Crescent Elementary hosted an Open House event at the school Tuesday afternoon in efforts to boost enrollment, after the school board voted to keep it open despite low enrollment numbers.
In February, the Council Bluffs Community School Board voted to keep Crescent Elementary open, despite recommendations from Superintendent Martha Bruckner, who said the district would save $200,000 per year if the school closed.
After the board voted to keep the school open, parents vowed to help recruit more families to the area to increase the number of students enrolled at the school.
“For tonight’s open house, we made signs and put them all over town, and we went to human service providers and let them know who work with families and children and then we developed a pamphlet about our town and some of the perks of our town,” said Ciara Warden, an advocate for the school.
To lead the new marketing campaign, parents and community members created a nonprofit called the Crescent Community School Alliance.
“We’re really excited to keep our school open, to really boost enrollment and to show people what a wonderful school this is,” said Warden, who sits also on the CCSA board.
The board is focusing on recruiting more students from surrounding areas, specifically for Pre-K.
“We need twelve commits to do the Pre-k because that's how many children the Pre-k room holds. But if for some reason we were only able to get eight or ten students, and able to pay the rest to fill that capacity, then we could have eight or ten children but we would still need to pay that amount,” added Warden.
The community needs to raise $75,000 to help sustain the school for next school year. Warden says they have already received some private donations and grants through their 501c3, but is hopeful the community will rally to help come up with the rest of the money.
"We're passionate, we care about each other, and when we really put our minds and our hearts to a cause, we can make it happen,” added Warden. “That’s what great about this community. We all care about this school so we will make it happen.
