Company Description

Organizational Overview

Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) North Carolina, is a network of eight tuition-free, college-preparatory public charter schools educating approximately 3,000 students in grades K-12 in Durham, Halifax, Northampton and Mecklenburg counties. At KIPP NC, we are committed to improving the life outcomes of North Carolina’s children through the delivery of culturally relevant curricula that are grounded in research, and clearing the paths that our students choose to follow by ensuring that they have the roadmaps and guideposts they need to arrive at success - however they define it.

KIPP North Carolina is also committed to building the pipeline of the state’s most talented and effective teachers and leaders through competitive compensation, integrated professional development lead by coaches and mentors, and resources they need to succeed, all rooted in core values that articulate our collectively designed organizational beliefs:

Pursue Excellence - 

We uphold high standards for our staff, and are committed to providing the necessary resources, training, mentorship and feedback to help each staff member not only meet, but exceed, expectations. We believe excellence is a habit and a sustained pursuit, not an endpoint.

Build Knowledge - 

We offer our educators robust school-based, regional and external professional development opportunities, before the start of and during the school year, designed to empower them with the latest teaching strategies and technology integration techniques. School Leaders and a statewide teacher development team provide professional coaching for school-based staff and foster collaborative learning, encouraging the exploration of effective teaching strategies and best practices.

Fight Injustice -

As a staff, we dismantle the white supremacy within our institution and deepen our own learning and understanding of anti-racism and Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) through providing organization-wide regular workshops designed to holistically guide us through the redesign of our workplace culture through the lens of liberation. Additionally, we train and prepare our educators to deliver culturally responsive curricula that respect learners' cultures and prior experiences, and acknowledge and value the legitimacy of different cultures, not just the dominant culture of a society. 

Spark Joy - 

We believe in publicly and privately acknowledging and celebrating the outstanding contributions of our staff, and recognize exceptional individuals across the region. We also understand the importance of fostering a positive and collaborative work environment. We organize monthly school-based staff outings to provide an opportunity for our team to unwind, socialize, and engage in activities that promote camaraderie and a sense of community.

Rise Together - 

We create space for our region to assemble and celebrate all successes - a space in which we strengthen community by embracing each other’s unique identities, and honoring the contributions that will allow us to lift as we rise in the years ahead. We believe Team always beats Individual. 

Job Description

Job Description 

The Opportunity 

The founding Director of Student Enrollment Strategy is responsible for managing a comprehensive, action-oriented student recruitment, enrollment, and retention program that will position KIPP NC as the schools of choice for NC families and ensure we hit 100% enrollment across all grades and schools. The Director is also responsible for identifying and implementing strategic opportunities to diversify KIPP NC’s student applicant pipelines.

This role is responsible for directly identifying, codifying, and managing a sequence in our student recruitment/enrollment process; the remaining sequence would be indirectly managed by this role. This work involves developing and directing student recruitment strategies and working with schools to retain students each year K-12. The Director will be instrumental in crafting, developing, implementing, and monitoring the org-wide student recruitment and enrollment strategy. The Director will report to the Chief Financial Officer, manage a team of part-time recruitment colleagues, and support our school-level operations teams, coordinating support across other regional team members. 

The ideal candidate has experience setting a vision, building strategy, and driving execution through impact and influence. We need someone who is passionate about taking on the challenges and opportunities inherent in the current school enrollment atmosphere -- this will look like understanding our data and creating strategies for colleagues to act on that data. We are seeking a leader who has a deep understanding of the strategies and tactics necessary to achieve our student enrollment goals, and who is excited to analyze data, create actionable recommendations based on findings to increase our applications, and build robust waitlists at each of our schools. This person must be comfortable with ambiguity and able to creatively problem solve to accomplish our shared goals -- working across teams and with our school staff. 

Responsibilities 

Enrollment Strategy 30% 

• Lead process that actively engages key stakeholders in setting and achieving ambitious annual recruitment and admissions goals and timelines, with focus on building long-term resiliency in the application pool through diversified marketing and recruitment strategies. 
• Design, develop, refine, and execute an enrollment and relationship development strategy across the state, including pre-launch, application launch, lottery, orientation, registration, and the first day of school, as well as ongoing during the school year.
• Establish, manage, and implement the organization’s student recruitment strategies and operational plans that support the recruitment of students in line with set targets at each school; this role is ultimately accountable for KIPP NC’s annual application and budgeted enrollment goals. 

• Partner with school-based teams to ensure all resources needed for central enrollment and school operations teams are established for each phase of the recruitment and enrollment cycle. 
• Ensure school teams are planning and executing student recruitment events, including recruitment fairs, school visits, community-organized events, presentations at community partners, visits to pre-K programs, etc. 
• Lead team to identify key target markets and program development opportunities based on business intelligence, industry trends, and research to ensure relevant recruitment strategies and plans. 
• Create and execute a plan to engage schools, families, and scholars in strategic efforts to retain students and ensure continuation of enrollment each year from Kindergarten to 12th grade, with special attention to matriculating grade levels of 4th to 5th and 8th to 9th. 
• Understand enrollment management as a research-based process; initiate research studies/projects that aid in understanding the effects and outcomes of KIPP NC’s student experience, academic culture, and learning environment impact overall enrollment. 
• Develop processes and systems to aggressively monitor student withdrawals and gather as much information as possible for why each student and family chooses to leave; provide recommendations on how to mitigate student attrition and coordinate efforts to address these challenges through policy changes, resource allocation, community partners, etc. 
• Connect with other leaders, school teams, and community partners to recommend intervention strategies for common withdrawal reasons within our control, in order to retain as many students and families as possible. 
• Remain knowledgeable and provide market insight to drive strategic decisions and monitor local, state-wide, national, and international enrollment trends. 

Data and Systems Management 15% 

• Run a smooth and compliant lottery process that aligns to our Board policies and equitably offers seats to newly applied families in a timely and efficient way. 
• Partner with our regional data team to provide accurate and timely enrollment and matriculation data to school-based and regional leaders, including progress towards goals (e.g., applications received, families completing re-enrollment, seats offered, seats accepted, etc.).
• Develop a full picture of broader enrollment trends using historical data trends, analysis of local competition, context of national trends (within KIPP, charter schools, and in general).
• Serve as primary liaison with student enrollment platforms (e.g., Hubspot and SchoolMint Enroll), and lead overall implementation; partner with direct reports to ensure configuration aligns with the expectations for school zoning and the user experience. 
• Be responsible for the data quality of student profile information in the student information system, entered during the enrollment process; leads school teams to execute on gathering the necessary documentation and accurately and completely entering all necessary student profile information (e.g., demographics, household information, contact information, etc.) in a uniform and systemized way.
• Develop a strategy and system for ensuring student profile information remains up-to-date in the student information system and that it remains the one, true source of truth for this information schoolwide, across all stakeholders. 
• Develop and maintain tools for collecting withdrawal reasons from families with enough detail to understand the reason for the withdrawal address barriers as needed. 
• Work with school operations teams to ensure permanent student records are maintained and secure at each school; implement best practices that are district-, state-, and legally compliant around student permanent records files; make recommendations around hard copy vs. digitized methods for storing records. 

Team Management and Cross-functional Leadership 30% 

• Lead cross-functional team for shared focus and action around enrollment and the financial and organizational implications of enrollment trends on operations (e.g., funding, impact of rolling enrollment, staffing needs, etc.) 

• Collaborate with our External Affairs team to create and implement a marketing strategy that increases enrollment; works to provide ROI analysis for enrollment efforts and associated marketing initiatives. 
• Collaborate with regional leaders and Principals to support school Director of Operations leadership development, training, progress monitoring and accountability of our enrollment and matriculation process 
• Contribute to the development of our office operations team cohort, including training, establishing and sharing best practices, supporting process improvement, and thought-partnering on data entry or quality issues. 
• Collaborate with the Finance team to review data and support setting appropriate enrollment targets in our financial model; monitor all those efforts annually. 
• Support direct report(s) with leading meetings with school-based leaders, sharing and building strategies that inform and drive progress.

School Support and Training 25% 

• Develop detailed, well-structured, and differentiated trainings and consultations (e.g., office hours) for school leadership teams and family engagement teams (e.g., family liaisons, family quarterbacks, family engagement teams) to cover essentials of managing recruitment, enrollment, matriculation, and withdrawal prevention/intervention. 
• Work closely with regional leaders, Directors of Operations, and Principals to ensure successful change management and implementation of full enrollment program. 
• Travel to school sites to check in with school teams on enrollment progress, identify pain points, and coach and develop leaders in the recruitment, enrollment, and retention plays. 
• Develop reference tools and other resources (e.g., guides, handbooks, training videos) to support ongoing training and professional development for school staff.

Qualifications

Qualifications 

• Bachelor’s degree is required 
• Five years' work experience in people and/or project management; experience working in nonprofit or education sectors with educationally underserved students preferred 
• Demonstrated record of success in managing varied stakeholders to outcomes 
• Experience in school operations, enrollment management, systems management or business operations (project management, vendor management, etc.) with track record of success 
• Outstanding project management and organizational skills, and extraordinary attention to detail 
• Strong communication and relationship-building skills 
• Excellent analytical, planning and implementation skills. Always thinking multiple steps ahead. 

• Able to work humbly with multiple stakeholders ranging in knowledge and experience with data / tools 
• Ability and proven track record for overseeing systems 
• Strong working knowledge of Microsoft Excel, Word, and Google Apps; knowledge of student information/enrollment systems preferred
• Ability to manage ambiguity and multiple priorities inherent in fast-paced work environments 
• Ability to establish relationships and communicate effectively with multiple stakeholders 
• Flexibility to work occasional evening and weekend hours to support student recruitment efforts 
• Ability to travel to school sites in Charlotte, Durham, and Eastern NC.  
• Experience in digital marketing strategies, including SEO, social media advertising, and data analytics, with the ability to leverage these tools for targeted student recruitment and enrollment campaigns.
• Demonstrated ability in leading change management initiatives, focusing on implementing innovative strategies and systems in an educational setting.

Additional Information

Additional Information

• Travel to our different campuses is involved so it's necessary to have reliable transportation
• Expectation will be to work outside of work hours at night, on weekends, or during school breaks

Compensation and Benefits 

Salary is based on years of experience, degree of education, and level of expertise.

A competitive benefits package is offered. 

• Healthcare (medical, vision, and dental) at 100% no premium cost for the employee with a generous discount for dependents 
• Enrollment in 403b with an employer match (all employees are vested immediately)
• KIPP NC technology equipment, including a laptop 
• Generous time off: 
  • 20+ days of combined PTO and sick leave each fiscal year 
  • 15 paid holidays per year 
  • Plus 10+ additional paid days off during Fall, Winter and Spring Breaks (perks of working for a school system) 

Position located anywhere in the state of North Carolina (Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill, Charlotte, Greensboro, Rocky Mount areas preferred) 

Non-Discrimination Statement and Policy
KIPP North Carolina does not and shall not discriminate on the race, color, religion, creed, national or ethnic origin, age, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital or parental status, disability, source of income, or status as a veteran in any of its activities or operations.