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Enrollment office pitches rebranding, digitization and a ‘come back’ recruitment campaign after high withdrawals
Summary
Student enrollment director asked the board for funding to digitize records, rebrand the enrollment center, buy technology for outreach and launch a campaign targeting families who withdrew over the past five years.
Joy Stokes, associate executive director of student enrollment, told the board the department is keeping its 12 FTEs for fiscal 2026 but requested non-payroll increases to support digitizing student records, expanded use of external providers for students educated off-campus and a recruitment campaign aimed at students who have withdrawn.
Nut graf: Enrollment said the district now pays tuition for students educated outside DPS (county placements, court-ordered placements and private providers). Stokes said those placements currently include about 2,000 students the district is financially responsible for; she gave a per-student external-provider average cost of about $200 per day (range the presentation cited from roughly $200 to $400 per day).
Stokes asked for about $502,000 in additional purchase services to cover more students educated through external providers and ongoing digital archiving/storage fees with a vendor (Advanced Imaging Solutions). She described a planned “brand” for student enrollment — new staff attire, furniture and outward-facing materials — and requested funds for technology (hotspots, mobile devices) so enrollment staff can recruit in the community. Stokes said the enrollment office is positioned as the district “living room” that families see first and that better branding and outreach both would support student retention and re-enrollment efforts.
She proposed a “Come Back” recruitment campaign to reach families who withdrew over the previous five years. Stokes gave year-by-year withdrawal counts she said the department recorded: 2,064 withdrawals in 2021; 2,589 in 2022; 2,847 in 2023; and 2,901 so far in 2024 (she noted the count for the current year is not final). She said the campaign would begin by identifying how many of the withdrawn students could be re-enrolled.
Board discussion touched on whether changes to middle-school program options (for example, Belmont’s seventh-grade options and ROTC) had been communicated to families; Stokes confirmed parents do have an option to choose Belmont’s seventh grade and that enrollment staff had not yet seen many selections come in. Board members also suggested exploring a dedicated staff role for outreach to students who have left the district and encouraged Stokes to outline whether proposed activities require new positions, outsourcing or reallocating current staff time.
Ending: Stokes said the enrollment fair is scheduled for May 29 and asked the board to consider funding her office’s proposed outreach and branding investments to help recover withdrawn students and support recruitment for summer and next school year.
