Geibel Catholic launching awareness campaign to boost enrollment

Faced with a drop in enrollment and the challenge of operating a private school in a region with declining demographics, Geibel Catholic Junior-Senior High School officials Monday unveiled a visibility plan for re-branding the school and a social media push to increase awareness of its quality education.

“The goal is to bring in more students,” said Patricia Nickler, who is starting her fourth year as principal of Geibel Catholic School in Connellsville Township. “We want to build bridges to all areas of the community to make them aware of the quality of students we have here.”

Nickler hopes that, through these initiatives to raise visibility, the junior-senior high school will see enrollment increase from 130 students in grades seven through 12 to about 200 students over the next three years.

Geibel Catholic had an enrollment of 246 in the 2007-2008 school year, but that declined to 170 in the 2017-2018 school year. The school attracts students from Fayette, Westmoreland and even Somerset counties, said Nickler, a Greene County native.

The junior-senior high school has Catholic elementary schools that help to feed enrollment — St. John the Evangelist in Uniontown, Conn-Area Catholic on the same campus as the high school. Conn-Area has between 160 and 180 students in pre-kindergarten through sixth grade.

While tuition for the junior high school is $7,500 a year, and senior high school tuition is $9,500, Maureen Marsteller, superintendent of the Office of Catholic Schools, said there is substantial financial support for families, plus the earned income tax credit.

Regarding the region’s economy, “education is the way to lift it up,” Nickler said.

To attract more students and raise awareness about the school, Geibel is in the midst of a multi-year technology initiative that includes installing education whiteboards and interactive technology in all of the areas of study, from math to chemistry to art.

An enrollment committee consisting of parents and staff was formed to visit parishes and community events to discuss Geibel Catholic, an initiative that has seen more than 20 volunteers attend area festivals to promote the school, Nickler said. A team of “ambassadors” will visit community leaders and elected officials as part of the outreach efforts.

“We’re looking for more students to know about Geibel,” Marsteller said.

The school plans to have what it calls “strategic daily communication” with parents and the school community, complete with a content calendar with video and graphics for social media.

As part of the re-branding of the school, John Zylka, the Greensburg Catholic Diocese’s visual communications director, has created a bright green gator mascot, complete with teeth, that will be used as the new logo.