Director of Enrollment

Director of Enrollment

About Democracy Prep Public Schools

Democracy Prep educates responsible citizen-scholars for success in the college of their choice AND for lives of active citizenship. In close partnership with families, we empower young people with the skills and values to flourish as community leaders who will strengthen our American democracy and change the world! With direction from the Chief Operating Officer, our Director of Enrollment sets the strategy for all student recruitment, enrollment, and retention efforts for the 10 schools in the Democracy Prep Public Schools network. 

Through their project management and data analytics skills, along with their solutions-oriented mindset, attention to detail, and stellar partnership abilities, the Director of Enrollment will lead the charge to make sure that families in our communities apply to our schools and that we are hitting our enrollment, student retention and family satisfaction targets every year at every campus.

Who You Are:

• You are a highly motivated collaborator who identifies problems, understands root causes, and proposes potential for change.
• You are an enthusiastic teammate with an unwavering commitment to the Democracy Prep mission of college success and authentic civic engagement for our scholars.
• You are an organized, data-driven project manager that utilizes your content-matter expertise to partner with teams, schools, and other leaders to develop strong systems and solutions.
• You have a demonstrated record of achieving aggressive results and the ability to establish meaningful metrics to support data-driven decisions.
• You are a strong communicator (written and oral) who adapts to fit the needs of the audience in order to build a sense of shared purpose and progress forward.
• You bring maturity, humility, a strong work ethic, and a sense of humor to DPPS.
• You are highly responsive to and think critically about feedback and work to implement change in the right ways at the right time.
• You believe deeply in engaging families in school communities in meaningful ways, knowing that family involvement and investment is key to maintaining a thriving school system. 
• You have the ability to reflect on school-facing systems using varied data from diverse sources, and challenging the status quo when necessary.
• 5+ years of operational leadership experience, ideally with community organizing, marketing, and charter school student recruiting and enrollment (preferred) and are a graduate of a Bachelor’s degree program (required).

What You’ll Do: 

Reporting to the Chief Operating Officer, the Director of Enrollment is a key leader in the operational function of the organization. The Director of Enrollment directly supervises the work of the Enrollment Team which consists of 2 teammates and several contractors responsible for maintaining strong enrollment across the organization. Responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

Enrollment Strategy, Management & Execution: 

• Design and implement a dynamic, multi-faceted, year-round enrollment strategy that yields year-over-year exceptional results.
• Collaborate with the Chief Schools Officer, Deputy Superintendents, and all School Leaders to ensure enrollment strategy is appropriate for the context of each school.
• Provide strategic oversight for student enrollment. Lead enrollment strategy meetings and coach and prepare a member of the enrollment team to do the same in your stead. 
• Lead cross-functional efforts on implementation of enrollment strategy, including managing the enrollment budget, managing external partners and contractors, and ensuring a robust marketing strategy to support enrollment in partnership with the Chief Operating Officer or their designee.
• Manage, train, and coach our central office enrollment and canvassing team, with dotted line oversight during enrollment season of members of our school-based operations teams who are directly involved in their school’s enrollment processes. 
• Lead partnership with the Marketing & Communications Team to plan and execute social media campaigns that engage current and prospective families. 
• Manage our application portal and SchoolMint, and evaluate enrollment systems to ensure ease of use from all stakeholders.
• Participate in on-the-ground canvassing efforts as necessary to provide coaching and feedback for canvassers and to provide change management if and where necessary.
• Build and maintain mutually beneficial community relationships that will ultimately assist enrollment recruitment and retention efforts. 
• Be an ambassador of DPPS in local communities we serve and work to ensure that your designees are the same.

Student Retention Strategy, Management & Execution 

• Create, communicate, and support bottom lines for Democracy Prep Schools approach to student retention and re-enrollment.
• Create, refine, and implement student retention strategies that meet the unique needs of each Democracy Prep school.
• Oversee the development and revision of family-facing retention materials on an annual basis.
• Monitor student retention data, provide progress reports to stakeholders and creating plans for improvement.
• Provide tailored coaching and support to school leaders in response to student retention data.
• Monitor family satisfaction data, provide progress reports to stakeholders and create plans for improvement.
• Ensure that all schools have a strong matriculation plan for our students moving from one DP campus to another due to being promoted for elementary to middle school or middle to high school and progress monitor the implementation of matriculation plans. 

Data Management, Analysis & Professional Development 

• Lead strong systems around enrollment data accuracy, projection management, and analysis. 
• Lead, in partnership with the COO, national and board presentations on the state of enrollment and student retention across the organization. 
• Oversee and prepare a year-end analysis of enrollment and student retention data, including suggestions for improvement in the coming year.
• Plan and provide professional development for school-based operations teams in accordance with the enrollment and student retention cycle.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience managing enrollment systems preferred
• A graduate of a Bachelor’s degree program strongly preferred
• Written and spoken proficiency in Spanish preferred

Competencies & Leadership Expectations

• A champion for data-driven decision making
• A proven leader who has experience setting and implementing a vision for strong facilities management systems
• A strong relationship builder with excellent interpersonal skills, a proven ability to work collaboratively across teams, and an ability to develop and maintain long-term, productive relationships internally and externally.
• You are an organized, data-driven project manager that utilizes your content-matter expertise to partner with teams, schools, and other leaders to develop strong systems and solutions
• An excellent manager and team leader with a track record of leading teams in diverse functional areas.  
• An expert negotiator and contract manager, able to handle a complex variety of external vendors to excellent service 
• A systems-level thinker with the ability to solve problems and build scalable solutions
• A subject matter expert who understands the nuances of K-12 school systems
• A team player who loves to teach, learn, and invest in the professional development of others

Work Requirements and Schedule:

• This is a hybrid role with at minimum three days per week on site at schools or the central office. During peak enrollment times (ie school opening in August/September), work will be fully in person.
• This role requires occasional evening or weekend work, specifically in attending and leading enrollment events 

Salary range for this role is $140,000 to $155,000 and is commensurate with equivalent experience leading development in the education or another nonprofit space. Democracy Prep staff members are provided with comprehensive benefits  and a working environment that includes the necessary technology and resources to succeed. Democracy Prep employees work on a hybrid schedule with three days based in our New York City office and two days at home a week. Some evenings and weekends will be required, including for attendance to board meetings, fundraising events, or other network events.

Democracy Prep is an Equal Opportunity Employer and will not discriminate against an applicant or employee on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, national origin, or ancestry, sex, age, physical or mental disability, pregnancy, veteran or military status, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, familial status, domestic violence victim status, or any other legally recognized protected basis under federal, state or local laws, regulations or ordinances. Our mission is to educate responsible citizen-scholars who will change the world. We strongly believe that by building a DREAM team that represents numerous perspectives, backgrounds, and areas of expertise, we can achieve this goal together. This is a value we highly support and strongly encourage candidates of all backgrounds to apply.