2014-15 School Registration Updates

[Michael Sun]

All, 

As of last week, we have a total of 210 students registered for the 2014-15 school year. To put this figure into a historical perspective, we had about 240 students registered at about the same time last year, and the number eventually reached a total of 280 for school year 2013-14. Going a bit further back, we had about 260 students for the school year 2012-13. 

The underlying reason for the gap isn't very clear, and it could be due to a) senior students graduating; b) loss of students to other school, c) both a and b. Regardless, this gap of 30 students, if the trend stays, is crucial to our school to survive and thrive in this highly competitive environment.  

The new Admin team is actively researching and planning for additional recruitment  drives before the school opens in September, and we would like to count on everybody pitching in to help. In addition, I would also like to invite members of our teams to contribute ideas to help us recruit students for the next school year. 

Thanks,

Michael

[Melissa Zheng]

Michael,

Great email to keep the teams informed.

Out of your 280, 10 students were in AP class so they will most likely not return. There are another 25 G9 students and 50% of them will return. So we will have an existing students base of 260. After we open registration for 4 weeks, we have 210 students, it is not bad, it is 80%. Of course, some students might be new. But please remember we opened registration much earlier last year. Of course, we want 100% of the students return to our school. In the next 8-10 weeks, we should do everything we can to maintain or increase our enrollment number. The Board has granted the Marketing Committee $5000 for marketing so please let us know how we can help.

The below is a few suggestion from me:

One thing you could offer to the school existing members or potential new members is to extend the early registration discount to 7/15/2014 to entice the students who have not yet registered. The school registration team can send an email to the families yet to register with this offer so they will hurry up. If you seriously want to consider it, please have the Admin team send the Board an email so the Board member can approve this extension of discount right away.

Another thing you could do is to work with the teachers and find out a little bit more about the "yet to register" students and see if the teachers can offer any help. You should get the statistics for these students of their last year's class and solicited teachers' help.

The third thing you can do is to emphasizes the referral bonus, family discount, the teachers and the new class offerings again when you send out your weekly eNews this week.

The forth thing is that we have a new CSL teacher but there is 0 students registered for that class. Can the new teacher bring some students over?

Our K class only has about 10 students currently. This number is likely to increase. We always have a full house for the K class.

Hope it helps. Thank you.

Melissa

[Michael Sun]

Melissa, 

Thank you for your prompt reply and excellent suggestions. 

One of the advantages we have for our school is a strong marketing team (Kudos to the two Chairwomen Chiwen and Lijie) and the fact that the 2013-14 and 2014-15 Admin teams have a lot of continuity. Therefore, we have been able to plan a series of recruitment steps between now and September.

Specifically: 

1) Jianping (VP of Registration for both years) is pulling the "yet registered" student list for us to follow up. Keling has offered to reach out to class parents. 

2) Chiwen is planning for a local family magazine advertisement placement for the summer, the same as last year. Based on last year's experience, it is likely to pull some CSL students. 

3) Again as last year, we will be promoting our teachers in the upcoming eNews. 

4) The new Admin team is working working with Jenny and the new PTA team to host a summer picnic/BBQ. Details will follow, but will likely to combine summer R&R with some marketing as well.    

5) With regard to your suggestion of extending early registration discount, I would like to hear other people's feedback first. One concern I do have is that it may actually create a backlash among families who registered with us based on the earlier deadline. 

Regards,

Michael

[Melissa Zheng]

All great things you are doing. Thank you. Thanks Chiwen to chair the Marketing Committee and she has been doing a great job. In Chiwen's recent proposal to the Board, her committee members are you and Shengli, thank you both for the hard work as well. I would suggest Chiwen expand her team/committee since we have a serious marketing campaign tasks at hand.

When Mr. Baonian Hu was the Vice Chair for the Education Committee, he has created a proposal to reach out the community around us. Some we have done it but others we should continue to explore such as send flyers to summer camps, pre-schools and day care centers. He has also suggested to reach out the realtors to target the new movers and offer our programs. Please reach out to him to get his whole proposal if interested. I truly value Baonian's wisdom and intelligence and hope we can put his proposal into work collectively with his help. Mr. Baonian Hu will make a great Marketing Committee member.

All Board members are always ready to help, offer feedback and opinions. Transparency and open communication are the keys to our success. When we work together as teams towards the same goal, we will be successful. Thank you in advance for steering the school to the right direction in the new school year built upon what we already have from the previous years!

[Michael Sun]

Melissa, 

For a volunteer organization like ours, it definitely doesn't hurt to have well-meaning people who advise us from time to time. To be sure, we have never been accused of lacking critics and commentators. 

What is in critical short supply are doers. We are always looking for volunteers who are committed by donating their time and energy, the type of people who follow through on an idea and put it in action, and last but not least, who has the capacity to endure criticism and misunderstandings, while still slogging through for the sake of our children. . 

To give everybody a perspective what is being asked of our volunteers. The 2013 recruitment drive, under the leadership of then Marketing Committee Chairwoman Lijie Cheng, had a total of 15 volunteers worked tirelessly for over 3 months. The workload covered website reorganization and recreation, online and offline flyers and brochures design, printing, and distribution, multiple open house events on the campus, and community outreach programs off the campus. The design work for the flyer alone took more than 100 man(woman)-hours, and they were all done by people with full time jobs and family responsibilities. The current Marketing Committee, under Chiwen Lee, has a smaller footprint in terms of manpower; however, the needs and asks for marketing remain the same. You could imagine what is being asked of Chiwen and the team. 

We shall not forget that. 

This leads to my second point. When, and if, find these committed volunteers, we should do everything in our power to nurture and encourage them, and at the very least protect them. Regrettably, I don't feel we have done enough in this regard, and I intend to change that. 

Michael

[Chiwen Lee]

Hi 

Hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July weekend and apologies for not being able to reply sooner. Just came back from the Adirondacks and it was very hard to get the cell phone reception (if any at all!) there. The landscape is gorgeous though.

Now back to reality, 

Agree with Michael that any HXNYC parent who is willing to roll up the sleeves and do the work is our most precious resource. True, we can argue that parents volunteer for their children's own good. But with these many schools to choose from in the area, parents are willing to dedicate a big chunk of their time to HXNYC simply because they find a sense of belonging here, that we are a community that parents can identify with. We should be proud of the unique characteristics about our school community that will be cultivated and nurtured, also encourage, and welcome parents to join. 

Even I have worked with Baonian not for long last year, I appreciate his many valuable marketing ideas as well. Due to the Committee's manpower shortage, I am sad to say that we can't put all of his ideas into action in a period of time of a year. We still talk to each other briefly from time to time so I know the committee has Baonian's support, regardless of him being a Marketing Committee member or not. And I thank him for it. 

As for the registration, Michael, could I please have the statics re following, 

1) numbers of students enrolled for each grade and class

2) numbers of students not yet enrolled for each grade and class

3) new family enrollments

I will look at those numbers, resort to your opinions and make adjustments to the original marketing planning if needed. 

Best, 

Chiwen

[Melissa Zheng]

Michael,

Thanks for promising being fair and protect ALL volunteers.

Everyone copied in this email are volunteers. Many of us are doers and have committed more than 10,000 own precious hours for our school.

We are looking forward your recognition, nurturing and protection in the new school year. Thank you in advance!