CONNECT: March MarCom Madness

Springing Forward through the Madness

With spring break season upon us, we hope that you have enjoyed some time off or will very soon. These final months of the school year often have us scrambling to meet goals set back in August or to expound on or re-establish them for the coming school year. Evaluating these goals is a necessary and integral part of spring cleaning your marketing, communications and enrollment efforts.

Feeling overwhelmed? Set aside a few minutes this week to identify an upcoming event that inspires you or explore a new resource that can help you tackle a continual enrollment woe, whether it be demand, conversion, persistence — or all three. Sometimes, the best way through the madness is with the smallest steps. Happy spring (cleaning)!

A Peek Ahead

Engage, Learn & Connect with CDE
April 4 | Daniel’s Fund Offices | Denver
This in-person Charter Development Summit will cover essential topics for new, replicating, and expanding charter schools, focusing on community engagement, governance, finance, and inclusive school culture. Secure your spot now.

Rural/Out-of-State Regional Gathering
April 9 | 5:00-7:00 PM | Grand Junction
Join us at Happy Hour for Archuleta, Chaffee, Clear Creek, Delta, Eagle, Garfield, Gunnison, La Plata, Mesa, Montezuma, Montrose, Park, Pitkin, Routt, & Saguache County Charter Leaders. Drinks and hors d’oeuvres will be provided by the League. RSVP early.

CONNECT Office Hours
April 11 | 12:00-1:00 PM | Virtual
Feel like you’re on your own when it comes to enrollment initiatives, event planning or school communications with no one to bounce your ideas off of? Do you have some marketing questions but don’t know where to turn for answers? Hop online anytime during the noon hour to meet with the League’s marketing staff and get the support you need. Mark your calendar.

Extended Workshop Series (Session 6)
2024 Life Cycle Planning for the 2024/25 School Year
April 17 | 12:00-2:00 PM | Hybrid
Designed for both school leaders and site-based owners of marketing, enrollment and/or community engagement, each session will help attendees set a new vision and norm for school recruitment across teams, while gaining access to a wealth of practices, tools, and frameworks that can be adapted to any context. FREE to CONNECT members. Register for this sixth and final session in the series.

National Charter Schools Week: May 12-17
This May, the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools is once again highlighting the incredible impact of charter schools on students, families, and communities across the nation. Explore success stories, learn about innovative programs, and join the conversation on social media using #CharterSchoolsWeek. Together, let's celebrate the diversity, excellence, and opportunity that charter schools provide. Discover useful toolkits and join the celebration.

Looking Back

2024 Annual Pre-Conference Event
Feb. 26 | Hybrid
Thank you to all of you who traveled near and far to join our Feb. 26 pre-conference event. The morning session, led by Karen Pellegrin, Senior Manager of Technology Accessibility Program with the Office of Information Technology (OIT), covered the new accessibility requirements of HB21-1110 which go into effect July 1 for all government agencies, including public charter schools. Access the recording and slides here.

Vanessa Barry, Founder of Mariposa Consulting Group & former Chief Operating Officer for KIPP Texas Public Schools, kicked off our afternoon session. “Closing the Numbers Gap—Refining Strategies Between Open Enrollment Rounds,” had us crunching our enrollment numbers and analyzing needs. Bloomwell Group’s founding partner Lyman Millard, wrapped up the meeting with a high-level view of his experiences in online advertising. Access the recording, slides and worksheets here.

2024 Annual Conference
Feb. 27 - Feb. 28
Reflecting on the resounding success of the 2024 Colorado Charter Schools Annual Charter School Conference, a two-day charter school event dedicated to empowering educational excellence, we extend heartfelt gratitude for your enthusiastic participation. We marked the event by honoring Charter Champions and Hall of Fame Winners with a poignant celebration of exceptional contributions to the charter school community. Moreover, Steve Pemberton's keynote address highlighting 'The Lighthouse Effect' left us equally as inspired!

CONNECT Lunch & Learn
Marketing Automation: Do More with Less In Admissions
Mar. 14 | 12:00- 1:00 PM | Virtual
With school marketing resources seemingly ever-shrinking, the importance of maximizing your time and reach is critical. As Digistorm’s Jamie Giblett highlighted in this session, marketing automation (think embedded website forms, workflows and drip campaigns) can help; just be sure to keep it highly personalized. Not sure where to start? Consider mapping out your current enrollment steps from the viewpoint of a prospective family. Access the session recording.

Helpful Resources

Spring Cleaning: Improve Your School's Online Presence in 4 Easy Steps
Finalsite
Right now is actually the best time to start preparing for the new school year, to ensure that next year is just as successful (or even more successful) as this year.
In this article, we look at 4 ways to spring clean your online presence to make sure that your school website is in full bloom! Read more.

Increasing Conversion Rates to Boost Student Enrollment
Neon Goldfish
Potential students are a little more sophisticated today than they were in years past. They conduct more research before making a decision. They rely heavily on the information they find online and use that to evaluate their options. So, what can you do to convert more of these visitors and boost student enrollment? Read more.

Your School's Retention Problem Might Be A Communications Problem
Finalsite
Have you ever wondered if some of those “goodbyes” from families might be because of how your school says “hello?” Welcoming new families into your school community is one challenge, but ensuring they stay requires more than just a warm welcome. Read more.

Strategies to Boost Your Student Retention
Upgrade School Marketing
In this episode with Jill Goodman, we are exploring the essential strategies for keeping families engaged and enrolled in your institution. We’ll be focusing on the often-overlooked aspect of student retention marketing, particularly in relation to communication with parents/guardians. Listen to the podcast.

Harnessing Word-of-Mouth in Private School Marketing
Enrollment Catalyst | February 19, 2024
With the ever-changing landscape of school marketing, word-of-mouth remains the primary way a parent discovers your school. Read more.

Operation Retention: Strategies for K-12 Schools
Niche | February 20, 2024
With so many options available to families, you don’t only have to worry about “filling seats,” you need to keep them filled. And ideally, you’re keeping them filled with students who align with your mission, educational philosophy and culture.
In this post, we’ll dig into some effective retention strategies that will ensure students—and their families—feel valued and engaged from their first day throughout their entire experience with your school. Read more.

Freshen Up Your Social Media: Spring Cleaning Strategies for Engaging Content
Capitol Communicator | March 18, 2024
Set-it-and-forget social media strategy? Nope. Don’t even try it. The importance of social media optimization is more relevant than ever, and there’s no better time than spring to take a brief step back and clean it up, to spring forward! Here are ten ways to spring-clean your social media and ensure you don’t miss a single nook or cranny. Read more.

Shout Outs

Flagstaff Academy Charter School Honored with Peoples Choice Award
Flagstaff Academy Charter School is proud to announce that it has been honored with the People's Choice Award by the Longmont Chamber of Commerce. Read more.

James Irwin Teacher Named Space Foundation International Liaison
Space Foundation | February 20, 2024
Space Foundation today announced 29 educators have been selected to join the International Teacher Liaison Program, including seven from Colorado, one of whom is from James Irwin PETC. Read more.

Local Students Shine at Regional Science Fair
Longmont Leader | February 28, 2024
Nine students from Flagstaff Academy earned recognition and awards. Read more.

Jefferson Academy will open in Coal Creek after parents raised nearly half a million dollars
Chalkbeat | March 12, 2024
Parents in a far corner of Jefferson County celebrated Tuesday night after helping to raise nearly half a million dollars to secure the opening of a charter school in their community. Read more.

Compass Academy: Trusting students to own their learning
Boardhawk | March 13, 2024
Last month, students from Compass Academy, a public charter middle school in southwest Denver, flooded RTD trains and interviewed community members and college students at Union Station and Auraria Campus trying to answer the question “how do people’s lived experiences in Denver differ, and why?” Read more.

Forget TikTok. Crocheting is the new craze at this Colorado elementary and middle school.
Colorado Sun | March 21, 2024
A crochet club started by one student has gained a following at Challenge School in Aurora, where kids have made hats and blankets to donate to local babies. Read more.

Have any tips or resources you’d like to share? We’d love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected].

The Stories We Tell: Get to Know the Group

Alisa Stephens, Marketing & Communications, Flagstaff Academy

Meet Alisa Stephens, a could-eat-mom’s-homemade-Mac-n’-Cheese-for-every-meal loving ultimate multitasker (a given when you have kids) and former LA PR pro (still a pro, just not in LA) who has spoken to the likes of George C. Scott and Jack Lemmon back in her PR firm days in sunny SoCal. Although, having grown up on the sandy coast of CA, she always dreamed of becoming a pro beach volleyball player.

She’s never skydived - and likely never will given her absolute fear of heights. And despite her lack of desire to revisit the 80s or the 90s, she’d happily bring back those fashionable and ever-so-comfy parachute pants! (Skydiving in parachute pants? Still a no.)

While being firmly planted on the ground is Alisa’s jam (raspberry jelly to be exact, and the oldest item in her fridge), she’d no doubt reach new heights by leveling up her digital game and teaching a MasterClass on all things Social Media.

This mama (koala) bear would much rather sit next to her kids on a plane than by anyone else, and by anyone else we even mean her celeb crush Ryan Reynolds (really!), also preferring to take them and the dogs with her over anything else as she bump, set and spikes her way through the zombie apocalypse. But she’d also like the power of invisibility from time-to-time — just so those same kids couldn’t find her!

Well, we see you, Alisa! Connect with her in our online CONNECT Community or on LinkedIn.

“If you’re not eliciting an emotional reaction, you’re not properly marketing yourself.” (2).png

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