NWS 3 Year Plan
From NWSWiki
Nelson Waldorf 3 Year Plan (Tentative)
Goals
1. To increase Teachers Salaries 50%.
2. To reduce tuition costs for families attending NWS.
3. To focus everyone at the school in Recruiting more students.
4. To eliminate Fundraising as an income source in the annual budget. So that future Fundraising activities can go towards a specific improvement or program at the school.
How Do We Get More Students?
1. By making the tuition free for all first year Waldorf children and parents. We are doing this to encourage families to at least , TRY Waldorf education with less risk. Presuming that we do a good job then the families will then be paying families the following year.
2. By making the Tuition Discount fair amongst all income brackets. The old system favoured low income families and made it very difficult for families with an income above $50 000 who also had multiple children to be able to afford to send their children to the school.
3. By implementing some new marketing initiatives such as the new sign on Highway 3 at the school entrace, by having lawn signs made up to be displayed on Waldorf families front yards, putting up posters, email blasts, etc.
4. A third kindergarten. The school has suffered from a low migration of students from the kindgarten to first grade every second year. This happens because of our "funnel" not being big enough from kindergarten to 1st grade AND the fact that children can be at kindergarten for two years before moving on to grade 1. We are adding a third kindergarten to the school so that we can have a total of 42 kindergarten kids and eventually have at least 21 children per year moving up to grade 1.
5. By mitigating the loss of children from Class 3-7 through proper procedures Parents can go through if issues with Teachers go unresolved.
6. By having payment plans which allow families to mitigate the financial shock of making one lump sum each year.
In the end,we all come out ahead if we can get the school filled with 190 students....this is our end goal.
How Do The Numbers Work?
By simply increasing student enrollment to 194 students from our current 120 students, we can achieve the two Goals. The school gets $4500 for each student enrolled from the BC Government. Our Operating Costs are pretty set no matter how many students we have. Therefore, the more students we have the more revenue we get and yet our costs stay the same (with the exception of raising Teachers salaries which is necessary as right now they make less than a first year full time teacher in the Public system; and you simply cannot sustain oneself in today' economy on that income level). The strategy becomes a self fulfilling prophecy whereby the lower the tuition fees, then more families that can afford to send their kids to the Waldorf school. The "Plan" would look something like this (this is not written in stone and still needs to be reviewed!!!) There would be some flexibility needed by the Board to administer the program to take into consideration unexpected capital costs and other unexpected expenses. The example below is simply a guideline.
For example ----Full Capacity is 192 Students
140 students No discount
150 Students 5% Discount on top of whatever program people are on.
160 students 10% discount on top of whatever program people are on.
170 students 15% discount on top of whatever program people are on.
180 students 30% discount on top of whatever program people are on.
190 students 50% discount on top of whatever program people are on.
The Student_Recruitment_Drive will be a 12 months a year program to actively recruit students all the time in a cost effective manner. It will involve Faculty, Parents and a Marketing Group. It will be laid out 36 months in advance so that we are pro active going forward and NOT reactive.
