In an effort to keep enrollment from sliding, the William S. Hart Union High School District has contracted with a consulting firm to develop a research-driven marketing strategy.
The agreement with Zeste Consulting — set to cost $45,000 from the district’s general fund with an optional $15,500 on the table for optional quantitative research — will see consultants visit school sites, talk to stakeholders and use available data to determine what the district does well and how best to market those things, but also what can be fixed.
According to Michellene DeBonis, founder and president of Zeste, a Studio City-based firm, the idea is to create a messaging platform that will help with student retention and new arrivals. The strategy would look at elevating the district as a whole rather than highlighting specific schools.
Some of the work will begin prior to the winter holidays, and the hope is to have a final report in March.
“All of the clients I work with have different variables that feed into issues with declining enrollment, so that is an issue,” she said, “but what I’m most interested in doing in this first phase, and that’s what I told (interim Superintendent) Dr. (Michael) Vierra when we first spoke, is I really want to understand the why behind that, and that’s why there’s a research approach in this.”
Comparing the Hart district to a client she used to have, the Simi Valley Unified School District, DeBonis said the Simi Valley district was closing schools due to declining enrollment. After working with Zeste in 2017, DeBonis said it took a couple of years after developing a marketing strategy, but enrollment had stabilized after a couple of years.
The Hart district reported that as of its census day in October, there were 194 fewer students enrolled than on the same day in 2023, though the projection was that there would be a drop of 400 students.
In terms of funding for the district, the 200 fewer students represents about $2.8 million less from the state this year, according to Jon Carrino, assistant superintendent of business services.
Hart district governing board member Bob Jensen said he was impressed with how the Simi Valley district was able to turn things around and is hopeful that some of the same benefits can be brought to the Hart district — including improved athletic programs.
“Simi Valley (High School) completely turned around their football program, and probably part of it is because of your marketing efforts and bringing more kids back into the school district,” Jensen said. “But seriously, in the last three or four years, they’re one of the top teams in Southern California, and for years before, they were like 0-10, 1-9, 2-8 … I think they were talking about kids staying in the district now.”
While not taking credit for the success of any programs, DeBonis did say that she found some unique traits that the Simi Valley district had.
“They were losing a lot of kids to the west of them,” DeBonis said. “But the other thing, and this is really important when you think of your actual really important part of your district, your employees, a very big outcome of that too, because we did some post-research on morale, the stance of the district as a leader, being perceived as innovative, and some other measures like that. And we saw really positive results.”
DeBonis added that it’s actually an opportune time to be developing a marketing strategy as the Hart district continues its search for a permanent superintendent. The governing board was set to meet with Leadership Associates on Tuesday to choose a final list of candidates for interviews before conducting those later this month.
A chosen candidate is slated to have a contract presented in December and would start with the district at the beginning of the new year.
Zeste has also worked with the Hayward Unified School District, the Jurupa Unified School District, the Santa Maria Union High School District and the Las Virgenes Unified School District.
