Declining enrollment and an $18 million budget deficit are just a couple of the issues facing the Tucson Unified School District. Now, neighboring school districts and charter schools want to recruit students from within TUSD.

The Tucson district isn’t the only school system in the area that is facing declining enrollment. Several other districts have the same issue, and they’ve spent thousands of dollars on advertising to try to lure new students.

Alta Vista High School is a charter school located on the south side of the city. “If our students have any younger siblings or cousins or friends that are going to be entering high school next year, or are looking to go to a different high school, [we’d like them] to keep us in mind,” says Principal Alicia Alvarez. “Large schools do not work for everyone, and we know that. If not, we wouldn’t be in business.”

Thanks to the new open enrollment policy, the Catalina Foothills District sent out 43,000 fliers to families within TUSD’s old boundaries early this year. “In that period we had 486 new applicants and 70% of those were from within the Tucson Unified area,” says Foothills School Superintendent Dr. Mary Kamerzell. That translates to about $1.4 million dollars in state funding.

Esperero Canyon Middle School has faced declining enrollment due in large part to the lack of affordable housing nearby, but now the school stands to benefit from the open enrollment policy. “In bold terms, the more students you have, the more revenue you have,” says Esperero Canyon Principal Brian Lorimer. “The more revenue you have, the better life is at a school -more teachers, more supplies, more of everything.” Lorimer says the school looks to gain about 60 students through open enrollment.

In the meantime, TUSD has launched a marketing campaign of it’s own to attract students. “It will be a very broad campaign – TV, radio, web, print, pretty well everywhere,” says TUSD Marketing Specialist Joe Bidwell. The advertising campaign will cost the district $25,000, but Bidwell says the expected return on it will be between $1.9 and $3 million in revenue.