ADVERTISEMENT

Should Manson Northwest Webster Recruiting in Fort Dodge be allowed?

Originally posted by VickVega:
Should it be "allowed"? Is that a serious question? ALLOWED?

This isn't 1960's Russia.
Click to expand...
Should high school athletic teams be "allowed" to actively recruit kids from other schools? This is a serious question. ALLOWED?

This isn't Nazi Germany.

Or is it okay to recruit kids to another school just for academics, and if they just happen to be good athletes then so be it
 
Wait a minute...so you open enroll your kids to a smaller school. But, then ironically, you are upset that other families might also open enroll their kids to a smaller school (just like you did)...except they might do so because of a billboard, which makes you mad.

Seems strange to me.
 
Wait a minute, I don't care that other people open enroll their kids to smaller schools, larger schools, or richer schools.

The question is what recruiting should be allowed by schools. Our school did not recruit us. We sought them. There was no fliers or anything.

So as a private citizen, can I send letters to all the students in surrounding schools asking them to attend my kids schools for a better educational experience. As a private citizen, can I send letters to all the surrounding school's athletes to come and play and make my kid's team better? Is it allowed? And I actually know the answer.

Should there be guidelines, or just let everything go?
 
What are the guidelines? I actually don't know. I have had public school coaches contact me about my youngest son and let me know he would be more than welcome at their school, it's not a billboard but it was recruiting so where does the line get drawn on the rule side?
 
Yes, that is breaking the rules. This is from the IHSAA Handbook page 52. See questions 3 and 4

UNDUE INFLUENCE
Q 1: A local businessman is very interested in having our high school basketball team be successful. He has a very
profitable business and employs many people. During the summer he went to a neighboring town and hired a man to work for
him with the understanding that the man would move his family to our town and send his child to our school. The student has
enrolled this fall and is an outstanding athlete. We do not approve of this practice and wonder if there is any rule in the
Association that would make this student ineligible for interscholastic competition at our school during the present semester?
A: No, the student has not violated the transfer rules.
Q 2: The basketball coach was in Germany last summer as part of a basketball exchange program. Since his return to the
states, our coach has received correspondence from a boy he made an acquaintance with while on the exchange program.
The young man expressed a desire to enroll in our school and play basketball. What is the eligibility status of this young man?
Could he attend our school and play basketball?
A: The student will be ineligible to play basketball at the varsity level for 90-school days.
Q 3: Would the following be regarded as undue influence? School personnel (to include coaching staff members) entice a
student to attend their high school because the chances of getting to the state tournament is better than where the student
currently attends school.
A: Yes, this undue influence.
Q 4: School personnel encouraged a student athlete to attend their school, acknowledging the greater potential to be
recruited and obtaining an athletic scholarship at the collegiate level.
A: Yes, this is undue influence.
Q 5: School personnel offers transportation, assistance in employment, or waive the cost of school related expenditures.
A: Yes, this is undue influence.
Q 6: School personnel offers certain favors to the student or student's family members in hopes the family will make the
move to enroll their child in the given school district.
A: Yes, this is undue influence. COMMENT: Coaches, if a student athlete or parent(s) of an athlete contacts you as to a
possible transfer, refer them to the building administrator. This will help to eliminate any potential problems relative to
recruitment or undue influence.
 
And that was just me assuming what was said in the conversation. For example guaranteed playing time or winning more games etc would be undo influence.
 
'Undue influence' doesn't apply here. There were no special privileges offered on that billboard that weren't available to all students.



"Undue influence" shall be deemed to include, but not be limited to, offer(s) or acceptance of financial aid, reduced or
waived tuition fees, or any special privilege or recruiting procedure not generally available to all students upon the same terms
and conditions; transportation allowances; preference or assistance in acquisition of employment; and room, board, or
clothing.
 
homer_simpson_gif-761.jpg
 
To call this whole situation of a public school allowing billboards promoting themselves to be placed in other bordering school districts a slippery slope would a gross understatement. This is recruiting in it's purest most flagrant form.

Wade, I'm going to answer some the questions you asked. You said you are done and since you haven't posted a word in over 24 hrs that could be true. It's possible there is an influence making you be "done" so in case you are still reading here it goes.

First, why did I put this on Preps and does it belong here? Yes it very much belongs here. Aren't all the high school athletes who belong to all the teams on these boards 'STUDENT ATHLETES". Isn't it a prerequisite to be a STUDENT in order to play high school sports? I'll make it clearer for you. Since Manson NWW is soliciting students with billboards in other public school districts they are also soliciting ATHLETES. I have seen at least 1 billboard which was a montage of Manson NWW activities INCLUDING SPORTS.

Why did I put it on a FOOTBALL THREAD? It is because football happens to be the fall sport that is going on at the start of the school year. I did make one mistake here. In all fairness I should have also posted this on the "Girls Sports" board as well. Sorry but I am like most people and unless I have a daughter in the fight I could care less about girls sports. (If you think I'm kidding check out how much activity is out there and the fact they have a combined board).

To the person that said I made this personal against Wade, IMO I did not. WW made it personal by using his name. He only has himself to blame. While he may be considered courageous by some it also is quite questionable how smart that was to do when it is public record that he is an employee (and what his position is) for the school district involved. Here is what I consider personal...my personal finances being impacted negatively because another public school district has decided to take advantage of their "luck" (that is Wade's word) and haul busloads of kids and their $$$ out of my district. Interesting that Wade talks like people are coming to Manson NWW because they are a superior school district yet slips and uses the work "LUCK". You let the cat out of the bag with that slip. What is it Wade? Is Manson a great school or lucky?

Is this whole issue debatable? Not according to Wade. Well, everyone else sure seems to be debating it. Wade, do you know what isn't debatable? A letter to the editor in any newspaper including the Messenger. Sure a rebuttle letter can be written which the paper may or may not publish weeks later. They also may decide to edit the letter and twist what is written. That is why I'll never write a letter to the editor again.

Time to take a break and I'll explain why the whole idea is such a slippery slope.
 
Why is allowing a public school to advertise inside of another public school district a slippery slope and a stupid idea?

WHAT DOES IT LEAD TO, WHERE DOES IT STOP, AND AT WHAT COST TO THE KIDS?

It's that simple.

Even if MNWW uses private donations for their billboards, as has been pointed out the school district is approving them by allowing their name, website, ect on them. That money could have been donated to the school to actually do something to improve the quality of the education their kids receive not try to hustle more kids in.

Here is what it leads to. Now other districts find themselves either having to raise money or budget money to run a "counter" advertising campaign or run the risk of appearing uncaring whether the kids stay or leave for the other school that is trying to give the appearance they want them (when we all know all they really want is their $$$). That school not only has to find money for this advertising campaign they must do it with an already reduced budget because of the $$$ that left the district as the students were lured away.

But wait.. it will spiral down from there. Suddenly the original interloper decides to raise the stakes since they are now facing an advertising push back. They decide that the recruiting could be greatly aided by having prizes (possibly including money) for all their students who can entice another student to open enroll. Sound far fetched? I don't think so especially since there is a least one private school in western Iowa that has issued tuition credits for students/families who have recruited new students into their private school.

Here is another scenario that could easily happen down this slippery, corrupt path. Someone with some business savvy realizes, "Hey, we get $5,000 per head for these kids..so we can afford to kick back $500 to the student/family and still be money ahead". We can call it a reimbursement for travel cost (or time if they provide busing) and give it a sound of legitimacy. Call it what you want, it would still be a kickback. Nice thing to teach the kids. Let them try that later in the working world and see what kind of trouble that lands them in.

Where does it stop? How much money and efforts by school staff is going to be wasted on a border war between 2 schools districts? Wouldn't this money and resources be better spent on what school are supposed to be doing....educating the kids?

If this whole situation were such a "great" thing there would be other public schools playing "S--T ON YOUR NEIGHBOR" but guess what? In all my travels I haven't seen another public school district doing this.



This post was edited on 8/29 6:02 AM by ghost80
 
Relax???? Really...that is the best you can do Pinehawk? Very weak.

Maybe Wade is right and this isn't debatable (from Manson NWW's prospective).

FTR, I am relaxed.....I listen to Frankie!
 
Pinehawk, I didn't mean the billboard was undue influence. But when coaches, employees of a school district, approach parents and try to entice athletes to join their school that is undue influence. "Hey, we could really use your kid. We have a spot available. With Johnny, we have a great chance of taking that next step. Do you really think he is going anywhere in his current situation?" That is undue influence. No money needs to be offered. Offering opportunities is the same as offering money.
 
Originally posted by rkhemp:
Pinehawk, I didn't mean the billboard was undue influence. But when coaches, employees of a school district, approach parents and try to entice athletes to join their school that is undue influence. "Hey, we could really use your kid. We have a spot available. With Johnny, we have a great chance of taking that next step. Do you really think he is going anywhere in his current situation?" That is undue influence. No money needs to be offered. Offering opportunities is the same as offering money.
Click to expand...
Right. Which is not happening here. It's just a billboard.
 
Back to billboard subject though. Until someone mentions another one, I will take it that MNW is the only one in the entire state to place a public high school billboard in another school district.

Ghost, has there been any push back from FD? I do know FD has the right not to allow MNW bus pickups in their district. Is there any kind of stand by FD's administration? Has it been brought up at a school board meeting so parents could express their concerns?
 
I am not 100% sure but I believe that both schools have one pick up spot in each of the districts. Not sure where Manson's is but I believe that Fort Dodge has one in the Deer Creek Addition, which is in the MNW school district. Don't most school district each have pick ups in each others districts?

I know the billboards have been up for years. So it must not be illegal. I suppose when the state says it is wrong they will come down, until then I am sure it will be up.

Not sure on the numbers but I believe there are a lot of kids from Manson open to Fort Dodge because they live closer.

It is about where the kids and parents fell they can get the best education for their kids since open enrollment started.
 
School districts must request and get approval to stop a bus in another school district. Cedar Rapids School District does not allow outside schools to stop in their district.

If FD stops in MNW's district and MNW in FD's, I am sure the schools have an agreement to do so.
 
I am not quite sure billboard promotion of a school district can be called recruiting in its purest most flagrant form.

The billboards are directed to the benefits (or what people associated with MNW see as the benefits) of the opportunities at MNW. In other words, the billboard is a general marketing tool (not a selective recruiting tool as some would argue). For instance, some MNW billboards promote one-to-one computers or "Growing in the Arts at MNW."

Are these billboards only directed to parents of athletes? No. These billboards are directed to all parents informing them (at a very general level) the potential benefits of an education at MNW. The billboards are meant to promote/market the district in order to grow the district. I would venture to guess that the number of students in a district outnumbers the number of student athletes.

ISU and U of I (as well as a number of other higher education institutions) promote/market their universities in neighboring states (e.g., Nebraska, Illinois, Minnesota, etc.). If one took the originally asserted argument (e.g., purely motivated by athletics) as the premise, then ISU and Iowa may only be directing these marketing efforts towards athletes. However, I think ISU and U of I have motivations of promoting their universities to grow the overall student base (more students = more money).

School districts have an interest in growing the student population (not just selectively growing the athletic population), and I do not believe MNW is the only school to promote or market its district in this fashion - http://indianapublicmedia.org/stateimpact/2012/05/28/advertising-age-why-billboards-for-schools-are-becoming-a-common-sight/

If you are mad about these billboards - I believe you can purchase space on these billboards to promote your district as well.
 
Thanks for the link Blaine. You just showed a billboard of a school district showing 2 classroom pics and then a pic football. Under it reads " FREE Transfer Tuition". Is that what we really want to see in Iowa? Offering special treatment to transfers?

So if that is what you feel things should be like, comparing Iowa public school recruiting to college recruiting, then I say get rid of all rules. Let it be a free for all.
 
rkhemp - Thank you for the reply. I understand that this is an upsetting issue to you and to Ghost. It seems that the core issue may be someone having an affinity for Fort Dodge and/or a dislike for MNW coupled with the alleged use of billboards to selectively target and recruit athletes in an attempt to improve MNW's football team.

The point of the link was to show that using billboards to market a school's brand is not some isolated incident in Fort Dodge, Iowa - a point in which you were alluding to in a previous post.

Also, my post was not meant to discuss how schools in Indiana market to parents/students in other districts and whether Iowa should follow suit. Again, the link is meant to show that other districts use billboards as general marketing tools.

To address your comment regarding public school recruiting/college recruiting - my post was directed to universities using billboards and television advertising in neighboring regions for general marketing purposes.

I believe that your statement was also including (inferring) the targeted/selective solicitations that colleges/universities send to specific prospective students. I believe there are rules addressing targeted recruitment of student athletes set forth by ISHAA (or other regulating/governing bodies). Additionally, my post was in no way suggesting using targeted recruiting tools for high school, etc.

As discussed, the billboards are being used as a general marketing tool to market a school district to parents/students.

Finally, I would hope that a parent would not send his/her child to another school district based merely on a billboard.
 
Also...could those of you who are so concerned about this issue fill us in on what the Fort Dodge school board is doing to keep these students in their school? Certainly someone would not come on a public forum to whine about a billboard without first having gone to their own school board meetings to find out why these students leave....well, maybe they would.

And since it was stated earlier that MNW has "targeted" Fort dodge athletes- given that one billboard has some sports pictures on it....can someone name me 5 athletes who have left fort Dodge to attend MNW?

Also Ghost...let me explain once again my use of the phrase "luck" since you obviously did not understand it the first time.
MNW is "lucky" to have a large school district next to them. It has nothing to do with our confidence level in the education we provide- but it has everything to do with the fact that some people do not like the bigger schools, therefore, they send their children to schools the size of MNW- with something like 45 students per class. Do I think MNW is superior to Fort Dodge? For some families- obviously we are.

And by the way, Ghost- I asked you two questions you have not answered: 1) has MNW done anything illegal, and 2) why are you opposed to school choice?
 
Aw Wade, why couldn't you just stay away like you said you were going to? Sorry buddy but you brought this one on yourself.

First I'll answer your questions.

Why am I opposed to school choice? Maybe I should answer that with a question? Wade, what makes you think I'm opposed to school choice? Sorry to burst your bubble but I am not opposed to school choice and I would challenge you to find any time on any post where I have stated that I am opposed to choice. I have sometimes questioned the reasons why people would want to exercise their choice due to a wide variety of reasons but I have NEVER said that people shouldn't have a choice where they go to school.....you missed by a mile on that one.

Wade, I would suggest you go back and reread what is on this thread. The core issue of this thread is should a public school be allowed to openly advertise in another public school district? The issue if open enrollment should be allowed isn't the topic. That is a whole different topic but if you are curious my answer to allowing choice would be YES. Do you really understand what the issue is here or are you just trying to cleverly shift the issue? My guess is that you really don't understand the difference. Sorry...just being honest.

Is what Manson doing illegal? I doubt it, but then once again.....show me where I said it was? You may want to go back and do some rereading here as well. Notice that my words were "SHOULD IT BE ALLOWED". Kind of a big difference between asking if something should be allowed and saying it's illegal. Sorry but you missed the mark by a mile again.

Once again Wade I think you are using your imagination in thinking I said you are "TARGETING" FT DODGE athletes. Thought I was pretty clear explaining that your billboards are recruiting STUDENTS and please try to pay attention carefully....you do have to be a STUDENT to be an ATHLETE so yes if you are casting a net looking for STUDENTS you will inevitably catch some STUDENT ATHLETES as well (especially if you place pictures of sports in your ads). Here is a question for you Wade. When you were a girls basketball coach...were all your athletes students?

Here is another one for you.. I don't care what the Fort Dodge school board does in this border war as long as they don't lower themselves to Manson's standards and start advertising in Manson's school district. Once again I thought that I had explained this clearly that a border war would waste a lot of money and effort that could be used educating the kids. What am I doing about this situation? What a concerned citizen should be doing and that is building a case to the people who can put a stop to Manson's foolishness and that isn't the Fort Dodge School Board. Wade, I would like to thank your buddy who posted the article on Indiana...I am using that article to help build my case that it is better to nip this in the bud while we only have one "lucky" freeloading school district before we have a lot more. Here is a hint. The cities contain lots of voters and they will be ones hurt by the "lucky" school districts with fewer voters.....it might be a good idea for my audience to protect the interest ($$$) of the larger number of voters and not the "lucky" few.






This post was edited on 8/31 8:08 AM by ghost80
 
Ok Blaine now it is your turn. There are a few issues with your "well said" post that need to be addressed.

Comparing your billboards to ISU, Iowa and other higher learning institutions is is a very weak comparison and is like trying to compare apples to oranges. Even public to public comparisons of each is ridiculous. Public high school have a clearly defined border that separates each other. Public colleges (as well as private high schools and private colleges) have no boundary!!! There are no border wars because there is no border!!

When I travel and see advertising for one of our state schools in another I have no problem with that because that is an open playing field with no boundaries. The closest thing to a border war is what each college charges for it's out of state tuition for it's non resident students.

Another difference is that a college billboard may influence a young person to attend college and it may actually "create" students as opposed to Manson's billboard which is looking to "create nothing" but merely lure students from 1 predefined district into another at the expense of the taxpayers of the "UNLUCKY" district being located next to a "LUCKY" freeloading district. Yes it is possible a high school student who is at risk of dropping out can be salvaged through an open enrollment but it is unlikely that a billboard is going to convince them to do so. It would more likely be a counselor, family, or another person of influence who would persuade them that a change of schools is an option.

The true cost of an advertising campaign (not just the advertising but resulting students Gained or Lost) for a college is spread among all the taxpayers of a much larger unit. Obviously in the case of Iowa/ISU it would be all the taxpayers in the state of Iowa. In the case of a public high school the true cost of an advertising campaign would be spread across two different much smaller groups in 2 different predefined school districts and likely with one district having a positive outcome and the other negative.

Blaine, I'm repeating myself here but in response to suggesting I purchase advertising promoting the Ft Dodge school district this is just an escalation of a bad situation with the kids losing valuable money and attention that could be used in their education. Maybe the people of Manson NWW who are donating money for these signs should instead donate that money to their own school district? Who knows.. maybe with that extra money the Manson NWW school district could lower their 8% State Income Tax Surcharge they collect (as opposed to Ft Dodge's 3%) and the tax relief may actually get people moving into the district and stop the need to try and "lure" the students away from the Ft Dodge district.



This post was edited on 8/31 12:38 PM by ghost80
 
Blaine, I have never seen MNW play and the only time I have been to Ft Dodge is the softball tournament. I asked what other school in Iowa use billboards. You brought up a link to one in Indiana, which if you dug deeper would notice it has caused uproar.
Originally posted by blaine80:

rkhemp - Thank you for the reply. I understand that this is an upsetting issue to you and to Ghost. It seems that the core issue may be someone having an affinity for Fort Dodge and/or a dislike for MNW coupled with the alleged use of billboards to selectively target and recruit athletes in an attempt to improve MNW's football team.

The point of the link was to show that using billboards to market a school's brand is not some isolated incident in Fort Dodge, Iowa - a point in which you were alluding to in a previous post.

Also, my post was not meant to discuss how schools in Indiana market to parents/students in other districts and whether Iowa should follow suit. Again, the link is meant to show that other districts use billboards as general marketing tools.

To address your comment regarding public school recruiting/college recruiting - my post was directed to universities using billboards and television advertising in neighboring regions for general marketing purposes.

I believe that your statement was also including (inferring) the targeted/selective solicitations that colleges/universities send to specific prospective students. I believe there are rules addressing targeted recruitment of student athletes set forth by ISHAA (or other regulating/governing bodies). Additionally, my post was in no way suggesting using targeted recruiting tools for high school, etc.

As discussed, the billboards are being used as a general marketing tool to market a school district to parents/students.

Finally, I would hope that a parent would not send his/her child to another school district based merely on a billboard.
Click to expand...
 
CITIZENS:

On behalf of the West Hancock school district, home of the Fearsome Eagle Beasts, with attendance centers in Britt and Kanawha, I invite all parents in NC Iowa to consider open enrolling their young'ns to the WH district! The WHCSD offers a top notch education; trust me on that one. Make sure you tell the WH administrators/secretaries that "Iron Doc Sent You". Besides, we could really use more enrollment.

DISCLAIMER 1:

I know we are Class A and this is the 1A board, but extra numbers would help us move to a higher plane, specifically 1A status.
3dgrin.r191677.gif


DISCLAIMER 2:

I am not affiliated in any way at the present time with the WHCSD so my post, as a private citizen, is 102% LEGAL. I am simply an old geezer whose kids got a high quality dose of booklarnin' at WHCSD.

GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!
 
Iron Doc,

Personal testimony is 102% good in my book. That is how a truly "proud" supporter should do it.

At least if I am unsuccessful in getting the billboards banned according to what I hear from people Manson NWW may not be portraying the image they think they are and are staining themselves without realizing it. I've had people both from FD and outside of the area describe the signs as cheesy and sleezy. I had one "PTA Type" from outside of Fort Dodge (who had no bias) tell me she would never open enroll her kids to a school who was using billboard advertising. She thought it made the district look cold, desperate, and like something was wrong which was chasing their kids away so the advertising was necessary to replace the kids lost.

Who knows doc? Maybe if this lady is right Manson may be facing your "Fearsome Beasts" in Class A soon!!
 
We used to play MNW back in the day when we were in 2A (quite some time ago). They were epic battles!
 
I'm not against it. I feel if FD really wanted to stop the billboard they would stop allowing buses to enter their district. I would imagine they have an agreement with other schools so they could do the same to them. I don't know if they actually do but that is my best guess. It isn't just MNW that travels into the FD district. I've seen three different school buses in Badger collecting students.

More food for thought: I also know of at least one family that lives (lived- might have graduated) in the MNW district who open enrolls to FD for sports, soccer I believe, while the other member of the family goes to MNW. Should FD not be allowed to have soccer as it allows them to draw student/athletes from other districts? Of course they should, it's called opportunity.

This post was edited on 9/1 9:43 PM by house54hoops
 
Hoops,

I must have missed it....can you send me a picture of the billboard Fort Dodge Senior High purchased that has a big soccer ball on it?

I am glad that in your case a student was able to get an opportunity at another school through open enrollment that he couldn't get at his home district.
 
So the argument is only advertising?

If that is true, you should take up the fight with Decker's so they can stop selling t-shirts for every other area school because they are a walking advertisement for those districts. Anyone needing an orange shirt can stop in and pick one up. Look out, next on your agenda may be Southeast Valley since I know everyone will need to add teal to their wardrobe.

I am glad that you added that last part about getting an opportunity because of open enrollment. I'm positive no one that would leave FD could get what they need from open enrollment because they have everything? (insert sarcasm emoji here) I honestly don't remember what the sign looks like but I think it had to do with 21st century learning. Maybe you can post a picture of that? I'm sure not because that would only be spreading more advertising.

Maybe this whole thread is an advertisement for MNW? I mean it is constantly on top of the 1A football board so many people from small communities may look to MNW now thanks to this topic and its over 1400 views.

Again, I believe FD can stop other school buses from entering their district, so perhaps they should do that. They must not feel it's as big of a problem as you do. If nothing else, I've really enjoyed this thread. Even though I don't agree, I like a good debate.

This post was edited on 9/2 8:49 AM by house54hoops
 
which one of you are the guy that wrote the steroid letters to ICR?

If I had to guess, at least 2 or 3 of you probably have already done something comparable but just haven't been busted yet.

Amirite?
 
speaking of steroids:
the fort dodge messenger yearly puts out an extra football section that includes local and surrounding high schools. it includes photographs and articles. very nice effort by the messenger. Anyone out there look at the pics??? you don't have to be an expert to look at one of the high school kids and see that steroid use is still going on. what a pity.
and for anybody doubting, get yourself a copy and browse thru it.
 
I picked up my new S.V. T-shirt from deckers for only 5$! I asked why so cheap since a lot of people will need them and the cashier said they wanted to sell a lot because they made so many. Anyway back to the billboard subject.
smokin.r191677.gif
 
LOL! I'm glad you got your shirt Warrior Dad. I can always count on getting a nice shirt from Deckers during a tent sale, which is about every other week. I saw coach Swieter the night the selection for color and mascots were made for the new combined school and he said he was out looking for some teal gear! I think he's a great coach and will get the Jaguars going in the right direction quickly.
 
Detective Vick,

I think you can easily scratch Spook and I off your list of suspects because.......

EVERYONE KNOWS GHOSTS AND SPOOKS HAVE [/B]NO DNA!!!!!!!!


Seriously Spook since the Iowa High School Athletic Union has chosen not to implement any type of performance enhancing drug testing....IMO it really is the individual athlete's choice whether he juices or not. Nobody else should have the right to infringe on the athletes choice since the governing body which would have the power to do something about it has chosen to take no action.
 
Ghost- good call on the term "targeted". The actual phrase was whether a public school should be able to actively recruit other publics school kids for athletics. I never said YOU said it- but it did appear. I think the person meant it as a general comment but I initially took it as directed at MNW....I do not think students are leaving F.D. and flocking to MNW due to sports.

I also think that while I think the whole debate over whether a billboard should be "allowed" is laughable, the thread has at least brought a number of people out to comment. The bottom line is you can take those billboards down and students are still open enrolling out of F.D. You can like that or not like it that you lose money in that deal- but they are leaving. Parents are not thinking about F.D.'s financial situation-they are thinking the 3 C's- climate, culture, and curriculum. I think most parents will give on curriculum if the climate and culture are right for their children- and you cannot put a price on that. I think MNW has done a great job of offering an alternative for those families. It is great they have St. Edmond as an option but for those who do not want a private option- they are going somewhere-it may as well be MNW. If MNW has 60 kids coming out of Fort Dodge- it would be very interesting to see what parents listed as the reason for leaving.

I would also debate the impact of the billboards. Again, I could be wrong but I've never had anybody talk to me about MNW and mention the billboards....the biggest weapon any school has at their disposal is word of mouth. Having said that, the people who pay to keep them up would obviously disagree with me. If people are satisfied with a school they are telling their friends. IF their friends are looking for an alternative then it's a great thing. Those people who leave F.D. and go elsewhere are doing so because they feel it is not the right fit- for whatever reason. I would guess looking back at it- you would get quite a difference of opinions on whether open enrollment has been a good thing. I suppose most people would say yes...unless you are negative when it comes to those leaving as opposed to staying or coming in.

Anyway, great discussion. I enjoy the back and forth. Do not mind one bit being taken to task over stuff- actually enjoy it.
Love my school....love what we do for kids- I am sure all the rest of you feel the same about your district. That is how it should be. Anyway, thanks to all of you-whoever you are. Go Cougars!!
 
So Wade, if you don't feel the billboard is doing any good and kids would flock to MNW regardless, why the need? Just seems tacky to me, and again I could care less how many kids open enroll to your school.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

I

Week 7 Games to Watch

Replies
8
Views
2K
General Football Forum
PNation
P
LukeFeddersen

Iowa Preps High School Sports Talk

Replies
0
Views
964
Off the Record
LukeFeddersen
LukeFeddersen
LukeFeddersen

Q&A with Council Bluffs Jefferson quarterback Jayden Fujii

Replies
0
Views
810
Off the Record
LukeFeddersen
LukeFeddersen
LukeFeddersen

Q&A with Spencer running back Kamden Young

Replies
0
Views
178
Off the Record
LukeFeddersen
LukeFeddersen
P

Class 3A Season Outlook

Replies
3
Views
4K
General Football Forum
ronsss
R
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest posts

ADVERTISEMENT
Top Bottom
Back