Turning up the Heat on Partnerships (and potentially enrollment)
By Bill Knous, Director of Charter School Growth
As the weather heats up, so does the opportunity to build critical community partnerships. Across Colorado charter schools, we have the potential to engage 850,000 students, each of whom deserves access to high-quality summer programming but may still need it. Most existing summer opportunities focus on remediation but lack enrichment, empowerment, and engagement. This is particularly true for middle and high schools. With a few best practices, however, you can boost your school’s community engagement this summer — and potentially your student numbers.
- Community Partnerships: Forge one or two partnerships with local businesses, community organizations, or nonprofits to provide unique summer learning opportunities. This could include internships, mentorship programs, volunteer opportunities, career days or other joint initiatives that offer real-world experience. It might also include single or multi-day workshops focused on STEAM, outdoor education or leadership development.
- Specialized Camps: Organize specialized camps or partner with providers that are focused on topical areas such as coding, robotics, performing arts, creative writing, language immersion, and environmental science. These immersive experiences can attract outside students with interests and talents that align with your school’s mission and vision
- Marketing and Outreach Campaigns: Launch targeted marketing and outreach campaigns to promote these summer programs to both current and prospective students and their families. Utilize social media, email newsletters, community events, and partnerships with local media outlets to spread the word.
- Parent Engagement Opportunities: Create opportunities for parental engagement during the summer, including family workshops, information sessions, and open houses. Engaging parents on campus and throughout the enrollment process can increase their investment in their child's education while helping them learn more about what your school can offer them.
- Feedback and Continuous Improvement: Use the end of the school year to gather feedback from students, parents, and staff about current and future summer programming. You might even uncover a staff member willing to provide group music lessons onsite or a parent willing to host free, all-level yoga classes. By identifying strengths, areas for improvement, and emerging trends, you can refine and enhance your school-year and summertime programming.
Finally, a few nudges to close out:
- It is NOT too late to form a partnership or run a program. Progress over perfection is key.
- Think about marketing to key feeder grades that don’t go to your school (yet). It’s amazing what happens when kids see a new facility, meet a new friend, or learn something new in a novel space.
- If you read this and think, “Sure, but not this summer,” fair. But when are you going to strategically plan for the summer of 2025, and how will this opportunity come to life?
Of course, the bottom line here is always about capacity, partners, funding, and staffing. There is still time to form a partnership or rally your team for a summer cause, and even though budgets are tight, sometimes you need to invest a little to get a lot back. If a solid partnership can be formed, and your school can allow the use of your facility, program participants and their families gain first-hand experience on your campus. In theory, those summer programming participants could potentially become your future students.
This is the definition of an elegant solution to a complex challenge.
