Director of Enrollment and Community Engagement

Department: Operations

Supervisor: Director of Operations

Type: Full-Time, 12-Month, Salary

Explore! Community School is seeking a strategic, relationship-centered leader to direct student enrollment, recruitment, marketing, and community engagement. The Director will build and execute a school-based recruitment strategy that meets or exceeds enrollment and retention goals; strengthen the school’s visibility with prospective families; and serve as a trusted, public-facing representative of Explore! across Nashville. This role will lead staff, manage complex projects, improve systems for efficiency and follow-through, and develop long-term partnerships with families, schools, childcare providers, and community organizations.

The Director will also oversee family engagement and attendance initiatives that help students thrive and sustain a strong school community.

At Explore!, we always begin with our mission: to foster the independence, critical thinking, and creativity of a diverse community of learners so they are fully prepared to become confident, conscientious leaders who change the world. To achieve our mission we emphasize interactive, hands-on, project-based learning to build upon our rigorous, standards-based curriculum and ensure learning is authentic, meaningful, and fun.

We focus on the whole child, nurturing the social and emotional development of Explorers while fostering their academic excellence.

Currently serving 550 students in K-8, we anticipate growing to at least 700 students over the next several years. Explore! occupies a beautiful new facility in Nashville; a 90,000 square foot building constructed in 2019 in partnership with the city of Nashville as a key component in the new Envision Cayce development. Explore! Community School is an educational outreach of the Martha O’Bryan Center, Nashville’s oldest anti-poverty nonprofit that has been serving the city and Davidson County for over 100 years.

• Develop and execute a multi-year enrollment and school-based student recruitment strategy that meets or exceeds annual targets across all grade levels.
• Build a reliable pipeline of prospective students through partnerships with Pre-K programs, Head Start providers, daycares, schools, neighborhood organizations, and other community-based partners.
• Own the prospective-family journey from initial awareness and inquiry through application, enrollment, onboarding, and retention, ensuring responsive and welcoming communication at every stage.
• Represent Explore! at community events, school fairs, school-choice fairs, information sessions, tours, and other recruitment opportunities; serve as a compelling and credible face of the school.
• Lead recruitment marketing and communications, including campaign planning, collateral, digital advertising, social media, website content, and coordination with external consultants or vendors.
• Apply relevant sales and relationship-management practices—such as pipeline development, lead follow-up, conversion tracking, and audience segmentation to strengthen enrollment outcomes.
• Use enrollment, inquiry, conversion, and retention data to identify opportunities, forecast progress, evaluate return on effort, and adjust strategy.
• Coordinate annual intent-to-return efforts and targeted family follow-up to improve student retention.

• Develop and sustain long-term, mutually beneficial partnerships with families, neighborhood leaders, community organizations, businesses, universities, and service providers.
• Build positive relationships with current families through regular communication,…