Like many schools, Upper Columbia Academy Elementary School lost students during the COVID-19 pandemic due to more parents choosing to homeschool their children. Small schools don’t have a lot of safety margin when it comes to drops in enrollment.
Kristy Plata, UCAES principal, Brenda Ermshar, UCAES teacher’s aide, and Lorna Hartman, UCAES administrative assistant, began to pray and put together a marketing plan to make the school more visible in the community and attract the students God wanted to send.
The three sat down with school board members, a pastor and school staff to strategize. Starting with the ideas from staff planning sessions, the group finalized a marketing plan. Though it was difficult to decide to spend money at that moment, the group realized the need to invest in the future of UCAES.
These efforts started before the 2021–2022 school year ended. First, Hartman ordered low-cost branding stickers to put on water bottles with a plan to give them away at events.
The school attended a Memorial Day event at a nearby town wearing school t-shirts and handing out free water bottles. The bowl of free candy also didn’t hurt. This gave Plata a chance to talk to local parents about the school and invite them for a tour.
Plata and Hartman went to a second community event without the students after the school year ended to hand out water bottles again and connect with people.
Ermshar took photos to post on Facebook more frequently and added an Instagram account to enlarge the school’s social media presence.
Ermshar targeted families with young children, mailing postcards to invite them to a K–1 Roundup event at the end of the year. It featured a balloon banner, school-branded water bottles and a bouncy castle. They loved it. While the kids were enjoying the fun castle, the parents were given an in-depth presentation and slide show by Plata discussing the benefits to each family if they sent their child to UCAES.
The school also sent out a general postcard mailing to all local families who have grade-school children to announce the enrollment period and advertise discounts.
As registration time rolled around, a contact of Ermshar’s donated a beautiful set of outdoor feather flag banners. The school ran an ad series on Facebook targeting local families with children, which looked the same as the general postcard to provide continuity.
Finally, the group asked PJ Deming, Upper Columbia Academy principal, if the elementary school could have a table of free water bottles at UCA's registration day. Landyn, UCAES fourth-grader, joined staff members and helped out at the water bottle table.
Everything the group undertook was bathed heavily in prayer. The school needed to rebound enrollment fast. When Plata sat down at the end of the 2021–2022 school year to tally the number of students the school could be certain of having for 2022–2023, the number was 11. This amount sent the group to their knees praying fervently for God’s blessing on their efforts.
The group knew UCAES is God’s school, and He would have His hand over the school. It wasn’t long until we saw His plan playing out for this 2022–2023 school year. Currently, the school has 25 students enrolled, indicating a miraculous and blessed answer to prayer.
The school was able to promote Ermshar from part-time teacher’s aide to full-time lower-grade teacher. Plata has done a sensational job for two years with a temporary one-room school situation, so this too was an answer to prayer.
One can only imagine the thanks that went up, and is still going up today, when the group looks around and sees 25 bright faces in school. Praise the Lord! God is definitely in the business of answering prayers.
