The marketing company assigned to bolster the Española School District’s image will use the Española Valley High School’s Homecoming festivities to kickstart a campaign designed to address declining student enrollment.
County Commissioner Barney Trujillo, through his company, 2 Smooth Advertising, has put together a plan to invite sixth-grade students to partake in the high school’s homecoming week festivities so they can get a sense of what middle school and high school life are like in Española.
Española School Board members voted to award the marketing contract to Trujillo’s company unanimously, at the Aug. 20 Board meeting. The contract will cost the District $50,000.
Some members had concerns about the contract.
“I do not see a plan in place,” Board member Andrew Chavez said. “I would like to see a scope of work and deliverables before I feel comfortable voting on this.”
Eventually, Chavez voted to approve the contract with the caveat he see a plan in place.
Other members supported the plan.
“We are not experts so we need to hire people who know how to do this,” Board Vice President Ralph Medina said.
The strategy is to use the Valley’s history to attract students to the District.
“The goal is to increase the enrollment in the public schools by doing a marketing campaign and building the enrollment through culture and tradition,” Trujillo said. “The Sundevil pride is what we like to call it. We are starting with homecoming and marketing school pride. We are instilling in these kids at a very young age, how good it would be to become a Sundevil and follow through to high school.”
Trujillo said the plan is to select one male and female student from each of the elementary schools to participate in homecoming pre-game festivities, such as welcoming the team on the field and being treated to front row seats at the game. Other elementary students will also be invited to attend the game so they are exposed to high school life.
There is also a plan to have a pep rally at each of the elementary schools and have football players or cheerleaders attend the rallies to talk about their high school experiences. The marketing team is looking to print shirts with the campaign’s logo, as well as the slogan for the rallies.
The original plan was to have the elementary schools participate in the homecoming parade, but that was canceled because of logistical reasons. Trujillo said there simply was not enough time to get the approval for the event.
That week will also feature banners from all of the elementary schools with names of the schools and their logos to showcase during the week-long festivities.
Trujillo, working alongside Española District Superintendent Danny Trujillo, has worked out a couple of logo designs and slogans for the event. One idea is interlocking “E” and “V” letters with flames coming up from the bottom of the letters.
Directly underneath the logo are the words, “Española Valley Schools, where everyone’s valued.” The slogan is a play on the letters that are part of the logo.
“This is part of the strategic plan the District implemented,” Danny Trujillo said. “One of the ideas is to have a marketing policy and we are developing that.”
This is not the only event planned. Barney Trujillo and his associates want to produce a series of events that are specifically designed to attract elementary school students, particularly those who are just about to enter middle school and high school.
“We are formulating a plan right now,” Barney Trujillo said. “We are bringing in other people to talk about the best way to do that. We don’t want one person creating a plan. We want input from everyone.”
The District and 2 Smooth are working on a matrix that will outline all of the events planned for the year and integrate the events to instill pride in the District’s students.
“What we have talked about is involving the elementary schools at an earlier age,” Trujillo said. “We are talking about having fourth-graders attend the middle school for a day to get used to how the middle school looks. Part of the goal is instilling the idea there is life after elementary school in the District.”
Barney Trujillo said sixth-graders are the priority because that is the grade level when most students are leaving the District and attending school elsewhere.
“We have a good feeling for students in the elementary level,” Barney Trujillo said. “Right at the sixth-grade phase, they drop off and decide to go to different schools.”
He thinks he knows why.
“Sometimes that jump from elementary to junior high is tough for students and parents,” Barney Trujillo said. “Española used to have a not-so-good reputation and now we are trying to fight that, combat that stigma that says it is not a safe place to go and actually it is a very safe place to go.”
Ultimately, Barney Trujillo admitted that parents are the ones who decide which school their children will attend, but he said he believes children influence what their parents decide.
“We are going to invite the parents to these events as well,” Barney Trujillo said. “At the end of the day, we are trying to get these kids familiar with the school so they can go home and talk about it.”
The Board still has to approve the marketing campaign. Board members will have to approve the logo, the slogan and allocate resources for the homecoming event.
Danny Trujillo suggested rolling out the marketing plan in phases to the Board. The first phase will be the slogan and the logo. The second phase will introduce the matrix of possible events, including homecoming. The final phase will be integrating the marketing plan to the District’s strategic plan.