Portland’s neighborhood schools get marketing help

District hires specialist for $25,000 to help tell schools’ stories

By Jennifer Anderson

The Portland Tribune, Jan 28, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (2 Reader comments)

Tribune File Photo

Kindergarten teacher, Bob Parker (foreground), draws a Mothers Day story in May 2004 for Grout Elementary School students. Grout is one of the Portland schools that could benefit from a new marketing program to promote neighborhood schools.

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Portland Public Schools is tossing a lifeline to some of its neighborhood schools that are struggling with low enrollment and fierce competition from other district schools that offer special arts, science or language immersion programs.

The district has hired a marketing specialist to work with seven neighborhood schools on ways to tell their stories and share their assets with the community.

Besides boosting enrollment, the goal is for more parents, community members and local business leaders to feel more engaged with their neighborhood schools and lend their support through volunteer time and resources.

“Many Portlanders don't know what their neighborhood school is if you don't have school-aged kids,” said Lois Leveen, the marketing specialist, who has a background in teaching and communications. “(Marketing) is new territory for schools. It used to be you do a good job as a principal or teacher, that's all you needed to do. Now you need to get the word out.”

Leveen is on contract with the district for $25,000 through March, having started the work last October. The funding comes from part of a federal Voluntary Public School Choice grant, which is doled out to districts across the country to educate families about their school choice options.

So far, Leveen has met with the staff at each school and become familiar with what makes their school unique – whether it's a flourishing arts program at Southeast Portland's Grout Elementary that flies under the radar, or efforts at Northeast Portland's Roseway Heights K-8 School to pair older students with kindergartners as mentors and reading buddies.

One of her strategies to get the word out is to create hundreds of pins that say: “Ask me about Grout School,” as well as the other participating schools, “so if I'm standing in line at grocery story or parking lot of the library or walking around neighborhood, it tells me there's something exciting going on in the school,” she explains.

Leveen is also working on sending welcome letters to each new person or family that moves into the district’s boundaries, to introduce them to their neighborhood school.

The letters will outline the school's afterschool programs, volunteer opportunities, sports events and other items of interest to new residents – whether they're retirees or young couples who don't have children yet.

“When you move into a neighborhood, part of what you get is your public school,” Leveen said.

Besides Grout and Roseway Heights, the other participating schools are: Boise-Eliot K-8, Humboldt K-8 and James John Elementary in North Portland; and Markham and Hayhurst elementaries in Southwest Portland.

Each of the schools was invited and agreed to participate because they “may not be attracting all the neighborhood kids they could,” said Kelley Duron, who's managing the initiative for the district. “They all have great stories to tell. With some concentrated time and thought, I'm sure they'll be able to do it well.”

Districtwide, the average “capture rate” – the rate at which children attend their neighborhood school – is about 85 percent. Each of the pilot schools has a much lower capture rate, according to district data: 44 percent at Humboldt, 60 percent at Boise-Eliot and Grout, 63 percent at Roseway Heights, 67 percent at Hayhurst and James John, and 69 percent at Markham.

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