Sometimes, desperate times call for desperate measures. A Tucson Unified School District elementary school that barely survived the chopping block is now taking to the airwaves to recruit students, and try to stay open.

Parents and supporters of Wrightstown Elementary School on the northeast side are mounting the advertising campaign. The TUSD governing board voted 3-2 to keep the school open, but with low enrollment, parents know they need to act.

The TV commercial will air on Fox 11 for the first time on Thursday, May 8. Wrightstown is a highly performing school, and parents and faculty there want everyone in Tucson to know it. They hope the ad will encourage others to send their children to Wrightstown.

One week after the school board decided to keep Wrightstown open, parents of children who attend the school are still thrilled with the decision. “We’re very excited he (her son) will be staying here,” says Shannon Scrogham. “Hopefully they’ll leave it open next year as well.”

That depends on whether enrollment increases from it’s current number of 157 students. Regarding the commercial, Wrightstown Principal Jonathan Ben-Asher says, “We want to share the good news with everybody in Tucson, and let them know that we’re accepting open enrollment and we’d love to serve your kids.”

Ben-Asher says he wanted to share Wrightstown’s strong points when the commercial was initially produced back in December. “We’ve had it ready to go, but because of the closure possibility, we were not able to put it on the market,” he says. Now that the school is safe for next year, the commercial is scheduled to run for the next month.

Ben-Asher says the success of the ad will be hard to judge. “If we see a big stream of folks start showing up next week, we’ll know we’re reaching the community and people are interested, so we’ll see how that plays out,” he says.

School supporters also plan direct mail ads, door-to-door campaigns and radio advertisements over the coming weeks. The Wrightstown Parent-Teacher Association raised the money to make the advertising campaign possible.