absolutely beautiful to watch them in action. Eventually, slowly, even the most timid of the new students would get over the “hump” and begin feeling like they belonged. 

Finally, consider imposing a substantial penalty for early withdrawals. Put it in the enrollment contract. Many schools say “100% of tuition due,” but I never felt good about demanding that, especially for early year withdrawals. So we settled on the phrase “$2,000 penalty for early withdrawal or the remainder of the tuition, whichever is less.” The truth is, it isn’t really about the school collecting lost revenue! It’s about creating a disincentive for parents to yank their kids out whenever they’re having social problems or struggling academically! Too often, the parents cripple their children with  “the grass is always greener” syndrome.Kids need to learn some grittiness by working through it!

The results of these and other retention initiatives were rather dramatic at St. Michael. The National Association of Independent Schools reports their retention rates average 88% to 90%. I consider 92-95% to be good to very good. In a 2 year period, with the changes I’ve discussed, we went from 88% retention (or 12% attrition) to 95% retention—a difference of about 22 kids a year.  (*)

And that isn’t  just a financial success.  If we have happier kids, we have happier parents. And if we have happier parents, we then have ambassadors who speak well of us to prospective families, just like I speak well of the Battle House. 

So in a real way, focusing on retention isn’t just the basis of a good admissions program. It’s the first priority for a school's marketing program as well! More  importantly, it's the basis for a school with healthier, happier kids! 

(* ) To calculate annual retention rates, pick a fixed date somewhere near the beginning of the year. For us, I pick September 15 because there’s a lot of incoming and outgoing students early on, and by mid September, most of that has settled. Then count the number of students you have on that date, minus your 8th graders or seniors who will naturally move on at the end of the year. Write down that number. Then keep a tally of any kid who leaves for any reason in those grades, up until (September 15) of next year. It doesn’t matter when or why—over Christmas, during the summer, whether they voluntarily left or were expelled. All the reasons count. Then, total those who have left, and divide that number by your total students (not counting seniors or 8th) from last September 15. That’s your retention rate. The flip of that (100% -your retention rate) is your annual attrition. Some attrition, of course, is unavoidable. Jobs require families to move. A child simply cannot handle the academic program. A divorce changes a family’s economic equation. But I try not to let changing economic situations factor in, if that’s truly the reason a family is contemplating withdrawing, by offering additional aid. 

A No-Cost, High Impact School Makeover (Part III)

(This is part III of a talk I gave at the NCEA Convention on using language to re-invent our schools.)

5) Our language should communicate our joyfulness!  Perhaps because we unconsciously associate the idea of “carrying one’s cross” with suffering and pain,  we’ve convinced ourselves that Christianity is only for the miserable. But the most authentic Christians I’ve known are people of great joy! We need to communicate that to our students and families! Our web pages should be filled with happy children and stunning HD video of our kids enjoying their classmates and teachers! 

We should also make time in our school schedules for “fun” things. In my two previous schools, we were structured with “Houses” ala the British boarding schools, and the school calendar was punctuated by mini-competitions between the Houses, culminating in the “House Games” at the end of April, where we suspended classes to have academic and athletic competitions in the afternoon.  At the end of the Games, we’d award the “House Cup” to the House with the most total points for the year. I encouraged kids to dress up in their house colors, in whatever crazy (but modest) way they wanted, to show their House Spirit. It was a gloriously fun, joyful day, with a lot of cheering and smiles! 

It’s good to celebrate every now and then! 

6) Our language needs to communicate our confidence! Our schools change lives! Do we really believe that? Then let’s communicate it! 

Is that being cocky? Not at all! Here's why:

In the story of blind Bartemaeus from the gospels, Bartemaues shouts out from a distance:  “Jesus, have pity on me!” Jesus hears him, but doesn’t go to him. Instead, he tells the apostles, “Go bring him to me.” So the apostles go to him and say, “Take courage, get up, Jesus is calling you.” And they bring him to Jesus, who heals him.

We are “ministers, not messiahs,” as the Bishop Hunthausen prayer reminds us. We are not the ones who heal.  Instead, we are the ones who say to our students, “Take courage! Get up, Jesus is calling you!” Our mission is to bring students to the Lord. Our confidence in our schools to is not based on some egotistical, arrogant belief in ourselves, but in the faith we have in Christ to heal those we bring to him. 

So let us boldly proclaim: Our schools change lives! 

Too often pessimism creeps into our language.  Especially if we’re struggling for enrollment or if our financial margins are thin, we might say, “Our hands are tied.” Or “We would if we could, but we don’t have the money." Because of scarcity, we stop dreaming. When we do that, we communicate to families that we are puny, and don’t have the "power" to fulfill our mission. 

One of the mistakes we make, in this regard, is we set our tuitions too low. I know we do that out of our concern for our poorest families, and it's partly our legacy from the sisters, who worked heroically for very little pay.  But if we present ourselves as the Kmart of educational choices, people will regard us as that way! In a free market economy, people equate price with quality. People say, “I wonder why they can't  charge as much as everyone else?" Even our own parents think, unreflectively, that we should charge less (but offer the same or better programs as those who charge more!). We have to wean our families and communities of this notion! I believe we should aim our tuitions to the middle of the market, step-laddering them higher over a 3-5 year period,  and give appropriate financial aid to help our most vulnerable families. Not only will it provide us more income to pay our teachers better and do new things, it'll reposition us in the marketplace as a school of greater value. 

Can we quit thanking parents, please, for “sacrificing” to send their children to us? Literally, to “sacrifice” means to give something up and expect little in return! We don’t praise parents for “sacrificing” to purchase a new car, or to go on vacation, or to buy a new home. Why not? Because we see these things as necessary or important  Paying tuition for our schools is not charity work! It’s the best investment parents can ever make in their children's future! 

Do we know that small schools generally out-perform larger ones? The data is clear. At St. Michael, a school of just 350 students, I linked those research studies to our web site.  Also, small schools know the students in a personal way that is nearly impossible for larger schools. When we give tours to prospective families, for example, as we go down the hallways, we should be deliberate in interacting with students:  “Good hit yesterday, Johnny.” “Nice point you made in class this morning, Bill.” “I was so excited to watch you at the ballet last weekend, Susie.” Let parents understand if they send their children to our schools, we will know them personally. 

I am not an expert in the martial arts, but my understanding is that “jujitsu” teaches people to use their smaller, more nimble size as an advantage against larger, stronger opponents—showing them, for example, how to “throw” aggressors when they attack, by using their momentum against them. 

As smaller schools, we need to practice jujitsu! Let’s project our confidence--maybe even a little swagger! 

“Clothes make the man.” There is great truth in that, which is why the military insists its soldiers wear uniforms, and why it pays such careful attention to keeping those uniforms properly washed, pressed and worn correctly. The military understands that careful attention to the exterior garb begins to make a profound difference to the soldier’s interior self-understanding and attitude. 

We in Catholic schools need to “cloak” ourselves in language which reminds our teachers and families of our fundamental “why,” a language which is simple and direct, that reflects the challenge of the gospel, which welcomes families from other faiths, and that is both joyful and confident!  If we do, it’ll change us from the inside out, thus “re-presenting” ourselves to our communities and towns! 

May God give us the wisdom, eloquence and conviction to do so!