InspirED School Marketers SPARKCAST

Patrick F. Bassett began his career in 1970 as a teacher, coach, and dorm parent at Woodberry Forest School (VA), followed by two headships—Stuart Hall in Virginia and Pomfret School in Connecticut. Pat served as the president of ISACS—the Independent Schools Association of the Central States—from 1993 – 2001, and then as president of NAIS from 2001 to 2013. After leaving NAIS he co-founded Heads Up Educational Consulting that provides strategic, operational, governance, and programmatic guidance and consultation to educational enterprises. Now, after 48 years in the independent school business, Pat recently announced his retirement from the industry. Rob talked with Pat about his career that spans 48 years and dedicated to private schools, his big takeaways about the industry then and now, and how schools can thrive in the future.

Maria LaTour Kadison is president and CEO of EdwardsCo, an education marketing firm that has won more than 35 CASE and other industry awards for brand development, digital and multi-channel marketing, and enrollment and advancement communications.

Maria tells InspirED the fascinating story of how she spearheaded Simmons College turnaround and how its success led her to help private schools enjoy enrollment and marketing successes of their own. Some of her clients include Phillips Exeter Academy, St. Paul's School, St. Mark's School, New Canaan Country School, St. John's Episcopal School and Park School of Baltimore.

Maria's conversation with Rob will help you lay the foundation for your school's marketing success in more ways than one.

At InspirED, we believe the future for private schools lies in innovation to ensure they will not only survive but thrive. Create a program(s) that will be in high demand, that no one else is providing in your market, and do that exceedingly well. That's what Philippa Fabbri did in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. In 2006, Philippa became the founder of Elsen Academy, an independent, non-profit school for students who have learning barriers such as dyslexia, ADHD, etc. as well as emotional and social barriers. The school has grown to enroll 125 students in grades 1-12. Learn about Philippa's journey, her success, and the benefits for her students.

InspirED knows of a number of private school marketing administrators who, in 2018, struck out on their own as independent consultants to other schools. Jill Goodman is one of them, and we thought it would be interesting to school marketers and others to learn about her decision and how she has developed her consulting business. For 9 years, Jill was Development Director and Marketing Coordinator at The GreenMount School, a K-8 coed day school with an enrollment of 120 in Baltimore, MD where, among other successes, she quadrupled the school's annual giving. In 2018, Jill founded Jill Goodman Consulting, a firm that "specializes in fundraising, brand assessment, and strategic direction for young, small, or emerging non-profit organizations helping them to harness the combination of smart methodology, creativity, and compelling messaging that is essential to stand out from the competition."In this episode of the Sparkcast, Jill talks about why and how she took the leap to consulting, how her experience as a school administrator informs her role as consultant, and the challenges small schools face. Jill details how she helps her clients establish their brand through Appreciative Inquiry.

This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation.

Heather Hoerle is Executive Director and CEO of the Enrollment Management Association (formerly SSATB) that serves 1,200 schools worldwide, primarily in the U.S. and Canada.Heather is a graduate of Westtown School, has sat on their board and currently sits on the boards of Princeton Academy, the National Business Officers Association and the New Jersey Association of Independent Schools.

In this episode of the Sparkcast, Heather talks about enrollment management in 2018 and the critical role marketing has in admissions success. They discuss the value of tried and tool admissions tools such as viewbooks and school fairs and investigate what the new opportunities lie in the digital landscape.

Heather Hoerle is Executive Director and CEO of the Enrollment Management Association (formerly SSATB) that serves 1,200 schools worldwide, primarily in the U.S. and Canada.Heather is a graduate of Westtown School, has sat on their board and currently sits on the boards of Princeton Academy, the National Business Officers Association and the New Jersey Association of Independent Schools.

In this episode of the Sparkcast, Heather talks about enrollment management in 2018 and the critical role marketing has in admissions success. They discuss the value of tried and tool admissions tools such as viewbooks and school fairs and investigate what the new opportunities lie in the digital landscape.

This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation.

In this episode of the Sparkcast, I talk with Americus about identity loyalty theory, how it impacts private schools and how you can leverage it for meaningful , long-term connections to all of the school's constituents.

Brendan Schneider is the Director of Advancement at Sewickley Academy, a PK-12 day school near Pittsburgh, PA. He is well-known for his website SchneiderB, where he is regarded as the go-to authority on private school inbound marketing and social media with thousands of followers who rely on his expertise.

Brendan also serves on the Board of Directors of the AISAP (Association of Independent School Admission Professionals), is an Inbound Marketing Certified Professional, a Hootsuite Certified Professional and a contributing blogger for edSocialMedia, AdmissionsQuest.com, and Social Media Today.

For this podcast, Brendan and InspirED asked our community members for questions they would like to hear Brendan and I talk about. We got a great response and covered as many questions as we could in the time we had. If you're still looking for answers, please reach out to us directly, ask your question in the comments below, or post your question on one of our Facebook pages.

These are the questions we tackled and the private school professionals who asked them. Thanks everyone for your participation. We hope we gave you what you need to make your job easier.

Greg Bamford is a educational thought-leader who consults on design thinking, leadership and strategic thinking. After working as a teacher at independent schools for over a decade, Greg co-founded Leadership+Design, a non-profit organization that works with school leaders across the country to support educational innovation. In 2014, Greg decided to focus his attention on one school and became the Head of School at Watershed School in Boulder, CO.

Watershed School is a unique school of 100 students in grades 6-12 . (Greg and I will be talking about what makes Watershed unique during the podcast.) Over the last four years, Greg helped guide Watershed's astonishing 78% enrollment growth and successful, first-ever ACIS accreditation process.

Greg's career is once again taking a turn in June, 2018 as he becomes the Associate Head of School for Strategy & Innovation at the Charles Wright Academy, a coed, JK-12 independent school enrolling 665 students in Tacoma, Washington.

My conversation with Greg covers a wide range of topics, all of which will prove interesting and thought-provoking for private school leadership, faculty, administrators, staff and extended community.

Mia Major is the Content Marketing Manager for Finalsite, a leader in K-12 independent and international school website development. Finalsite serves more than 2,200 schools worldwide. Mia writes 3-4 blogs per week for the private school market on such diverse topics such as marketing and communications, education technology, and web design. In this episode of the Sparkcast, we talk to Mia about the newly released Finalsite The State of Social Media Marketing Among Schools. This report is the result of a survey Finalsite developed on how schools use social media, what channels they use, budgets, time allocation and much more.