Director of Student Retention and Engagement

Director of Student Retention and Engagement

RFT Lakeland, FL, US

Salary Range: $65,000.00 To $90,000.00 Annually

Title:

Director of Retention and Engagement

Reports to:

Principal

Position type: 12-month position (Exempt)

New Beginnings High School (NBHS) is an innovative organization, transforming education through academic and social support services. Our Mission is to create the best educational environment for students who are seeking a new beginning.

The Director of Retention and Engagement serves as a visible representative of NBHS to families, students, community partners, and internal campus teams. This role must operate with urgency, professionalism, confidentiality, and equity while maintaining legally compliant, non-discriminatory enrollment and retention practices. The position is accountable for using data, outreach systems, family contact logs, student retention trends, and administrative collaboration to improve enrollment outcomes and reduce avoidable student withdrawals.

• Lead NBHS enrollment growth, family retention, and engagement initiatives in direct alignment with the Principal, School Administration, and Directors of Academic Affairs.
• Own and manage the inquiry-to-enrollment pipeline, including prospective family calls, interest forms, campus tours, information sessions, application follow-up, enrollment document collection, and conversion tracking.
• Convert interested prospects into enrolled students by ensuring timely contact, accurate information, consistent follow-up, and clear explanation of NBHS programs, expectations, session options, student supports, and campus procedures.
• Develop and maintain a structured prospect follow-up cadence so that every interested student or family receives documented outreach within established timelines.
• Track and report measurable enrollment indicators, including inquiries received, tours scheduled, tours completed, applications started, applications completed, enrollment packets submitted, conversion rates, no-show trends, withdrawals, and retention risks.
• Partner with the Principal and Directors of Academic Affairs to identify students at risk of disengagement and coordinate timely family outreach, re-engagement plans, student support connections, and retention interventions.
• Serve as a family-facing point of contact for enrollment, re-enrollment, retention concerns, engagement barriers, and questions regarding the NBHS student experience.
• Maintain strong relationships with parents, guardians, adult students, referral sources, community partners, and school-based teams to support student persistence and successful enrollment outcomes.
• Coordinate student and family onboarding after enrollment, including welcome communications, expectations review, campus orientation support, required documentation reminders, and connection to appropriate campus personnel.
• Assist with recruitment, marketing, outreach, and retention of students while ensuring all public-facing information is accurate, professional, and consistent with approved NBHS messaging.
• Represent NBHS at community events, family engagement activities, outreach meetings, enrollment events, and school-related functions as assigned.
• Support NBHS by attending community service and outreach activities that strengthen enrollment pipelines and community awareness of the school.
• Coordinate with Front Desk Personnel, Campus Directors, Directors of Academic Progress, academic teams, attendance personnel, and school leadership to identify family concerns before they result in withdrawal or disengagement.
• Review attendance, tardiness, withdrawal patterns, family concerns, and student engagement indicators to identify retention risks and recommend responsive action steps to School Administration.
• Ensure that enrollment and retention outreach does not unlawfully discourage, exclude, or treat differently any student or family based on disability, race, color, sex, religion, national origin, marital status, age, homelessness, language needs, or any other protected status or basis prohibited by law.
• Escalate requests involving ESE, Section 504, ESOL,…