Broward County Public Schools rolled out a $1.2 million marketing campaign and a districtwide customer-service initiative at the Jan. 21 school board workshop, with staff saying the investment is intended to stabilize falling enrollment and make it easier for families to enroll in and navigate district schools.

The marketing plan, presented by John Sullivan, the district’s chief communication and legislative affairs officer, and Jose Perez, executive director of Beacon and marketing, uses a mix of paid, owned and earned media, targeted zip-code buys and an enrollment landing page, browardschools.com/choosebcps, to funnel prospective families to an inquiry form. “Our primary goal of the marketing plan is to stabilize our enrollment,” Perez said. The team expects the $1.2 million investment to pay for itself if it results in 150 newly retained or recruited students, using an $8,000 conservative full-time-equivalent (FTE) estimate per student.

Why it matters: BCPS has lost students in recent years and staff told the board the district must “compete” with charter, private and other options. The campaign pairs advertising — TV, radio, movie-theater previews and targeted digital buys — with efforts to improve how families experience the district when they inquire or arrive at a campus.

What staff described
- Media and targeting: Beacon-produced 13 15-second TV spots (themes include athletics, kindergarten, safety and career-pathway programs) are running across local broadcast and cable partners; staff said campaign vendors include Comcast, Cox Media Group, Scripps Digital, the Sun Sentinel and Local 10. Perez said the flight has generated roughly 30,000 airings and that, under station logs staff are still reviewing, the campaign could deliver 23 million impressions for the South Florida market and about 14 million impressions inside Broward County.

- Landing page and lead funnel: The campaign directs viewers to a single landing page (browardschools.com/choosebcps) with an inquiry form that schools can use to follow up and schedule tours. Perez and staff said about 120 qualified inquiries had been submitted by the time of the workshop.

- Direct mail test and budget timing: Staff proposed testing direct mail as part of the mix; Perez said postage and production make first-class direct-mail pieces expensive (an example cited was roughly $300 per 1,000 pieces for an envelope mailer, lower for postcards). Staff said $250,000 of the $1.2 million budget is earmarked for later flights and targeted direct-mail tests.

- School toolkits and principal support: A core element is providing principals with enrollment toolkits — templates, brochures, reserve-seating letters and other assets — so local school leaders can “tell their story” in their communities.

Customer-service initiative
- The district also unveiled a three-phase customer-service program led by Farrah Wilson, director of marketing and strategic communications. Wilson described the “ABCs” of the initiative (attitude, communication, behavior), a goal to respond to inquiries within one business day and a mechanism — a QR-code survey — for parents to record their experience at the point of service. She said schools have collected more than 1,400 feedback responses showing an average 4.1 rating on a 5-point scale during initial rollout.

Board discussion and requests
Board members praised the work but pressed staff on measures they said would further support recruitment and retention: expanding early-learning and on-site daycare options to capture families earlier, a stronger focus on user experience for the district website and mobile visitors, more school-level social-media support and verification, and renewed attention to school aesthetic and maintenance as part of “product” and marketing.

- Early learning and daycare: Dr. Michael Zeman and other board members urged the district to consider expanding early-learning seats on school campuses where space exists, saying parents who use school-based care become more likely to enroll K–12 in the same district. Staff said those ideas would be part of broader enrollment strategies.

- Tracking and metrics: Board members asked how the district will measure return on investment. Perez and Farrah Wilson described multiple data points: landing-page inquiries, Google Analytics traffic, enrollment inquiries, school tours and, later, actual enrollments compared against the inquiry list to attribute results to the campaign.

- Customer-service follow-up: Board members asked for clarity about how negative feedback will be handled. Wilson and staff said principals and departments will receive reports and that district cabinet members monitor the customer-service dashboard; the superintendent has also acted as a “secret shopper” and staff said they are exploring how to scale the secret-shopper approach.

What remains unresolved and next steps
Staff asked the board to confirm continued support for the $1.2 million budget already included in this year’s spending. Board members signaled broad support for the campaign and asked for additional follow-ups: a report tying inquiries to actual enrollments, updates on the direct-mail tests, and periodic performance logs from media partners.

Ending note: Staff emphasized that the campaign combines advertising with operational improvements — making it easier for families to find information and receive timely responses — and that success metrics would be tracked and reported back to the board in coming months.

Speakers quoted: John Sullivan, Chief Communication and Legislative Affairs Officer; Jose Perez, Executive Director, Beacon and Marketing; Farrah Wilson, Director of Marketing and Strategic Communications; Board members: Sarah Leonardi, Michael Zeman, Lori Rupert, Nora Alhadeff, Tamara Thompson, Christine McCarthy-Bowman.