We recently completed patron satisfaction surveys where the data showed patrons who once had students in the district were less pleased with the district than patrons who had never had children in the district.
The prevailing thought is once you are familiar with the district and your children and you have a positive experience, you become something of a cheerleader for the district. That’s a fair assumption, but it doesn’t always work out that way.
This is usually because of one or two scenarios. First, you may have not given your departing parents the opportunity to share any concerns they might have had about their time in the district. Or, more likely, you didn’t give your departing seniors a chance to vent any frustrations. In both instances, you simply didn’t close the communications loop by soliciting feedback. Exit surveys for seniors and parents are good things to consider.
The second scenario is also common. Once the last chick in the nest graduates, the parents never hear from the district again.
Depending on how involved the parents were in the life of the district, this can be pretty jarring. Rightly or wrongly, these parents might feel like the district abandoned them as soon as they wrung the very last dollar and volunteer time out of them. It’s never any fun to feel left behind. A parent alumni program would fix this in a jiffy.
Every May or June, two staunch groups of fans graduate, and you will lose their support, if you don’t make sure you take care of their needs at that time.
