PUSD Superintendent's Enrollment Committee Update

We’ve gotten many questions about the Superintendent’s Enrollment Committee, so we wanted to provide you with an update on what the committee is doing:

The committee is made up of parents, administrators, teachers, staff, and a couple of community members who are involved with the schools.  I’m one of the community members who was asked to be on the committee because of PEN’s long history of promoting participation in our PUSD schools.  Jennifer Hall Lee is the PUSD School Board Member liaison with the committee.

 There are 4 sub-committees:

1.       Parent Engagement – PEN created the survey that PUSD parents were asked to complete.  It asked about the factors that parents use to select a school.  This group will help with the analysis of that survey and another survey that PEN created for former PUSD parents so we can better understand why families leave PUSD.

2.       Public Relations – This group is working with the committee’s facilitators to create marketing and PR materials.

3.       Capacity – This group will look at data along with solutions to increase enrollment.  PEN’s Executive Director is on this sub-committee.

4.       Democracy Book Read Group – This group is reading and discussing American Public Education and the Responsibility of its Citizens: Supporting Democracy in the Age of Accountability by Sarah M. Stitzlein.  A live discussion with the author will follow.   

PEN knows that some families chose not to enroll in PUSD or leave after starting on their PUSD journey.  Some of their reasons may be beyond the district’s control, such as the high cost of housing or a job transfer.  But, there may be things that PUSD can do to increase the number of students who enter, and stay in, our schools.  Innovative programs, facilities, keeping great principals and teachers, shifts in school boundaries, seamless systems, better communications, etc. are all things that could impact enrollment.  You might have ideas of your own! 

That’s why PEN is seeking your input.  If you have thoughts about 1) how to increase the number of students who enroll in PUSD, 2) why families you know chose not to enroll in PUSD,  or 3) why families left a PUSD school before graduation, feel free to email nancy@penfamilies.org or send us a Facebook message.  We will try to respond to your emails, but that all depends on how many we receive!