Enrollment management is a top priority at any Catholic school. Without the right quantity, quality or diversity of students, a Catholic school struggles to survive and thrive.

To educate folks on developing strategies for increasing their Catholic school enrollment, the New Jersey Catholic Schools’ Marketing Council presented two statewide workshops last month on 10 Steps to Enrollment Management for all New Jersey Catholic school principals, pastors, marketing and development professionals, school board members and interested parents. The workshops were held April 20 in Mother Seton Regional High School, Clark, and in Holy Cross High School, Delran.

Workshop presenter was John Cooper of the Institute of School and Parish Development, a national development consulting firm created in 1989 to serve Catholic schools, parishes and dioceses in the areas of planning, marketing and resource development. To date, the ISPD has worked with more than 5,000 Catholic institutions nationwide. All ISPD consultants have past experience working in Catholic school institutions as teachers, administrators and/ or development management directors.

Cooper emphasized that “there needs to be a paradigm shift in Catholic schools in realizing that we need to increase our efforts in managing enrollment in every aspect, from marketing to the relationship-building that we do as part of the process of us getting to know prospective families and helping them get to know us.”

Ultimately, enrollment management is about “continuing to satisfy our current families in the school and promoting what we are going to offer prospective families,” he said, Such information might include how a given school is unique and what families can expect to get from it.

When addressing enrollment issues in Catholic schools that have experienced regionalization or mergers, Cooper said he believes that the “merger in and of itself is not necessarily the solution to the school’s enrollment.

“They, as well, have to do the best practices in enrollment management in order for the new entity to be successful. They have to do the good marketing, good relationshipbuilding and they have to make the convincing argument for that new school,” he said. He went on to note some of the “positives” about a regionalization in that there are more resources that become available and that there is a commitment to bringing in professional people for enrollment in admission-type positions.

“There is a growing trend now particularly within a regional school climate situation where there seems to be more resources to hire part-time or full-time enrollment professionals to do what many volunteers had been trying to do in a small school that was by itself,” Cooper said.

According to Cooper, long-term success for schools comes down to responsiveness. He said, “It’s just like a company. Those that survive or do well in the marketplace are those that can respond to the market and the changes they need to make. Catholic schools, even though they are nonprofit, have to respond to the marketplace and have to make changes.”

Among the participants who traveled to the April 21 workshop in Holy Cross High School was Mary Glass, the director of admissions for the Upper School at Trenton Catholic Academy at McCorristin Campus, Hamilton.

Glass, who is also the mother of two students in Trenton Catholic Academy’s Lower School, said that not only did she learn particulars that were pertinent to her job, she appreciated how Cooper maintained a faith-based approach in presenting his elements of enhancing Catholic school enrollment.

Glass said she realized that at TCA, “We’re on the right track.”

“We are reaching out to people and telling our history,” Glass said, referring to the school’s long history, and its original founding by Msgr. Michael P. McCorristin.

She added that she was interested to learn about different computer programs that could assist schools in their increasing enrollment strategies. “Overall, the day was helpful,” said Glass. “It was so good of the diocese to provide this workshop for schools.”

Donna Davidson of the Office of Catholic Schools and the New Jersey Catholic Schools’ Marketing Council said that the workshop provided participants with concrete examples and techniques that “they could take back to their schools and begin working on today.”

“Even if it’s just little things, like tweaking their websites, that could make a big difference,” she said.

Among the fundamentals, Davidson said, is recognizing some of the key elements such as maintaining contact with and listening to what prospective students and their families are really looking for and addressing that with them, said Davidson.

“Customer service in school enrollment is no different than customer service at Sears and Roebuck,” she said. “School families want you to listen to them and they want their needs to be addressed.”

The Catholic Star Herald, the Camden Diocesan newspaper, contributed to this report.