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(What? Advertising online? Carl, John, spread some ad love my way! And fellas, if you really want to boost open enrollment, add a debate program!)
Hide Fido (by Andy Horowitz)
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I coined Noem as the ‘Palin of South Dakota’ when she ran for the state
house, seems I nailed it; America: meet your new Secretary of Homeland
Security. Sh...
3 hours ago
Wow, thank you for noticing and the free plug of your blog post. We are excited about taking this next step of promoting our school. Rutland is indeed "small by choice", but we would like to continue adding students up to our set capacity of 15 per grade (K-6), and 20 per grade (7-12).
ReplyDeleteThanks to open enrollment, SD has public school choice. This is Darwinian survival (of the fittest) and we intend to carve out a market niche for ourselves as a "magnet school" type choice for families attracted to our unique atmosphere and programs of long-standing quality.
No one school can be all things to all students and families and we make no such claim either. The bottom line is this- it is better for families to have more than one choice for a public school and this choice drives quality improvements among all schools competing for a limited number of students.
Cory,Thanks for making us aware of this.
ReplyDeleteIt’s great to see these schools be proactive. There’s no doubt that both offer “value” to students because of their size. I’d love to see more on the opportunities they offer that can’t be realized in larger schools.
For instance, my nephew transferred from a large SD school to a small school (where his father lived) for his senior year. He was an average student who was never in trouble. At graduation, he provided a powerful testimonial for what this small school did for him during his last year of school. For the first time, he felt he was part of something and that people (teachers and community) cared about him. All small schools (and towns) have similar stories to share. It's those stories that sell.
Keep up the good work!