École Saint-Landry: Growing from 57 to 330 Students with a One-Person Recruitment Team

The Challenge: Recruiting Students for a New Charter School

When École Saint-Landry Charter School opened its doors in August 2021, the school was intentionally small: one first-grade class and two kindergarten classes.

But the vision was always much bigger. École was designed to grow alongside its students, adding a new grade level each year. As those first students moved up, the school needed to keep welcoming new families into its lower grades.

For founder and principal Lindsay Smythe, building École meant filling next year’s classrooms while keeping today’s school running.

The Early Days of École Saint-Landry

In École’s earliest years, Smythe managed prospective-family interest largely on her own.

“We had a Google Form that people filled out,” she recalled of the school’s early recruitment process. Families could indicate they were interested in attending the following year, but much of what happened after that was handled manually.

She’s the principal, but she also serves as the school’s recruitment coordinator and lead enrollment officer, roles layered on top of the day-to-day demands of running a school. Those responsibilities extend all the way to custodial work, from fixing things when they break to cleaning the carpet when a student gets sick.

“There are only 24 hours in a day, and I can’t create more time,” Smythe said.

To keep École growing, Smythe needed a student recruitment partner who could turn her understanding of her school and local families into campaigns she didn’t have to build and manage herself.

The Solution: Enrollment Marketing Services

École began working with SchoolMint during the 2022–23 school year, when the school had 57 students. As École added grades and expanded capacity, SchoolMint’s digital advertising service offered a way for the school to reach new families.

Smythe wanted those ads to reflect what families in her community cared about and why École might be the right school for their children.

Communicating a Distinctive School Model to Families

As a French immersion charter school, École has a powerful differentiator. However, having a unique story in the community means nothing if families don’t understand what a bilingual education could mean for their children.

“Families want to know how being bilingual will help their child perform better in school, improve test results, and create future opportunities,” Smythe said.

That’s why, before campaigns launch, SchoolMint shares advertising concepts with École for feedback. Smythe recalled one concept that asked parents to imagine their child in a French café. The idea reflected the school’s French immersion model but missed what mattered to many of its families.

“My families may not care about France or have the money for passports,” she explained.

SchoolMint revised the messaging based on her feedback. “SchoolMint listens to that feedback,” Smythe said. “We can tell them when an idea works or when it doesn’t fit the people we’re trying to reach, and they adjust the campaign accordingly.”

Smythe helps shape a message grounded in her community, and SchoolMint handles the work of bringing it to prospective families.

Generating Interest During Slower Periods

The enrollment marketing partnership with SchoolMint helps École reach families throughout the year, including when applications typically slow down.

“During times of the year where we don’t receive many applications, whenever SchoolMint launches another campaign, we consistently see 10 to 15 new leads,” Smythe said.

Turning Campaign Results Into Follow-Up

For Smythe, understanding the results of a recruitment campaign means looking beyond how many families respond. She also needs to know which families expressed interest but haven’t yet applied.

SchoolMint’s KPI reports help her compare incoming leads with students who have applied and enrolled, giving her a clearer starting point for follow-up.

“I can see who hasn’t applied and begin looking into why,” she said. For a principal balancing recruitment with daily school operations, that information helps Smythe focus on understanding what information families may need to move forward.

“What we receive from SchoolMint goes beyond the advertising itself,” Smythe said. “The reporting and information that come back from those campaigns help us work more efficiently.”

Since École began working with SchoolMint during the 2022–23 school year, enrollment has grown nearly sixfold.

“At the time, we had 57 students. We grew to 107 students, then 189, and this year we have 242 students,” Smythe said. “Next year, we’re projected to have 310.”

Then École blew right past that projection. The school opened the 2026–27 school year with 330 students, 20 more students than they had planned for and nearly six times the 57 students the school started with.

As École adds grades and opens more seats, SchoolMint Enrollment Marketing supports that expansion by consistently reaching new families and generating interest. It’s one part of the school’s broader enrollment growth efforts.

And, most importantly for a busy charter school principal, it’s one Smythe can sustain without taking on the daily work of managing campaigns.

Supporting Charter School Growth Without Adding a Full-Time Role

For a growing school with a small team, recruitment takes both investment and staff time. Working with SchoolMint gives École dedicated advertising support while allowing Smythe to focus on leading the school.

“For a school with one or even multiple campuses that can’t afford to hire someone solely for enrollment and recruitment, SchoolMint takes that weight off administrators and small teams,” she said.

Smythe brings her knowledge of École and its families. SchoolMint handles campaign planning, ad development, targeting, optimization, and reporting. That partnership gives the school the capacity to keep reaching prospective families as it grows toward serving students through eighth grade.

“SchoolMint has consistently taken work off our shoulders and allowed us to operate more efficiently,” Smythe said. “When I think about the return on that investment, and the value of my time, SchoolMint is always the way to go.”