Adams-Cheshire District Preps Marketing Campaign
 The School Committee will show off the district's offerings in an effort to retain and recruit students. |
CHESHIRE, Mass. — The School Committee is hoping a marketing plan will make the district more attractive to students.
"There is something for everyone at Hoosac, and that's the message we want to get out," Superintendent Kristen Gordon said.
Some 300 students within the district are not attending the district's schools. Officials are seeking to retain these students and possibly recruit others.
OneEighty Media President John Krol has been working with the school district the past six months to establish a communications and marketing plan. He gave the committee a report on Monday night on the updates in the campaign and future plans and goals.
Krol explained that he wants to show potential students and families the many possibilities of the district, especially in the newly renovated Hoosac Valley High School. He helped create a video tour of the school to introduce its capabilities to the community.
"There is nothing like a new school, and it shows the investment a community is willing to make in its children," Krol said.
Krol explained that many other schools offer alternatives to a standard education, and students may not realize all the programs Hoosac Valley offers.
"We have things that can interest a wide broad base of students, and it isn't just the sports and honors programs," board member Darlene Rodowicz said. "There is the theater, the arts, robotics and environmental sciences."
Krol said he thinks the campaign should focus on students moving from middle school to high school and show them what possibilities exist at Hoosac Valley. The board talked about giving tours of the school and showing possible incoming students the extracurricular activities offered.
"It's my opinion, and I think the opinion of administrators, that there is an opportunity here that some of the students perhaps that are choosing McCann [Technical School] may not see," Krol said.
Gordon stressed finding a hook that will attract students to the district. She said that two middle school students who saw the recent production of "Rent" at Hoosac Valley approached her and said they made the choice to go to Hoosac because of the musical.
 OneEighty Media President John Krol updated the committee on the marketing plan. |
"We need to look for those hooks that kids want get involved in," Gordon said.
In addition to the marketing campaign, committee member Stephen Vigna relayed information from an Adams-Cheshire Regional School District maintenance meeting earlier in the day. The district's maintenance budget has been cut by 25 percent and many of the needed repairs will not happen in this fiscal year.
Vigna explained that only temporary fixes will take place in C.T. Plunkett Elementary. This includes finding an interim solution for the leaking roof.
"It's really only going to be a temporary fix, but it will repair the hole and hopefully stop the leaking," Vigna said.
He also mentioned small repairs to Cheshire Elementary school that will make it safer.
Along with this, Vigna urged the board to look into creating a specific committee that would discuss buildings and infrastructure and options for them within the next five years.
He would like the committee to be in contact with the towns to deliberate over where money should go to maintain buildings in the district.
Tags: ACRSD, Hoosac Valley, marketing,
