Lake County Schools rolls out marketing push to retain students and win back departures
Get AI-powered insights, summaries, and transcripts
Subscribe
Summary
Communications staff presented a marketing plan that includes refreshed enrollment pages, school 'brag sheets', promotional videos (many produced with TV students), and targeted YouTube/Google ads; the district expects modest enrollment returns and is seeking partnerships and modest seed funding to scale work.
Lake County Schools' communications team presented a strategy intended to slow student departures and attract students back to district schools, combining digital advertising, branding consistency, video content and customer-service improvements.
The district cited Martin County’s recent rebranding as a case study: according to the presentation, Martin County regained 189 students in one year — roughly $1.7 million in funding at an estimated $9,000 per student — after a coordinated branding and outreach effort. Using that as a conservative benchmark, Lake County’s communications lead said the district aims to recover approximately 150 students in a year through targeted outreach.
Tactics include refreshed, user-friendly enrollment pages; one-page 'brag sheets' for each school; short promotional videos (the district has updated 23 school websites so far and used TV-production students to gather footage); targeted YouTube and Google advertising timed for spring and late summer; and customer-service training so families receive faster responses from staff. The district also plans a statewide coordinated campaign starting in January, under the banner Florida’s Future Powered by Public Education, and said the Education Foundation offered $15,000 to pilot streaming ads.
Board members raised implementation questions: the communications team is a small unit (three people), principals’ approvals can slow rollout, and some promotional content links were behind paywalls. Members suggested partnering with CTE students, interns, the Education Foundation and volunteers to accelerate production and recommended prioritizing schools by enrollment loss and competitive pressure.
Next steps: staff will return in January with refined production timelines, design fees where applicable, and options for student/CTE partnerships to increase capacity.