SWOT+Issues+-+Enrollment

The compilation of important SWOT issues:  1. Enrollment has been declining and we need to promote school attendance especially in PreK and primary grades. Hire a Development Director to focus on these issues.  2. Tuition costs need to be affordable, keeping economic crunch in mind.  3. Market school to tri-parish and local community, especially with new families.  4. Developing a formal system for assessment of the reasons families choose to leave SFA. This system can then be used to develop a formal process for student retention.  5. Advertising the school outside the tri-parish community  6. In order to increase enrollment consider reaching out beyond the catholic community to the broader “Christian” community.  7. SFA must be able to attract new families to enroll their children especially in the younger grades, i.e. pre-K thru 1st. It is crucial that the younger grades are filled to capacity since they provide the base for the higher grades in coming years.  8. SFA must be able to retain its current families despite the downturn in the economy. It is crucial for the current families to believe that they are making the right “financial investment “ by sending their children to SFA.  9. SFA must aggressively market itself to retain and attract students to the school. SFA must allocate some of its current operating budget to fund a marketing campaign for the school. This will include marketing materials such as school brochure, video, mailings, advertisements, etc. Clearly, SFA must hire a qualified Development Director to stage an effective marketing campaign.  10. Hire a Development Director that can help increase enrollment. Especially at the pre-K, K and first grade levels.  11. Keep tuition affordable.  12. Improve the technology program.  13. Establish a Parent/ Faculty Exit Survey/ Data collection for decision making  14. There is a great amount of competition in the area of SFA as stated in the Narrative. SFA needs to increase their efforts in Marketing and involvement with the broader community. Especially with young families/critically low enrollment in lower graders Pre-K-2  15. Build a new perception of the school/School Web presence (Website Images, Programs offered and school-parent communications)  16. Develop a strong marketing campaign to recruit pre-school and kindergarten children to increase early enrollment. <span style="mso-list: Ignore; msofareastfontfamily: 'Book Antiqua'; msobidifontfamily: 'Book Antiqua'; msolist: Ignore;"> 17. Develop a Parent satisfaction survey to find out the pulse of the school <span style="mso-list: Ignore; msofareastfontfamily: 'Book Antiqua'; msobidifontfamily: 'Book Antiqua'; msolist: Ignore;"> 18. Reasons for decline in enrollment <span style="mso-list: Ignore; msofareastfontfamily: 'Book Antiqua'; msobidifontfamily: 'Book Antiqua'; msolist: Ignore;"> 19. Role/need of Director of Development/Marketing Director <span style="mso-list: Ignore; msofareastfontfamily: 'Book Antiqua'; msobidifontfamily: 'Book Antiqua'; msolist: Ignore;"> 20. Retention program to keep students enrolled through 8th grade