By Becky De Oliveira
Adventist schools across the country are struggling with enrollment and many have closed their doors in recent years. While the reasons for this are complex and vary from one region to another, closures are not always an indicator that a school lacked a viable market. Sometimes local people are simply unaware of Adventist schools as options for their kids. The board and staff at Vista Ridge Academy (VRA) feel that the school has a lot to offer parents in the northern Denver metro area—especially those who are dissatisfied with public schools and want a smaller environment with personalized attention and an emphasis on arts and music.
Marsha Bartulec, VRA’s full-time marketing director, is optimistic about the future of the school after just one year of intensive marketing efforts. We caught up with Marsha recently to ask her a few questions about her work over the past year.
Mountain Views: What are some of the things you’ve done to market Vista Ridge Academy?
Marsha Bartulec: These are a few of the things we have worked on this year that I feel have been beneficial in building the framework to be able to successfully market our school. 1). We streamlined and implemented a new admissions and re-enrollment process for new and current parents; 2). We promoted the school using Facebook; 3). Clear Summit Productions produced a promotional video for our school; 4). We are members of the Erie Chamber of Commerce and Metro North Chamber of Commerce, and had a ribbon cutting for our preschool program and hosted a business after hours; 5). We have had booths at several community events in Erie; 6). We hosted several events on campus—including a new parents breakfast, pastor appreciation brunch, and grandparents day; 7). We set up our bus ness and search settings on Google, Yelp, Facebook, and other directories.
MV: What have been the biggest challenges for you in increasing public awareness of Vista Ridge Academy? MB: One of the biggest challenges is human resources. One person cannot promote Vista Ridge Academy alone. It has taken a lot of human resources to make this effort successful. We have had help from our board members, teachers, staff, home and school team, parents, and many other volunteers. Everyone connected to Vista Ridge Academy has the awesome opportunity to be an ambassador for the school.
Word of mouth is the number one way to market, so it is our goal to build strong relationships in our Adventist Churches and community. We want people to refer families to Vista Ridge Academy. Every marketing effort we have done has been based on building connections and relationships. If people have a great experience with us and feel a connection, we feel they will tell others about the great things our school has to offer.
MV: What can the average Adventist who wants to see our schools succeed do help support marketing efforts? MB: If members of all our Adventist churches believe in Adventist education, they could demonstrate this by participating in school programs, funding special projects, and being an ambassador for the school. I also recommend the following: 1). Take a tour of the school; 2). Use social media to promote the school; 3) Volunteer at the school—helping with the hot lunch program, cleaning, or have a student read to you, etc.; 4) Participate in school fundraisers, such as Box Tops, Amazon Smile, King Soopers Gift Cards, etc.
Marsha says, “I would love to see the schools in the RMC work together in a marketing effort. We have 20+ schools and have been educating for over 100+ years. How can we join together to make a big impact in our communities?” This is a question we should all be considering.
–Becky De Oliveira is a college instructor, writer, editor, and graphic designer. She also works as director of communication for Boulder Adventist Church in Boulder, Colorado. Email her at: [email protected]