What Happens When a School Experiences Significant Enrollment Growth in a Short Period of Time?
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What happens when a school experiences significant enrollment growth in a short period of time?
Dr. Dan Love, superintendent of the American International School of Lagos, and Heather-Hope Joseph, the school’s director of enrollment management, have been living that question.
AISL’s recent growth has been supported by an expanding US consulate presence, a stronger oil and gas sector, and a rebuilt enrollment process grounded in long, reassuring conversations with families considering a move to Nigeria. As this episode explores, growth is what schools hope for, yet it still asks a great deal of the people inside them.
Much of the work happened before new families ever arrived. Dr. Love describes a board that chose to build for peak enrollment and a leadership team that prepared staff, governance, and parent groups before expanding.
Heather-Hope Joseph walks through a Welcome Day that introduced families to Lagos and the school, with local doctors, supermarkets, and restaurants alongside principals and teachers. Students stepped forward as hosts, and new faculty received their own introduction to life in the city.
For schools that are growing or preparing to grow, this conversation offers a warm and practical look at how to make room for more people while staying clear about who you are.
Top Takeaways
1. Build for the peak before it arrives. Dan credits AISL’s board with recognizing that enrollment moves in peaks and valleys and choosing to plan for the peak. Its master plan brought two new buildings and major renovations, so the school had space ready when demand returned.
2. Prepare your inner circle before you widen it. Dan’s first step was making sure staff, governance leaders, and the PTO understood what was coming and how they could help. That sequence kept the first day of school from being the moment people discovered how much was changing.
3. International families are choosing a city as well as a school. Heather-Hope describes helping families feel safe moving to Nigeria as central to the admissions journey. Because AISL is often the only fit for those families, her work is less about competing with other schools and more about walking alongside them through a major life decision.
4. A strong welcome can extend well beyond your campus. AISL’s Welcome Day brought in local health care providers, supermarkets, restaurants, and other community partners, and families received passports with discounts. Businesses gained access to new customers, families gained a head start on life in Lagos, and the school is now considering a second event each year.
5. Growing schools have to explain who they are. When I asked what he wished he had known, Dan said that scaling requires you to be more proactive in explaining your identity and culture. Long-time community members absorb things naturally, but when many new people arrive at once, you need to say them out loud.
