Written By Aaron Leedy, Director of Marketing, Public Relations, and Grant Writing for the Tippecanoe Valley School Corporation

In recent years, attracting new students and retaining current ones to public school corporations has become just as competitive as businesses competing for customers. Just like the success of a business depends on the revenue from shoppers, a public school corporation can’t operate without funding from state and federal governments. The money a corporation receives depends on the number of students enrolled, so “selling” a corporation to parents and students is increasingly common especially as the education landscape continues to evolve.

In Indiana, parents can send their child to any public school they want to without having to pay tuition. On top of that, charter schools are another option competing to fill seats. It’s only natural nowadays for public school corporations to market and highlight the positive stories happening in their schools to help retain current students and attract new ones.

This is the first year for Tippecanoe Valley’s newly-created public relations, marketing, and grant writing position. A role like this was almost unheard of for a small, rural district less than a decade ago. It used to be that only large school corporations with thousands of students in highly-populated areas established public relations and marketing positions.

One reason for this new position at Tippecanoe Valley is to create and distribute the content that busy teachers and administrators simply do not have time to do. Tasks like creating newsletters, drafting press releases, handling social media pages, responding to media requests, seeking grant funding for projects, developing marketing plans, updating school websites, and taking photographs and video of school events were things that would get done in what little spare time they had left at the end of the day, if at all.

This new role frees up that extra time so a teacher can spend more time on what is most important: the student. It also provides a cohesive approach for the staff when handling things related to marketing and public relations.

A lot of great things happen at each Tippecanoe Valley school on a daily basis. There are so many stories from our teachers and students to tell, that no matter how much content we create, we feel like we’ve only scratched the surface of what’s happening.

The intent of this new position at Tippecanoe Valley is simple and true to the district’s vision. We’re here to inform the public and market our schools by sharing what is being done in our schools to equip all students to be successful – today, tomorrow, and beyond.

Valley Insight is a recurring monthly article written by administrators on a variety of topics related to education and the Tippecanoe Valley School Corporation. Articles will be posted to the district’s website and also shared with the local media.