UA club AdCats helps local elementary school remain open

By SARAH-JAYNE SIMON Published November 28, 2012 at 12:58am Updated November 28, 2012 at 12:58am

A campus club aims to use its expertise in marketing to keep the doors open on a local elementary school that the TUSD board intends to close.

AdCats, a student-run advertising agency, has teamed up with Manzo Elementary to do their integrated marketing campaign that includes print, interactive and social media.

Hope Jensen Schau, the associate dean of Eller Masters in Business Administration Programs, told the club about the project, said Corey Malley, marketing senior and AdCats account director.

“Manzo gave us a great presentation and we immediately saw that this was something to get involved with,” she added.

AdCats organizes various events to promote their clients. On December 7 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., the school will host an event with the help of AdCats to put one last final effort into changing Tuscon Unified School District’s mind about the closure.

Manzo is working to tuck native habitat into their landscaping, courtyards, parking lots, playgrounds and sports fields, said Manzo’s school counselor Moses Thompson.

“I hope that we inspire the community and that the community comes and sees Manzo as a flagship of innovation for TUSD,” Thompson said.

Tucson Catalina Church of Midtown adopted Manzo last year and gave a check of $35,000 to the elementary school with no strings attached, Thompson said.

“The church was looking to fund an education program that would promote literacy in fourth graders,” Thompson said.

Manzo administrators have wanted to build a greenhouse for some time and they were finally able to after the church adopted them, Thompson said. The event next week will showcase the finished project.

Thompson added that much of the work to build the greenhouse, including digging trenches and placing gravel, was done by the school’s students.

“I hope the students leave with a sense of pride,” she said.

The TUSD school board will likely have a final decision on whether to close the school by Dec. 18. The board decided to close a number of schools in the district due to budget constraints.

“Everything we build we involve our students in,” Thompson said. “We want them to feel a connection with our school. The students have a lot to be proud of, and mentally, it encourages hard work, and they are able to see project through the completion. I think Friday will highlight that.”

Manzo stresses the importance of their reconciliation ecology program, which is the science of accommodating wild species within occupied landscapes.

“Ultimately, we hope this event keeps the school open and shows people what an amazing place Manzo is so they can be aware and support the school,” Malley said. “I hope they see that a lot can be done at a young age, and at a school in an area that doesn’t seem so great and has low test scores can still do great things.”