Archdiocese of Baltimore

The Challenge: Establishing Visibility at the Individual School Level

Jim Sellinger, the Chancellor of Education for the Archdiocese of Baltimore, had the sustainability and growth of the diocesan school enrollment at the top of his priority list. However, in order to ensure the diocesan schools as a whole continued strongly, Sellinger needed to bring consistency across its 44 schools. He also needed a good grasp of how each individual school was doing, when and where problem areas arose, and the right information to solve the issues quickly and efficiently.

Sellinger recalls, “I needed to have some headlights as to what was going on in the schools at every level from an admissions perspective. How are their inquiries? Are they down? What do our retention numbers look like? I had no way of knowing that until after the fact.”

Many of the elementary school enrollment offices only have one person in the office. With limited staff, the enrollment teams and individuals needed to be able to do their jobs efficiently. Meanwhile, in order to make improvements, school leaders needed to quickly obtain data-driven insights to find the right areas to focus their attention.

The Solution: Wielding a Tool to Gain Comprehensive Understanding & Consistency

“The software has given me the ability to see trends within a particular school. If I have a retention issue or inquiries are down, I can work specifically on those challenges with that school.”

The Archdiocese strategically implemented the product in phases. It began with two schools to fully master the tool. This strategic approach has allowed the Archdiocese a robust understanding of the tool and how the admissions office can use it to support its goals and enrollment processes.

When choosing the best tool to thrive, Sellinger recalled “integration with existing applications was critical. The advantage for us is the capability to interface with our school information system and tuition collection system.”

Sellinger shared, “when I came to the archdiocese five years ago, my goal was to bring sustainability and growth to Catholic schools because enrollment was on the decline.” He described the Archdioceses’ enrollment process as a “Baskin Robbins” because “every school had its own flavor or way of doing things.” The admissions and enrollment system helped bring consistency to the enrollment and management processes across the Archdiocese.

While the enrollment offices used to operate purely out of excel sheets and with printed paper documents, in just five years the schools have automated all of their enrollment processes and improved the productivity of their schools. “The convenience of the system’s paperless, anytime, anywhere system is ideal,” Sellinger expressed.

In fact, by going paperless, the private Catholic schools in the Baltimore area have created even more touchpoints with future students to continue to boost enrollment. Sellinger emphasized that “by going paperless, you are not losing a touchpoint, you’re initiating and creating one. It’s what you do with those opportunities that makes a difference.”

In addition, parents now have the ability to complete the application and enrollment process whenever they please. The dashboards and reporting have also provided visibility for principals and people in leadership positions. They can quickly and clearly see what is happening in their school and access the data and statistics that are important to them. Leaders and enrollment teams can also run a report to see how the school has fluxed or changed over the last year or set of years, for a clear picture of where they have been and where they are headed.

The Results: Enhanced Awareness of Every School in the Archdiocese

“The product provides more timely information from new customer acquisition through the registration process so you can react to market changes and address any issues before they become systemic. It allows us to have better management of inquiries, applications, and enrollment,” Sellinger expressed.

IT's helped the Archdiocese of Baltimore get the information it needs, when it is needed. The schools can now anticipate challenges and make changes to ensure success and consistency on an individual school-level across the 44 campuses that make up the Archdiocese of Baltimore Catholic Schools as a whole.