Fall into Tech — and a Smooth Enrollment Season

With October almost behind us — and with it — the hustle and bustle of count day, now’s the time to prep for next school year’s upcoming enrollment windows. There is little rest for those of us in the charter school space. While it's a critical time for charter schools across Colorado, it also presents an opportunity to reflect on what’s working and where tech might lend a hand.

This month’s newsletter is all about harnessing technology to streamline communication and enrollment processes. Whether it’s automating emails, using analytics to target prospective families, or just making your open enrollment period as smooth as possible, we've got insights to make your work a little easier — and your weekends a little freer!

Let’s dive in and explore how tech can help you stay ahead.

Community Engagement & Student Enrollment: Post Oct. Count
Oct. 30   |   11:45 PM - 1:15 PM   |   Virtual
This hybrid series of community engagement, school recruitment and continuous enrollment workshops offered by the League is the next step in development for both school leaders and site-based owners of enrollment and community engagement. This virtual session is focused on enrollment strategies post-October count.  

Community Engagement & Student Enrollment: Best Practices
Nov. 13   |   11:45 AM - 1:15 PM   |   Virtual
Hosted by the League and focused on a top-down approach, our goal is to drive best practices that help schools grow, expand and meet enrollment goals. This workshop will highlight best practices specific to community engagement. 

CONNECT Lunch and Learn: The Do’s and Don’ts of Social Media for Schools**
Nov.  14   |   12:00 PM - 1:00 PM   |   Virtual
November’s CONNECT meeting is a virtual get-together with guest speaker and school marcomms cheerleader Andrea Gribble of SocialSchool4EDU. Walk away with clear, actionable steps to enhance your school's online presence and celebrate your community effectively. Add to your calendar and grab the Zoom Link here.

**One lucky attendee will receive a free 6-month membership to #SocialSchool4EDU's Membership Program, where you’ll be trained to be a social media storyteller. Stand out from other schools, celebrate your students and staff, and reach thousands in your community every day. Must be present to win.**

CONNECT Workshop at the Charter School Leadership Summit
Oct. 11   |   Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center
Our CONNECT workshop kicked off with session one, Demography & Destiny: Navigating the Next Five Years, led by the League’s Kevin Hesla, Director of Data Strategy, and Bill Knous, Director of Charter School Growth. The second session, Updating & Embracing Technology Accessibility Requirements, covered HB21-1110 compliance and website accessibility, presented by Christine Toulouse, Director of Marketing & Communications at Global Village Academy Collaborative, and Amy Walldorf from Allyant.

We understand that some of you had to adjust your plans due to the day’s events, so we recorded the CONNECT sessions for you. You can access the recordings and slide decks from both presentations under the Documents tab in our online community. We are also bringing Amy back for a re-do at our January 9, 2025 session!

Free Election Toolkit
Engaging your school community in elections is a critical component for empowering your staff, families, and community to use collective action for the benefit of our schools and our students. By encouraging civic engagement and voter participation, you’ll not only influence positive election outcomes for charter schools but also build a greater sense of community across your charter school. From registration through Election Day (November 5th), our Voter Toolkit contains everything you need to engage members of your school community. 

Utilizing AI in School Offices to Increase Applications
For the admission office specifically, AI may seem like the antithesis of what is usually a very people-centric office. But AI doesn’t mean you have to lose that personal, human touch that makes families choose your school in the first place; it can actually make it easier to connect! Here’s what we learned about how this new technology can increase efficiency in admission departments and how AI can ultimately help increase school applications.

A Simple Guide To AI Content Marketing
The key to a successful AI content strategy is understanding the specific steps of your content strategy AI can automate and how to use it to ensure it executes those tasks effectively. In this post, we’ll discuss how and where you can incorporate AI into your content strategy to create more content that’s higher quality in less time.

6 Tips for Creating a Winning Email Marketing Calendar
The article offers actionable strategies for boosting email effectiveness. Key tips include planning promotions well in advance, maintaining a balanced email frequency, and incorporating varied content themes to keep engagement high.

Increase your K-12 School Enrollment with Drip Campaigns
As a K-12 school administrator, you may find yourself at a pivotal juncture. Standing out and creating meaningful connections with potential students and their families isn’t just an aspiration. It’s a necessity. Your hard work has garnered interest, but how do you sustain and deepen that engagement? This is where the power of a drip campaign shines.

How to Use Structured Data to Improve Your School Marketing SEO
In the ever-evolving landscape of digital marketing, ensuring your school stands out online can be a challenging endeavor. With competition at an all-time high, leveraging every possible advantage is crucial. One such advantage is the implementation of structured data. This powerful tool can significantly enhance your school’s search engine optimization (SEO), ensuring that your institution is prominently featured in search results and attracts the attention of prospective students and parents.

How to Repurpose Your Content for SEO Success
Repurposing content offers many benefits. It can help you perform better on search engines, reach broader audiences, reinforce your brand's message, establish a strong online presence and much more.

Digital Privacy: Protecting Your Students, Families, and School
In this podcast, Colin Anson from Pixevety shares with us what we need to know to protect the students at our schools, and at the same time protect our schools and faculty. This is a job of increasing complexity. And it is crucially important. Colin, his wife Tammy, and their company are experts in using technology to help secure the digital assets (photos and videos) our schools produce every day.

AI in School Marketing: Maximizing Impact with Limited Resources
Explore how AI transforms school marketing, enabling institutions to maximize impact with limited resources. AI tools are helping schools streamline content creation, enhance social media engagement, and optimize email campaigns.

Leveraging AI in Private School Marketing: A Deep Dive with ChatGPT
This discussion delves into how artificial intelligence, specifically ChatGPT, is transforming private school marketing and admissions, offering practical insights and innovative strategies.

El Paso County Donates Jeep to Colorado Springs Skilled Trade School
The Denver Gazette   |   Oct. 16
On Wednesday, El Paso County Public Works presented Power Technical charter school with a gift that officials say will give its students an invaluable opportunity for hands-on instruction.

Pagosa Charter School Takes Learning into the Community
Pagosa Daily Post   |   Oct. 4
Less than two months into the school year, every student at Pagosa Peak Open School has climbed aboard their bus and left the campus in search of answers to questions like, “How does my school compare to schools of the past?” and “How can I recognize and collaborate with neuro-divergent thinkers?”

‘Local is better’: Windsor Charter Academy celebrates Colorado Proud School Meal Day
Greeley Tribune   |   Oct. 2
Windsor Charter Academy feels “Colorado Proud” about its efforts to deliver delicious locally sourced, scratch-made food to students every day.

Southwest Open School Introduces New Food Program
The Journal   |   Sept. 25
Southwest Open School is working to help solve the food insecurity seen on the school’s campus, according to SWOS Director Casey Simpson.

Have any tips or resources you’d like to share? We’d love to hear from you!

Amanda Oberg, Senior Communications Manager, Colorado Charter School Institute
Meet Amanda Oberg, Senior Communications Manager for the Colorado Charter School Institute (CSI), and a true 90s kid at heart. Amanda’s professional expertise is unmatched. With years of experience at CSI, she’s become a communications powerhouse, and if she could teach a masterclass, it would be on writing—something she’s perfected over the years. 

Amanda grew up collecting rocks, in the Rocky Mountains no less, and has even tried their namesake oysters (though she was tricked!). Spoiler: she was not a fan. Pair that with her disdain for the smell (and taste) of raw onions and tuna fish, and you can bet Amanda’s not a ‘seafood’ aficionado. Nope, she’s more into fine dining—as in, she’s perfectly fine with Taco Bell every day for the rest of her life.

When she’s not managing all things communications, Amanda enjoys diving into a good book or watching horror movies, and being an extra in one would be a dream come true. The cherry on top? Sitting between Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson on set. But don’t confuse this scream queen with the movie’s stunt double; she doesn’t do skydiving. Never has, never will. 

She’s obsessed with St. Patrick’s Day (despite not being Irish), but this might leave you even more puzzled when she strolls through the door to the tune of Pitbull’s “Fireball” in overalls (they’re making a comeback, she insists) instead of The Cranberries’ "Zombie" in her cosplay outfit of choice—Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz.

Her desired superpower? Time travel, of course—because who wouldn’t want to hit rewind every now and then? Yellow brick roads or not, you won’t catch her cruising through tunnels without holding her breath and keeping her hands on the roof of her car—a weird superstition she’s fully embraced (and warns might be contagious, wink wink).

Connect with Lilly in our CONNECT Community or on LinkedIn.

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