Letter To BOCES educator, with introduction

Since I'm very interested in both traditional education and trade education, about 2 years ago I began investigating the New York State equivalent to a trade high school, which is BOCES. (There are many more informative links.) Here is an excerpt from the ‘About Us’ page on the website What is BOCES?BOCES stands for Board of Cooperative Educational Services. BOCES is a public organization that was created by the New York State Legislature in 1948 to provide shared educational programs and services to school districts. The History of BOCES BOCES owes its origin to a state legislative enactment authorizing the formation of intermediate school districts. Passed in 1948, the act was aimed at enabling small rural school districts to combine their resources to provide services that otherwise would have been uneconomical, inefficient, or unavailable. Iconic historical figures like Jorge Semprún and André Malraux are the perfect spokespeople for this type of educational service. Not the ivory tower occupant, and not the mechanic, but a peculiar amalgamation of both. Currently BOCES has a really interesting program called “integrated academics”—which focuses on providing not just a trade education, and not just a classroom education, but both. I’ve worked in enough classrooms—alternative schools and regular public high-schools-to know that the average class size in New York State is around 30 students. Far too many kids. In addition, certain students do not belong in the traditional classroom; they are disruptive, uninterested, or stimulated by other things. There has been a recent impetus to create “alternative high schools” that seek to address the needs of these students. But rather than going to BOCES, each school district—at least in the Westchester County—is dedicating an enormous amount of money, technology and human capital to creating on-site alternative schools. Wait a minute. I thought that’s what BOCES was created for, right? I don’t really know enough about BOCES to be able to form a hypothesis yet, but I’m working on gaining more insight into the problem. Below you will find a letter that I wrote to someone that works at a BOCES in New York State. Hello, x, I asked x for your email address, I hope you don’t mind that I’m writing to you. I hope you had a good Thanksgiving, and I hope you are avoiding all of the holiday crowds. I am writing to you for advice on BOCES. In this letter I will try to describe how certain circumstances have brought me to see how a private agency can help enrollment in BOCES and other public education institutions. I know you have a great deal of experience working with BOCES, and I would love to hear your opinion on this subject, especially if you think I am wrong, or off-the-mark in some way. Two summers ago, on your sailboat, you told me about the “Integrated Academics” program. I was so captivated by the idea of teaching literature to motorcycle mechanics, that I contacted (X) at the x County BOCES. She agreed to show me around the campus and talk to me about their program. She didn’t have a position for me, but I got a feel for what they do. After filling a maternal-leave in an alternative school, I ended up with a tenure-track position as a Spanish Teacher in x (high school). It was a good paying job, and very close to home I knew that I could have done that for the rest of my life—but somehow I didn’t feel like I was using all of my resources. Last summer, over vacation, I worked in an advertising agency that one of my high school friends started four years ago. He has been very successful, and in fact, he just sold a portion of his business to a venture capitalist. It turned out to be the perfect summer job. Towards the middle of the summer, X called me to tell me that she had been promoted to Assistant Principal, and they were looking to replace her. Her position—I don’t remember what they called it, I think marketing specialist—included grant writing, going from school to school trying to boost enrollment, and even going to Washington and Albany trying to get more Perkins, VATEA, and Tech-Prep money for the school. I interviewed, but didn’t get the job. By the end of the summer when I was ready to go back to teaching Spanish, my friend offered me a full time position. It turns out, his company was changing directions to become an enrollment management resource, and I would make the perfect marketing director—I knew more about how schools work than anyone else there. My job is to provide enrollment management solutions for higher educational institutions. Enrollment Management includes anything from making the advertising materials—online banner ads, TV commercials, print ads—to handling the phone calls that interested people make when they see the advertising materials. The funny thing is, I’m now doing exactly what I would have been doing for x BOCES, only on a much larger scale, for universities. So I started to think about the way x County BOCES is dealing with a declining interest in Tech programs. I thought: “If they were going to pay me to boost enrollment, surely they would be interested in boosting enrollment on a performance basis: only paying for the students that I bring to them. That way there is no risk.” It makes sense. But I don’t know if it fits in with the current model for operations that BOCES has. I’ve had a little trouble coming to terms with the fact that I am monetizing education. The point of education is to learn, not to make people money, right? But I think that if I approach this opportunity in the right way, I can help people, and make a living doing it. Besides, they were going to pay me to do that anyway, it’s just that I’m going to approach it in a different, more efficient way, save them money, and perhaps even change the way people see BOCES. I’m writing to you, because I know you have a great deal of experience with the way BOCES works, both locally, and on a state level—also, it was your comment on integrated academics 18 months ago that led me to contact X in the first place. I’ve outlined a few questions that would like to ask you, but I’m sure that after reading what I’ve written above, you’ll be able to see well beyond the elements that I have identified. In essence, I’m trying to see how I can boost enrollment in BOCES, and revitalize the tech programs—create more literary motorcycle mechanics. Here are the questions that I’ve put together for you.1-Rethinking BOCES marketing A. Do you think individual school districts creating alternative schools on campus is hurting BOCES enrollment? B. Does BOCES need to provide more services, or refine its core competency? C. Would BOCES benefit from splitting apart and renaming its different constituent services?2-State and Federal Funding A. Can you describe the various ways that BOCES receives funding, other than local school districts? 1-Tech Prep funding 2-VATEA Funding B. Do BOCES schools become more eligible for funding if they show increased enrollment? C. Do BOCES schools become more eligible for funding if they show increased college and job placement for graduates? 3-Increasing BOCES enrollment, and increasing funding to BOCES A. What would be the magic-enrollment-bullet for the directors of individual BOCES and the directors of BOCES on a state level? 1. For example: I can increase applications and enrollments to individual BOCES schools and on a state-wide level by launching TV and internet advertising campaigns. 2. How can I present this to the appropriate people? 3. Do you think BOCES will engage in this type of promotional activity? 4. Has BOCES ever sought to increase enrollment in this way before? Please, do not feel obligated to respond if you are not interested or do not have time. If you are interested, please feel free to call, or email me.Warmly, Patrick Sutton Want to learn more about Enrollment Management? Click here to sign up for the Innovation Ads Enrollment Management Whitepaper.