PHOENIX — As Arizona school districts continue to grapple with the reality of declining enrollment, some are trying to find different ways to recruit new students.
Over the last few years, 11 school districts closed more than two dozen schools as enrollment continues to decline. Losing students means losing funding and the realities have hit for districts, resulting in multi-million-dollar deficits. With the combination of declining birth rates, lack of affordable housing and Arizona’s expansive school choice options, districts are competing to enroll students in an open market.
One way few school districts are now trying: hiring a company to recruit students.
“There was a moment last year, where we thought, ‘How could we be more proactive?’” George Barnes, superintendent of the Balsz Elementary School District, said.
For the Balsz Elementary School District, losing students is detrimental being a small district of less than 2,000 students. The district ended up closing one of its neighborhood schools and reopened it as a choice STEM school after losing 150 students. This year, Barnes said they’ve lost fewer students than in years past. Last year, they lost about 150 students, forcing the board and district to make those changes. However, this year, they’ve only lost around 40 students.
“That sounds ridiculous, but it’s a whole lot better mathematically and, of course, financially,” he said.
They turned to Caissa K-12, a Tennessee-based company that helps recruit students for public schools.
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Adrian Bond, the president of Caissa K-12, says they do outreach in a way that’s similar to political campaigns.
“We do a lot of door-knocking. We make a lot of phone calls. We can do mailers,” Bond said. “It's a lot of live touch points with family. And I mean, live meaning either phone calls or in-person visits.”
Through this outreach, districts are also able to find out why students aren’t attending their neighborhood district school.
Bond said nationwide, they’ve seen more districts reach out to them as declining enrollment spreads.
“Parents have a lot of options at their disposal to determine where they want their kids to go. And as we see the emergence of school choice options, I think it has put a tremendous pressure on student enrollment numbers across the board,” Bond said.
When speaking about school choice, it’s not just about the Empowerment Scholarship Accounts program that has expanded quickly. In Arizona, it’s an open enrollment system where parents can enroll their students in any school they so choose, public districts, charters or private schools.
Barnes said since they started working with Caissa K-12 this year, they’ve seen 50 students enroll into the district.
“That’s huge. As we’re sitting back, trying to see what works, we definitely know that having a system like Caissa K-12 doing the groundwork because as much as we work hard during the day, not many of us are going to volunteer to call at 7 o'clock at night, possible parents,” Barnes said.
Caissa K-12 gets paid by performance. So that means the company won't get paid unless a student enrolls and stays at the district for a certain amount of time. Barnes said they pay about $700 per student if they stay enrolled through the 100th day in the district.
“If after 100 days, those students are still with us, we then offer them the compensation they earned. If we don't keep that student or those students never come through our doors, the district's out no dollars,” Barnes said. “In the grand scheme of things, when you’re talking about enrolling a student for a full year, the larger percentage stays with the district and that’s a good investment for us."
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