Middletown City Schools unveil new marketing plan

Middletown Journal.com

11/22/2006

Ed Richter

Staff Writer

MIDDLETOWN – Middletown City Schools officials unveiled a new aggressive marketing strategy Monday aimed at recapturing hundreds of students the district has lost in recent years to competing public, private and charter schools.

The multi-pronged plan calls for the district to improve customer service, talk to parents about why they are leaving the district, examine the needs of parents in the district, promote what is unique about Middletown schools and begin recruiting students even as early as preschool.

District officials said such an aggressive strategy is needed, particularly at a time when parents have choices – open enrollment, home-schooling and private school vouchers- about how best to educate their children. About 800 to 900 students, or roughly 10 percent of students living within the district’s boundaries, are home-schooled or enrolled in private or charter schools, district officials said.

“When parents have a choice, we want them to choose us,” said Middletown City Schools Superintendent Steve Price.

Members of the Middletown Board of Education were briefed on the marketing plan at Monday’s board meeting by the committee that has worked on it for months.

Committee co-chairman John Sawyer said talking to parents about why they are choosing to send their children elsewhere, particularly charter schools, is critical. He suggested conducting an informal survey of parents and organizing focus groups of 15 parents at a time to find out those reasons.

Improving customer service was also identified as a key part of the plan, according to the committee. Under the plan the district would conduct formal customer service surveys, implement a customer service center via telephone and Internet, provide customer service training for staff and participate in equity training.

Debbie Alberico, the district’s spokeswoman and a committee co-chairwoman, said a third part of the plan involves improving the district’s branding process.

Alberico said the district needs to know its customers and its competition better, as well as, develop a unique selling proposition to parents that highlights what makes Middletown City Schools different from other districts and the benefits.

Board member Marcia Andrew asked what the district would be doing to get its unique selling point out to parents who are already receiving mail from charter and other private schools marketing their programs.

Alberico said the district would be conducting research in each of the city’s four wards and targeting parents based on their specific needs.

The plan also calls for the design and implementation of a kindergarten student recruitment program. Among the suggested actions for kindergarten recruitment are: Having elementary principals and some of their students visit area preschools; kindergarten registration held throughout the summer at the Central Office; promote kindergarten registration at all churches and hold registration at churches as appropriate.

Committee member Mike Scorti said the final piece of the district marketing strategy focuses on gaining community support for the district through parent involvement and volunteer programs. The committee proposed the creation of a district-wide volunteer coordinator position, implementing Principal for a Day on a quarterly basis and revitalizing the business partner initiative.

The committee also suggested producing and broadcasting one-minute video segments on TV Middletown that promote successes and good news about the district.

Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2871 or erichter@coxohio.com.