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Two school districts use TV as recruitment tool
By Denise Dick
Two Mahoning County school districts have taken to the small screen to attract students.
Both the Youngstown City and Jackson-Milton school districts are running television commercials.
Youngstown’s promotes its specialty programs including the Chaney Visual and Performing Arts and Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Campus.
Jackson-Milton’s touts its academics and extracurricular activities, encouraging students from outside the district to apply through open enrollment.
“Our hope is to get students to come back to the school district,” said Youngstown Superintendent Connie Hathorn. “We’re trying to show the good things that are going on in the district.”
It’s the first year Youngstown has used television to promote its message.
This marks the third year that Jackson-Milton has advertised on TV.
A few years ago, Jackson-Milton’s enrollment was down, said Superintendent Kirk Baker.
“Now we have more coming in than leaving,” he said.
Although Baker couldn’t say the commercials are the only reason, he believes they have played a role.
“It’s just to promote our schools,” Baker said. “We’re touching Portage County, and we don’t have billboards. We don’t have a town crier-type newspaper.”
It costs the district about $6,000, roughly the same amount in state funding that the district receives per student. The first year, Turning Technologies sponsored the commercials, which included the company’s student-response devices.
The commercials run on channels 27 WKBN, WYTV 33 and Fox. Baker said the district opted for those stations, all of which are operated by the same company, because the offering of all three stations provides more exposure.
The spots run during the times of day when people with school-age children are watching, the superintendent said.
Youngstown’s commercials, which also run on those same stations and Bounce TV, cost the district $6,000, part of a $13,200 marketing campaign.
The effort includes radio spots on WGFT 94.7 FM and digital billboards on main roads in the city.
The radio commercials started the week of Feb. 16 and run through May 3. The billboards will be up until April 26, and the television commercials started Feb. 16 and run through April 27.