School districts in Clark and Floyd counties are competing for students

Mandi Elkins Hutchins has noticed. She sends her two children to Community Montessori in New Albany, a public charter school. But she said she can’t help but notice the message public schools are trying to get out.

“If it causes them to make sure that the education they’re providing is up to snuff, I guess that’s good,” Elkins Hutchins said of competition for students. “It’s kind of turning into a business perhaps rather than actually being concerned about educating the whole child.”

Across the region and the state, some school districts are using part of their tax-generated budgets to fund advertising campaigns. The billboards, mailers and other materials are intended to draw more students in, either from neighboring districts or from private and charter schools.

Between 2008 and 2011, legislation opened up district borders to transfer students without charging families additional tuition, allowing parents to use some of that money to send children to private schools. Public school corporations have since entered active competition for students, which ultimately translates into a competition for more dollars.

Clarksville Community Schools, the New Albany-Floyd County Consolidated School Corp. and Greater Clark County Schools all have undertaken advertising campaigns and other initiatives. Each has seized opportunities, but also dealt with the challenges that come from competing for a pool of students that’s no longer limited to the boundaries of their districts.

At the time…

In 2009, Clarksville Community Schools faced declining enrollment, an aging community and landlocked borders. As the smallest district in Clark and Floyd counties, the loss of a few students from one school year to the next hit their bottom line harder than larger neighboring corporations. The state funnels money into the general funds of school districts based on enrollment. Around here, it averages between $5,000 and $6,000 per student.

Kim Knott, superintendent at Clarksville, said they had ideas in mind to attract new students, including opening Renaissance Academy. The district planned on opening the New Tech school, which uses a project-based learning approach to education, as a lure for families in the area. But by 2011, that also meant the potential of advertising to get the word out.

“Those things together made us realize we had a great opportunity to utilize and get our own message to look at Clarksville and the options we can provide for students in a very intimate setting,” Knott said. “Here we are, this very small school district, and we’ve got New Albany Floyd, a large district on one side, Greater Clark on the other side and West Clark, as well.”

Before the new legislation, families would pay tuition if they wanted to send children to a neighboring school system. With the concept of money following children, parents can send students to any public school district, so long as they’re willing to provide the transportation.

Andrew Melin, superintendent at Greater Clark, said district leaders across the state were wrestling with how to deal with the prospect of advertising and whether to cross borders with their campaigns. At the time, he said Indiana Association of Public School Superintendents put together an agreement to keep advertisements within their districts. But as more legislation changed how the funding worked, those advertisements began creeping into neighboring school corporations' boundaries.

Clarksville Community Schools extended their advertising campaign straight into downtown New Albany, with smaller billboards near Wick’s Pizza on State Street.

“Unfortunately, that ethical understanding has been blurred [further] with every year that passes,” Melin said. “It’s not the fault of the superintendents or the school systems, it’s the system, itself. It says if you want money to pay for your teachers, programs and staff, it’s predominantly coming to you on a per-student basis.”

He said before the advent of open borders, schools competed on a more friendly basis in terms of academics or athletics. But as students began transferring with state money at stake, it changed some of the dynamics among districts.

Fred McWhorter, chief business officer at New Albany-Floyd County schools, said that initial push into competition wasn’t something any district looked forward to, but they had to make the shift.

“It’s one of those necessary evils, honestly,” McWhorter said. “Its not something we wanted to do, but were kind of pushed into. I think we’ve had good results because we have over 546 transfers into our district, and we’ve seen increases in transfers every year.”

But he said those changes also came into play as the country dealt with a recession, the effects of which were felt locally. He also said, though, it’s hard to say whether those transfer students would have come in anyway.

Investments and returns

State Rep. Ed Clere, R-New Albany, was a proponent of the school reform bills in 2011. He said while advertising may be an option for districts in attracting students, they need to track the results of those campaigns closely.

He said he understands the results of those campaigns may take several years to quantify, but it’s something worth watching immediately.

“There’s no question that school corporations feel the need to advertise, but I don’t think any advertising campaign should take priority over the underlying educational mission of the school corporation,” Clere said. “I’m not suggesting it has, but I think the focus should be on providing excellent education opportunities and outcomes.”

With the knowledge that advertising campaigns required money to execute, balancing how much was spent with how much they brought in is always a consideration for districts.

Knott said last year, Clarksville Community Schools spent about $160,000 in its combined initiatives, which included an overhaul of the district’s websites, direct mailers and billboards.

Whether as a direct result of that advertising or not, Knott said they brought in about 87 more students compared to the previous school year, which brought in about another $385,000.

While no data exists to show if that influx was a direct result of advertising, Knott said the use of billboards and other means to advertise Clarksville Schools was something they had to consider.

“I think we saw it as an opportunity. That conversation in the General Assembly started about a year before the law was passed,” Knott said. “Because we were already engaged in those conversations, one of the solutions the board was leaning toward at that time was the New Tech high [school], bringing in a new learning opportunity for Clarksville and Southern Indiana.”

Their campaign has shifted a couple of times, she said, starting with advertising Renaissance Academy. The following year, they advertised “Think Clarksville” and featured more of their district, and this year’s campaign has focused on students and employees of the district.

Nikolette Langdon, information specialist at Clarksville Community Schools, said from March to July, the district has 16 billboards in different parts of the region. Since advertising, their district has grown overall.

At New Albany-Floyd County schools, McWhorter said they’ve spent about $130,000 annually on marketing and advertising efforts. That includes putting together videos that go online and to parents to talk about the goings-on in the district, as well as highlighting people within it.

He said last year, the total number of transfers to New Albany-Floyd schools was 546, bringing in an additional $2.8 million to the district.

“We’ve had the benefit of increase enrollment because of this change,” McWhorter said. “Yes, we’ve had to spend some money on advertising, but the results speak for themselves.”

He said the number of transfers in the 2008-2009 school year totaled about 40, demonstrating the growth in that area.

But while more transfer students are coming in, he said the district’s overall numbers are stable with where they’ve been for years. But he said the district would be in a worse position if they didn’t have any of them.

Both of those districts use money either from their general fund or rainy day funds to pay for their campaigns, all of which is taxpayer generated.

Greater Clark County Schools has used a slightly different funding mechanism. Supt. Melin said when they’re seeking bids for various services, money for promotional use is often negotiated into the contracts.

For example, he said they give Coca Cola exclusive rights to sell their products across the district, either in vending machines, concession stands or otherwise. In exchange, the company gives the district $15,000 a year to help bolster its advertising budget.

Melin said other contractors have that relationship with them, as well. Grants are also used to bolster the district's advertising budget.

“To me, that’s been very helpful,” Melin said. “These vendors want our business and they can choose to bid or not bid on our business. But if they do, we normally have in that bid an expectation of dollars to be applied for us to use for marketing purposes or for it to go into our education foundation.”

He said between hiring a full-time videographer and webmaster, along with an employee they’ve had in a public outreach position for years, they spend about $110,000 on the employee end. For direct advertising, he said the district spends between $40,000 and $50,000 annually.

They’ve also become an investor in One Southern Indiana, the local chamber of commerce, and meet with groups such as Realtors associations to spread information about the district. Melin said that can help Realtors if they know about the schools in the area, and it helps the district if they can bring school-age children in.

While this year’s enrollment drop hurt the district, Melin said he thinks it'll bounce back soon.

To share or not to share

Educators often talk about collaboration and sharing ideas. But with competition in mind, some of those ideas may be held back with friends across district lines.

If districts adopt novel concepts or practices in education, they may use them as selling points rather than information to share. McWhorter said that’s still a tough adjustment.

“We want to be [collaborative], we’re used to being collaborative with one another with what’s working at each other’s schools,” McWhorter said. “Now we’re in this air of competition and we’re not as open as we used to be, unfortunately.”

Melin echoed those sentiments. He said educators like to help each other, but it’s harder to do with the possibility of giving away information they may be likely to treat as proprietary.

“That’s the way of the world now, but it’s still very concerning to me and frustrating to me because I think education should be about working together to try to help all kids,” Melin said. “If there are great ideas occurring in one school system that can benefit another, let’s go ahead and help one another. By doing so, everyone gets better. I just think the collaborative spirit is not as great as it once was because the system has pitted us against one another for the dollar. And that’s just frustrating.”

Clere said he doesn’t think districts have to treat their practices as industry secrets. He said while companies may stay mum on their practices to others, they still find ways to collaborate. He said schools could do the same.