After finding
no qualified candidates
for the position
of principal,
the school board
is extremely pleased
to announce
the appointment
of John Doe to the post.
- Philip Streifer,
Superintendent of Schools,
Barrington, Rhode Island

This page is still under construction.

This article assumes that before opening your school you did the necessary market research to assure you that there is a need for the school in that area, that it fills a specific niche, and that there is sufficient potential for growth in the future.

If the correct conditions for growth have been met, then your recruitment budget may have to be substantial in the beginning.

However, as time goes on, the amount spent on recruitment should continually decrease until it reaches a minimal budget after time goes by.

If, on the other hand, after several decades of operation you find that your budget for recruitment keeps rising, then it is time to do some soul searching. Something is going wrong.

Your best emissaries for continued growth and support should be your staff and the students.

The teachers should welcome new students and when students get in touch with the teacher to find out information, the teachers should respond with enthusiasm. This can only happen if the teachers are themselves genuinely enthusiastic because they feel that they are given the proper tools and conditions to do their job well, they receive the proper administrative support, their accomplishments are recognized in a substantial way, and they love their job. These teachers will bring in students. After all, the subject of the school will come up frequently and people can tell that they are happy and enthusiastic about their job and their work.

Similarly, students will bring their friends and family members to the school if they had a positive experience. Students talk to other potential students all the time and their school life is a major topic of conversation.

A happy, enthusiastic, and excited student will share these feelings with friends and relatives and will be wonderful ambassadors for the growth of the institution. As they grow older and more successful in their business or work it will be possible to approach them for financial support for the institution as well, but only if they are proud to be alumni of that institution.

On the other hand, disgruntled, frustrated, and disappointed students who feel that they were treated unfairly or who felt hurt by the institution will have a negative impact on registration.

Similarly, teachers who are not enthusiastic about their school will have a negative impact on the registation and recruitment of future students. Teachers who hear stories of difficulties will avoid that institution and look elsewhere. Thus, the good teachers will not come if the word is out from other teachers that it is not a good place in which to teach.

Fortunately, it is never too late to heed a wakeup call. A flagging registration decades after the school is in existence should be a call for a soul searching. If students are going to competing schools, then you may ask why those schools opened up in your catchment area and why they were successful. You can still change the school environment to turn things around, but it will be more difficult. However, it would be necessary to do so if you find that your school is not growing without your own publicity.

Do what it takes to make the students happy and the teachers happy and the recruitment will follow.

Ignore these factors and there may indeed be serious questions and justifiable questions about why the school exists.

And don't forget that the students have to be able to see that their predecessors are happy and successful in their life after leaving your institutions. If it is worth going there, then they will go.

Granted, not every student or teacher will be a successful ambassador for recruitment in any school.

On the other hand, a successful registration and a minimal recruitment effort are indications of a happy school environment and a happy school body, with happy teachers and happy students.