Who's coming? How will they know?

While the winter snows are starting to swirl, the warm month of August 2017 is on my mind. I’ve shared with a few people in the last week that work is already beginning on the very first pieces of planning for the next school year. A key part of that is anticipating how we will connect with our new families. We are eager to ensure that Christian families know about us and the option for Christian education that we offer every day. I hope to be busy in January and February talking to future LCES families that will join us.

Our Promotions Committee has been active in the last year in working on several things to ensure that we are known in our community. A new printed package has been made for inquiring parents. Promotional handout materials have been redesigned. Different road signage is under review. Intensive work with the school’s website has taken place since we have come to realize over time that an electronic presence is one of our best ways of representing ourselves well. We do have some parents who inquire as result of doing an Internet search only, with no other connection to us.  Changes to our school's foundation and the results of the Bright Futures capital campaign will, in part, support the amount of financial help we will be able to offer families, both new and returning, each year.

While those are vital areas not be overlooked, a major and more common theme of inquiring parents who eventually enroll their children is a story of someone in their life who has nudged and challenged them to look intently at the option of Christian Education for their children. They have shared the difference LCES has made to their family and how the Lord has blessed the choice they felt called to make.

Here’s a few ideas of how you can help:

·         Pray for clarity and provision for the parents we don’t know yet as they deliberate and discern their way to us.

·         Try summarizing in two minutes what LCES means to you. I’ve been surprised where opportunities to speak about our school suddenly presented themselves and was thankful I had some quick key ideas in my memory for the brief moments of a captive audience. 

·         Write up a review of our school on Google and Facebook. Increasingly, this a frequently used tool our younger parents use that speaks convincingly to them as they make choices.

·         Like and share the school’s facebook posts often.

·         Invite people to attend school events with you like the Christmas Concert next week, the May Soiree, Track and Field Day, Graduation, etc.

For our school, and our future LCES parents. SJ