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We have scheduled several Town Hall Meetings over the next few months. In each meeting, we will focus on a specific topic that pertains to our school. Be sure and check the on-line calendar for dates and meeting topics. We encourage everyone to attend as many Town Hall Meetings as possible. Get involved, and make a difference. |
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Development October 23, 2006 Our first Town Hall meeting was a success with those in attendance having ample time to voice their opinions and ask their questions to both Dr. Pearson and Mr. Eldridge, who were facilitating the meeting. Listed below are the main topics that were covered with a brief description of each. “Is there enough room for us to grow?” The answer to this question was yes from both Dr. Pearson and Mr. Eldridge. They both commented on the importance of sustainable growth and that successful growth was measured in more than just increased enrollment or new buildings. Successful, sustainable growth to them was defined as increased parental involvement and participation, increased athletic, fine art and academic programs, increased positive community awareness and increased funding. Mr. Eldridge believes that if we focus on developing and growing in these areas that the enrollment will happen naturally. With regards to enrollment, there are several possibilities for a combination of new facilities and expanding within the campus into other under-utilized buildings. Both Dr. Pearson and Mr. Eldridge agreed that whereas this will always be the main campus they both are working towards a strategic plan that involves opening a satellite campus at Camp Joy and looking for a location in North Georgia. Both of these new campuses would house ELC and Elementary. There is room to add two 15,000 square foot buildings within the existing campus for immediate expansion needs. “Is the school a school or a ministry?” The answer to this question from Dr. Pearson and Mr. Eldridge was both. Dr. Pearson elaborated by stating that our school was founded as a ministry of Highland Park Baptist Church, HPBC, and remains that way today. She also stated that we are a school and have local and state guidelines to adhere to. She mentioned that many if not most of the current and past faculty see their “jobs” as a ministry. Mr. Eldridge mentioned that we all are called to “minister” where ever we are and that we are a school and therefore should be run fiscally as such. He sees a need for a more “business-minded approach to how the Academy is operated. He feels that this will help us as we are growing with more accountability to the parents. Do we take in only Christians or are we going to start letting just anyone come here in order to grow?” Dr. Pearson’s answer to this question was that she personally interviews every parent and student who wishes to enroll. In that enrollment process she asks the student to tell her about their salvation experience. The student also has to have three references and their parents to verify. “This is the way it has been and I do not plan to change our standards for the sake of growth”, she stated. “We have and we will continue to make changes however we will not change or make changes to the philosophy and the scriptural principles that we believe to be important to one’s salvation and Christian character.” Mr. Eldridge’s comments were that a students experience at TTA might be the only “Jesus” or “church” they would have access to and that while ministering on Earth, Jesus spent His time seeking out those who were lost rather than seeking to save those who were already “saved”. “There has to be a balance”, he stated. Both believed that we had a good system and staff to deal with the issues that come with students from homes who profess to be Christians but whose actions state otherwise. “Why do so few alumni have their children enrolled? Mr. Eldridge asked the audience their opinion first. Comments from them were “concern over our “inner city” location verses Grace and Silverdale in suburbia”, “Location, Location, Location”, “no communication from the school since graduation”, “felt used” and “want to be involved in a school that is growing” were their comments. Mr. Eldridge then spoke about how important it is for us to all be “development directors” and “recruiters” and that if each family began working on one family and began praying for them and bringing them to our athletic events and to visit the school and to speak up and positively about the changes that are occurring that it wouldn’t be long before our visions were realized. Mr. Eldridge is very interested in reaching out to the Alumni and to begin repairing relationships. He also said that from a business perspective it is much easier to keep a client than to find a new one. “We have needed an ambassador for our alumni for years, someone who can bear the burden of all the past hurts and unmet expectations and to be able to ask people to forgive us for hurting them and then ask them to come back home,” he said. These are some ideas that came out when asked what can be done to reach out to our alumni.
Mr. Eldridge revealed his new alumni slogans, “It’s a new day at Temple” and “Have you visited our campus lately.” Both received favorable comments. Annual Fund Mr. Eldridge briefly spoke again about the Annual Fund and how our school will benefit greater by utilizing it. He stated that the brochure was planning to be mailed to everyone including grandparents and several local businesses. He also stated that we will begin to phase out fundraising as our school has known it; to the great delight of those attending; the only time people clapped! He believes that we can raise the monies we need through the annual fund. He shared that all the other schools have an annual fund and that the development world is moving away from the “nickel and dime” fundraisers that have been a part, a sore part of our school. Website Mr. Eldridge brought up the website and gave recognition to Chris Jordan who is the Webmaster. “Chris, I and others are working around the clock literally to get our website up and functioning”, he said. “We are so fortunate to have parents like Chris who are willing to invest hundreds of hours for the benefit of us all, he stated. “Now, if we could just get everyone to at least give their 10 hours imagine what our school could accomplish and become.” Mr. Eldridge credited William Sexton for his many years of involvement in assisting our academy from the technology side and for his part in helping with the new website. “This website, I believe, will be the single greatest asset our school has ever had,” Mr. Eldridge said. “With it we can advertise, survey, do marketing campaigns, and communicate effectively and efficiently with our parents, teachers, students and partners. It’s all about perception and communication these days and for the first time in the history of our school we will not only have both because of our new website, but have it better than our competition. In two months, we have gone from last to first in the area of communication and public relations amongst area Christian schools. Technology is here to stay and will become a major part of how we communicate and educate as we move forward,” Mr. Eldridge said. “The days of hand written announcements are soon coming to an end. Imagine all the trees we will be saving not to mention the reduced stress on both teachers and parents.”
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Athletics October 30, 2006 |
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Our second Town Hall meeting picked up where the last one left off with increased attendance of interested and involved parents who heard from Don Morris, our new booster Club president, Dr. Bob Hall, our Athletic Director, Dr. Pearson our Headmaster and Rob Eldridge, our Development Director. The meeting open up with Don Morris introducing himself as the president of the Crusader Club, appointed this year by Dr. Pearson. He laid out his vision of a more organized sports program at TTA which will “only enhance one’s experience,” he stated. He will be having a general meeting within the next two weeks to solicit members, to elect the remaining officers, to ratify the by-laws and to “get to work quickly,” he said. The Crusader Club is a membership based organization that will be very influential in supervising and carrying out the direction of the athletic programs at TTA. “The Crusader Club will be a strong voice of reason going forward as we continue to grow,” said Mr. Eldridge. He pointed to how effective other local booster clubs have been like Grace, Silverdale and CCS when people get organized around a central vision and support it. Mr. Morris shared his qualifications and background in sports and sports management. He was the Upward Sports Director for the town of Cleveland, Tennessee for several years prior to coming to TTU, to serve as a Vice President under Dr. Lovett. “My heart and my passion are to work with kids and sports. This is an answer to prayer for me,” he said. Here are some of the questions asked and topics covered. “Where does the fee that is charged to play sports go and will it be raised in the future?” Dr. Pearson stated that the fee goes to the budget for athletics. It was discussed amongst the parents that a more detailed open accounting is preferred. Mr. Eldridge informed that for next year every sport will be responsible for submitting a budget to his office so that a true overall athletic budget could be established. He stated that fiscal accountability and responsibility is crucial to the success of us moving forward. Dr. Hall stated that he was working on a budget at this time. Increased sports fees were tabled for later. “Will we be hiring any new teacher/coaches in the near future?” Dr. Pearson stated that she would be happy to interview any perspective candidates. Comments from the parents were that they wanted more teacher/coaches to be in charge of the sports programs rather than always relying on parent’s volunteers. “What is the process whereby someone is picked to coach our kids?” It was suggested that anyone who wishes to coach a school sport should have to be approved by both the Headmaster and the A.D. Many agreed. This led into a conversation about the conduct of our coaches and the importance of their character both on and off the field. “There is a need for better communication.” Under the current system, with 10 different athletic teams going on at the same time, it is evident that the head doesn’t know what the tail is doing. There were many comments on the importance of a new communication system and everyone agreed that there was a general lack of communication from the school to the parents which was frustrating. It was agreed that the website would help matters but not unless people begin to use it. The attendees commented that more people should have been at the meeting. Mr. Eldridge apologized and took the blame for not doing a better job getting the word out. He mentioned that it was talked about at PTF, sent home in Thursday folders (two weeks ago) and that it was posted on the website. He stated that a letter was being mailed out the next day to every home to inform them of the next two meetings. “Fundraising is out of control!” The group all but unanimously cheered this statement. It was asked that a better system be established. Mr. Eldridge stated that he recognizes that there is a problem and is trying to address it “without stepping on too many toes.” “It’s a matter of education, he said. People have been doing fundraisers for years here because there was no other alternative. Now that there is an alternative, and a better one, people will need to be willing to change without being fearful or territorial. We can actually raise 10 times the amount of money much more effectively. How effective can 10 fundraisers going on at the same time be?” he stated. He is going to be working with the Crusader Club to come up with effective sponsorships packages and a uniform fundraising program. “Fundraising as we know it, will cease to exist soon, “he stated. “We actually lose money the way we are going about it.” “What about our new football stadium we were promised the past four years?” It was pointed out that the soccer field which was the prospective site of the promised stadium was not ours to begin with. It is owned by the University. The University currently has two grant requests to do major renovations to the field for the University sports program with an emphasis on soccer according to Steve Keck, Director of Development for TTU. Dr. Bob Hall commented that we have a much better stadium in using Finely and that we will be meeting with the City to discuss a long term arrangement rather than month to month. “What student wouldn’t want to play at Finley, “he said. “It’s a 20 million dollar stadium, much better than we could ever have dreamed to build.” He went on to inform us about the playoffs. Mr. Eldridge concurred and charged the crowd with what their personal responsibilities were in regards to “recruiting.” Here is an excerpt from a recent email from Mr. Eldridge that parallels his comments made in the meeting. “This is a special time for our football team and for our school. We may not have a chance like this for awhile. We need to take full advantage of the publicity that we are receiving and will continue to be receiving these next 30-45 days. We have spent extensive time and resources building a new website to assist us with this endeavor. It will become the second most effective tool we will have to help us grow our school. The greatest and most effective form of advertising is WORD OF MOUTH and it works both positively and negatively. I encourage you to consciously step up your personal efforts to introduce TTA to someone. As we discussed in our meeting, all we need is for each family to commit to bring one family to come to TTA next year. To assist with this throughout the year I will be reminding, challenging, pleading and educating our families on effective ways and opportunities at school or athletic events to bring your prospective students and families. “Recruiting” is not a bad or dirty word. Webster defines it as “to seek out and engage”, “to strengthen or raise up”, “to renew or restore.” To effectively grow our school does take effort on our part, more than just talking. We will have to put action behind our words. Every school has its shortcomings. Let’s encourage people to stop talking about what they think ours are and ask them to focus on the positives like enrollment being up 20%, increased school spirit, FREE COLLEGE TUITION, new vision, etc.” Mr. Eldridge reminded people to view our new website and credited the hard work to Chris Jordan. “It will be the crown jewel of school websites when we are done with it,” he said. “Everyone should be sending our URL to their friends and families now with pride.” He commented that we have already had one inquiry in regards to enrollment. The meeting adjourned at 8:10 pm with a closing prayer by Larry Johnston. |
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Our next Town Hall Meeting will be Nov. 6 at 6:00 p.m. The topic will be Academics. Be sure to be there. |
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