It’s not easy to register a school of students for the coming year, not under any circumstances, in any school year. But at J.T. Brackenridge Elementary, with a good understanding that it takes a village, a committed team, and a willingness to try multiple approaches, the enrollment team got all 450 of their students enrolled for 2022-2023 less than a month after registration opened March 14.
“We know that we have to start early and we already start with the mindset that we’re going to have to support a lot of our parents in the process,” Principal Marco Morales said.
Like so many schools around the district, J.T. Brack supports families with a variety of levels of digital access, many of whom still need help with the process after the transition online a few years ago.
To help meet the need and get the job done, the school hosted in-person registration and community events starting March 17. While these were in the works, they hosted competitions for classrooms and teachers, using incentives provided by the enrollment office.
From there, they put their feet on the ground. The enrollment committee tried to be proactive and reach out first to families that might have trouble with access.
“As an enrollment team, we looked at kids who typically have chronic absenteeism or difficulty getting documents in,” Morales said. “Those are the ones who are going to need the most help.”
The team worked at reaching those families, employing the help of the FACE specialist to make home visits when needed. They also made efforts to visit with parents in the pickup line each day, offering to do registrations on the spot. All the while, teachers were still working with their individual classes.
And then there were the phone calls. Spearheaded by data clerk Gracie Casanova, who has registered thousands of students at J.T. Brackenridge in her 37 years there, the school systematically called parents.
“It’s not a one-person job, but someone has to take the lead, and in our case it’s our data clerk,” Morales said. “She’s very competitive. She has an amazing work ethic, and is just always big about her deadlines.”
She also knows what works. Casanova said, in addition to making her calls, she asked the front office staff to ask each parent that came in about registration. If they needed to register, Casanova would come out to the lobby to help. The practice has allowed to her to get to know families over the years.
“I have the regulars who come in because they know I help them,” Casanova said. “It’s just making them feel that you are there with them, it's not something you are demanding of them, that you’re helping them.”
Casanova is set to retire this year, and that fact may have given the J.T. Brackenridge community one extra push to finish early. Morales said, after about three weeks of registration, they were at about 60%. He made the offer to the staff that if they made it to 80% completion by April 18, they could have “A Sonic Finish” and have Sonic treats on the staff development day. Also, he, added, it would be a nice way to honor Casanova’s efforts.
The faculty and staff responded. One week later, at the school’s STEM night, they registered their last few families, far surpassing the 80% goal.
While Casanova says the team is proud to be done so early, she knows the real winners are the students, who can start on the first day without any bumps.
“My part is getting them enrolled, getting their data in right away so they can have access to everything,” Casanova said, “getting them here so the teachers can do their job.”