Director of Enrollment

Rooted Schools Foundation

  • Location: Remote, with regular travel to Vancouver, Washington; Columbia, South Carolina; and Cleveland, Ohio
  • Reports to: Chief of Schools
  • Classification: Full time, exempt
  • Salary: $110,000 per year
  • Benefits: Medical, dental, and vision coverage; employer-paid basic life insurance, accidental death and dismemberment (AD&D), and short- and long-term disability coverage; a 401(k) with a 100% employer match on contributions up to 10% of compensation and immediate vesting of the match; and People First PTO, a flexible time-off policy. Benefits are subject to applicable plan terms and policies.
  • Target start: January 2027
  • Apply by: November 25, 2026

ABOUT ROOTED

Rooted Schools Foundation designs and supports career-connected public high schools. Our goal is that every graduate leaves with a job offer in one hand and a college acceptance in the other, with the preparation to choose between them. Students earn credentials of value, complete work-based learning with industry partners, and build a plan for economic mobility.

Our schools serve students from historically underserved and underrepresented communities, many of them from low-income families and many the first in their families to pursue college. The network includes three campuses at different stages. Rooted School Vancouver is in operation and has years of family referrals behind it. C.R. Neal Academy in Columbia opens in August 2027 with grades 6 and 9. Rooted School Cleveland also opens in fall 2027. In Columbia and Cleveland, families are hearing about Rooted for the first time.

THE ROLE

The Director of Enrollment owns enrollment strategy and results across all three campuses. You will set targets, run the enrollment system, manage marketing and outreach, and coach each campus team as they recruit families in their own communities.

Each campus already generates leads. The work now is turning interest into applications, applications into enrolled students, and enrolled students into students who show up on the first day. That depends on understanding the families we serve: what they need to know, who they trust, what gets in the way of applying, and how a new school earns a place in their decision. You will own that work, campus by campus, and make sure what works at one school is used at the others.

WHAT YOU WILL DO

Set strategy and manage performance

  • Set annual enrollment goals, funnel targets, and timelines for each campus with its Executive Director.
  • Turn the network strategy into a local enrollment plan for each campus, with activities, owners, and dates.
  • Review results weekly during active recruitment. When a campus or grade is off pace, work with the campus team on a plan to close the gap.
  • Keep recruitment running year round so campuses are not starting from zero each cycle.
Lead marketing and family outreach
  • Own enrollment marketing across the network, including digital ads, social media, email, text, phone, print, events, and community outreach.
  • Shape messages, materials, and events with families and community members from each campus, so outreach reflects their languages, priorities, and experiences with schools.
  • Manage marketing vendors and partners: set goals, audiences, messages, budgets, and timelines, and track what each channel produces.
  • Decide which platforms, messages, and neighborhoods deserve more or less spending based on results.
  • Keep a consistent Rooted message while making sure each campus speaks to its own community.
Manage the family experience from inquiry to first day
  • Design how families move from first contact through inquiry, application, enrollment, and the first day of school.
  • Remove barriers that keep families from applying or enrolling, such as language, documentation, internet access, work schedules, and transportation.
  • Set standards for how quickly families hear back and what the next step is at each stage.
  • Build follow-up that fits each family’s grade level, interests, location, language, and history with us.
  • Run referral and family ambassador programs, event follow-up, and outreach that keeps admitted families engaged through the summer.
  • Use automation to support relationships with families, with staff still doing the personal outreach.

Own enrollment data and systems

  • Manage Rooted EMS, our enrollment management system, and the related dashboards and reports.
  • Give leaders a current view of where each campus stands, where it is off pace, and what the plan is.
  • Track lead sources, cost per lead, time to first contact, event attendance, inquiry to application conversion, application completion, application to enrollment yield, and first day attendance, broken out by campus, grade, geography, student group, language, and channel.
  • Use the data during the cycle to see which families are not being reached and change course, not only to report results afterward.

Build community relationships

  • Help campuses build relationships with feeder schools, faith communities, neighborhood organizations, youth programs, employers, and housing communities.
  • Set the approach for information sessions, tours, application events, and open houses, held where and when families can attend.
  • Help families, board members, and partners recommend Rooted to others.

Maintain the Rooted Enrollment Playbook and compliance

  • Own the Rooted Enrollment Playbook and update it after each cycle based on results and family feedback.
  • Make sure each campus follows the core practices and timelines in the playbook, with room for local adjustments.
  • Coach campus staff and give them templates and training so enrollment does not depend on one person.
  • Keep each campus in compliance with state requirements for applications, lotteries, waitlists, enrollment records, and reporting in Washington, South Carolina, and Ohio.

WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE

In the first year, C.R. Neal Academy and Rooted School Cleveland reach their opening enrollment targets for fall 2027, and Rooted School Vancouver meets its returning and new student goals. Enrolled students reflect the communities each campus was founded to serve. Leaders can see each campus’s enrollment status at any time. Marketing spending can be tied to applications and enrollments. Families hear back quickly, in their language, and know what to do next. The playbook reflects what the network learned from the cycle.

 

WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR

  • A deep understanding of the communities Rooted serves, particularly historically underserved, underrepresented, and low-income families, and a record of culturally responsive outreach: working through trusted messengers, communicating in families’ languages, and designing around their schedules and circumstances.
  • At least four years leading enrollment, admissions, or student or customer recruitment.
  • A record of improving conversion and yield, with numbers to show it.
  • Experience using a CRM, dashboards, and funnel data to change a plan in the middle of a cycle.
  • Experience building demand in a community where your organization was new.
  • Experience running marketing across digital and in-person channels and moving money based on results.
  • Experience leading people at more than one site, including people you did not supervise directly.
  • Knowledge of enrollment compliance, including applications, lotteries, waitlists, and records, or a clear plan for learning three states’ rules quickly.
  • Experience in K to 12 education, charter schools, or new school launches is preferred. Spanish or another language spoken by our families is a plus. We do not require a specific degree.
  • Willingness to travel regularly to all three campuses.

OUR HIRING PROCESS

  1. Application: your resume and three short written answers.
  2. Zoom interview, 45 minutes. We will ask you to send an enrollment dashboard or report you have used beforehand.
  3. Performance task: an enrollment planning exercise for a fictional campus, completed over about one week.
  4. Panel interview, 75 minutes, including a 10-minute presentation of your performance task.
  5. Reference checks, including a direct supervisor and someone you supervised.

We will tell every candidate where they stand at each stage. We will not ask for your salary history.

HOW TO APPLY

Email your resume and answers to the following three questions to scarney@rootedschool.org with the subject line “Director of Enrollment Application.” Limit each answer to 200 words or fewer:

  1. How many years have you led enrollment, admissions, or student or customer recruitment? Describe the roles, including whether any were in a K to 12 school.
  2. Tell us about a time you changed an enrollment or recruitment plan in the middle of a cycle because of what the data showed. What did you change, and what happened?
  3. Tell us about a time you recruited families from a historically underserved or low-income community, especially where your organization was new. How did you learn what mattered to those families, and how did it change your approach?

Questions: Steven Carney, Chief of Schools, scarney@rootedschool.org

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY

Rooted Schools Foundation is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other status protected by law. Candidates from the communities our schools serve are encouraged to apply. We provide reasonable accommodations during the application and hiring process. To request an accommodation, contact Steven Carney at scarney@rootedschool.org. Employment is contingent on completion of job-related background screening in accordance with applicable law. Any required screening will be conducted at the legally permitted stage of the hiring process.

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