Winning on Enrollment and Culture: Safety is the Strategy

Having worked in education for almost 20 years, I’m used to getting the same questions from people outside the industry.

Is it hard? Do you get summers off? Do you enjoy it? Is it really all about standardized testing? 

Yes. No. Yes. No. 

They’re always surprised by my answer to that last one. 

Lately though, more and more people have been asking me a different question:

How’s your enrollment? 

The fact that people outside the field are asking about enrollment speaks to how alarming the challenge is across the public landscape. Public schools lost more than 1.4 million students between 2019 and 2024– almost a 3 percent decline nationally. That number is considerably higher in big cities where many families are being priced out by higher costs of living. Lower enrollment, higher costs of just about everything, and the struggle becomes very real. In fact, seven out of 10 of the largest school districts have announced layoffs due to enrollment challenges.

So people are always surprised when I tell them that my school has actually increased our enrollment by 26% this last year. That’s right, 26%. In a ZIP code that has lost 10% of its population in the past 15 years. 

I share that not as a flex, but as a metric I am incredibly proud of.  As we all barrel toward the first days of school, I know enrollment is on all our minds–whether you’re a campus admin, district leader, or anything in between. 

The follow up question is always the same. 

How’d you do it?

Most people think I’m going to talk about marketing, recruitment events, or strategic plans.

I actually tell them something that confuses them. And it’s 100% the truth.

We made Baker a safe place.

Not just physically safe.

Not just psychologically safe.

Both.

When I say “safe”, I mean that you can show up authentically as yourself without fear of judgement for who you are.  This is a non-negotiable for me. As a staff, we are very, very intentional about bringing our full selves to work and allowing students to do the same.  The truth is, being a school principal has always been the best job I’ve ever had. I love working to lead a school where every adult believes in students and works relentlessly to provide them a college and career preparatory education. 

It’s also the hardest job I’ve ever had. 

If I had to hide parts of myself or not be my full self at work, I’d be absolutely miserable. I also know that being a teacher is hard. Being a paraprofessional is hard. Being a student is hard. I daresay that any of the people in my building would be absolutely miserable if they too could not be their authentic selves. And when people are psychologically safe, the building becomes physically safe as a result. 

The reality is this: safety is the strategy. 

So, how do you operationalize psychological safety as a school leader? 

It starts with vulnerability. Your staff should know your story. They have to know what drives you, what is important to you and why, and what you're still working on as a leader. It gives them permission to do the same. In turn, this gives students the same freedom. 

It also requires consistency. One of the most important things we did was audit nearly every system in our building. We simplified processes, clarified expectations, and rewrote the protocols that didn’t work. Tight systems create psychological safety for three reasons: everyone knows what’s expected, they are bought into those expectations, and they trust that every adult will respond consistently. Everyone–including students–also knows that there’s a process for when people don’t. 

Finally, we invested heavily in high-quality professional development. For instructional staff, we focused not just on lesson plans and classroom management, but also on emotional regulation, feedback, and relationship-building. There’s no question: adults who are supported are far better equipped to create classrooms where students are supported.

I’m not saying to shoot entirely from the hip. You have to have an enrollment strategy. You have to have a student persistence plan. But none of those things will ever compensate for a culture where students don’t feel known, families don’t feel trust, or teachers don’t feel like they matter.

Families don’t come to schools because of a strategic plan.

They enroll in the feeling they get when they walk your building.

Culture is difficult to measure, but easy to experience and impossible to ignore.

And the reality is that when students, families, and staff consistently feel safe at school, there’s something they almost always do.

They tell their neighbors.

They tell their family. 

They tell their friends.

I can’t think of a more powerful recruitment strategy than that.