Walk the journey together.
Start with enrollment trends and the local school-choice landscape. Then walk through the family experience, from first hearing about a school to arriving on the first day.
Why RecruitK12
Our public schools need support.
We want to be useful.
The education market is changing. Families have more choices, and districts need to help them understand what their schools offer. That takes a plan for reaching families, responding to their interest and supporting them through enrollment.
RecruitK12 exists to help public schools do that work, especially our urban school districts. These schools serve the children and families of our cities. Helping them build enrollment and stronger connections with their communities is work worth doing.
I’ve chosen to spend my career in education. I want that experience to be useful to the people leading our city school districts and the families they serve.
That purpose shapes the work: listen to the district, bring the right people together, understand the family experience, and help the team decide what to do next.
The Enrollment Growth Workshop
The magic happens
when everyone is in the room.
In my work with districts, siloing is common. Communications sees one part of the experience, enrollment sees another, and schools see what happens when a family arrives. Many teams have never sat down together to discuss the whole journey, from a family’s first touch through the student’s first day.
The Enrollment Growth Workshop brings leadership, communications, enrollment, technology and school teams into the same room. That’s when the connections start to become clear: what families hear, who responds, where they get stuck, and what happens between departments.
Connect the work across teams.
Hear what each team is seeing. Identify the strengths to build on and the gaps between departments that families have to navigate.
Decide what to work on first.
Agree on the changes that would help families most. Identify who needs to be involved, what decisions are needed, and where to start.
What the work produces
A shared understanding of the family journey, practical priorities across teams, and a district report that captures the findings and recommendations.
How we work together
A conversation.
A workshop. A plan.
The workshop is the start of a working relationship. We take time to understand the district, hear from the teams doing the work, and bring clear recommendations back to leadership.
Start with the fit.
A leadership call to understand your enrollment challenge, discuss what your team needs, and decide together whether the workshop is the right fit.
VirtualGet everyone in the room.
An in-person working session with leadership and the departments that shape the family journey, from first touch through first day.
In personGo deeper with each team.
Virtual follow-up conversations with the respective departments to understand the details, check what we heard, and work through questions that surfaced in the workshop.
VirtualBring the findings together.
A formal presentation to district leadership, with a report that brings together the context, strengths, opportunities and recommendations for what to do next.
Virtual or in personYour district decides what is shared.
The full report is for your district and authorized readers. We review any proposed public story, finding or quote with you first, and share only what your district approves.
A district leader’s perspective
“The Enrollment Growth Workshop gave us an opportunity to look at enrollment as a districtwide challenge, rather than the responsibility of any one department. It brought the right people into the conversation, helped us see the family experience more clearly, and helped us identify practical next steps.”
Patrick Jensen
Chief Financial Officer, Fresno Unified School District
Matt Coats
Chief Evangelist at SchoolMint.
Founder of RecruitK12.
The person behind RecruitK12
Helping public school leaders navigate change.
I’m Matt Coats. As Chief Evangelist at SchoolMint, I work with districts across the country, including some of our largest urban school systems, on strategies to recruit, enroll and retain students.
I spend much of my time with superintendents, communications leaders, enrollment teams and other district executives, understanding what’s happening on the ground and helping them rethink how they compete for and serve families. I also bring what I’m learning back to SchoolMint’s leadership and product teams.
I joined SchoolMint in 2017. Before that, I spent several years at Apple as schools began embracing one-to-one learning. Across both chapters, the common thread has been helping education leaders navigate change and turn big ideas into something that works.
RecruitK12 gives that work a home, with a particular commitment to our city school districts. I speak nationally about enrollment, school choice and the family experience. But the work I care about most happens with a district team around the table.
District stories
What we’re learning
from districts.
The challenges look different in each district. Explore the questions, discoveries and practical lessons emerging from our work with public school districts. Full reports are available to authorized readers.
Garland ISD · Texas
What public-school choice reveals.
Enrollment trends raise a bigger question: how does a district turn family interest into enrollment? Garland’s story connects the changing choice landscape with recruitment, follow-through and the financial need to grow enrollment.
Explore Garland’s story →- Ten-year enrollment context
- Where resident public-school transfers fit
- Recruitment and the budget conversation
Fresno Unified · California
From an open seat to a family’s next step.
An available seat and an interested family don’t automatically connect. Fresno’s story explores what happens between discovering a school, getting a response and taking the next step, and why that work needs coordination across the district.
Explore Fresno’s story →- An open seat is only the starting point
- Discovery, response and a dependable welcome
- Shared responsibility across departments
Start a conversation
What’s your district’s
enrollment challenge?
Let’s talk about what your team is seeing and who needs to be part of the conversation.