“I’m In! R U?”

May is usually the time when there is much concern over “What’s going to happen next year,” with questions like:

Will more students enroll over the summer?
Will we only have one more year as a school?
What can we do to save this school from closing?

In light of those concerns, this week brings a retention idea – since retention is your first step to building enrollment – and next week, an enrollment idea that you can use over the summer.

Make poster boards for each grade level from K through the next to the highest grade level in your school. Then, draw a line down the center. On the left side of the “Kindergarten” one, title the left side “Kindergarten” and the right side “First Grade.” Then, have small photos of each child in the class on the left side of the board in their current grade. When the child is registered for next year, move the picture to the right side of the poster board. Put these poster boards in an obvious place so that parents can see them when they come to your school for all those May and June events.

Remember to keep them current!

One school that did this put a sign above all the poster boards which read, “I’m in – R U?”

Although this sounds like incredible peer pressure, the more students in the school, the less per pupil cost there is…and there’s nothing wrong with reducing tuition after the school year starts when there’s a significant increase in enrollment.

In fact, that’s newsworthy – and downright remarkable!

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