Michael Maher’s longest—and still ongoing—endeavor in his 40 years in private school education has been leading The John Cooper School through 16 consecutive years of ground breaking expansion. Since Maher arrived at The John Cooper School, he has overseen expansions in the areas of campus landscape, student life and enrollment.

When Maher became head of school in summer 2000, the program was known for being academically rigorous—if not too challenging, he said. But with low enrollment and a limited number of facilities, Maher said many parents and students felt the curriculum was all The John Cooper School had to offer. 

“There was a migration pattern of the kids wanting to leave after eighth grade because the high school wasn’t as rich in activities and social life as the other schools in The Woodlands that were much bigger—gigantic,” Maher said. “At the time, the entire school had only 755 students.”

Maher said most schools housing pre-K to high school need between 1,000 to 1,500 students to generate enough tuition to support basic operations. Otherwise, he said, low enrollment often creates challenges in providing competitive salaries for the best teachers and stifles funding for student life.

“All the raw material was there—great parent body, smart kids and a really strong faculty,” Maher said. “But when the school is too small, it’s difficult.”

The first step to building up enrollment was changing the school’s recruitment approach and implementing a strategy similar to business marketing, he said. Maher’s plan also included following up with open-house visitors—assuring interested parents were filing an application and sending in transcripts.

“We started working the phones like a business to try to attract customers, but the reality was the demand was there,” Maher said.

Within his first five years, enrollment increased 18.1 percent, he said.   

Maher said schools struggling with poor enrollment often lower their admissions standards or abandon having standards altogether. He aimed to help the school expand without accepting too broad a range of students, which he said mends the gap between students who are successful and those who are not.

“The other risks of getting too big are that we start forcing kids to choose one [interest],” Maher said. “The high school and middle school experience should be a bit of everything.”

Maher has brought the school a long list of new extracurricular activities and electives, including a school football team, band, school dances and theater and a visual arts program.

Within the next five to 10 years, Maher said he anticipates adding more facilities to support the arts, expanding the foreign-language program and continuing to train teachers in collaborative learning strategies. 

“If there’s anything our kids share in excess, it’s intellectual curiosity,” Maher said. “We want to try and meet that at the highest level that we can.”