District explores marketing push and student‑led storytelling to attract families and staff

At the board’s request, the district discussed marketing and communications strategies on May 28, hearing a presentation from Liam Goldrich of the Donovan Group on ways to raise the district’s visibility among families and prospective staff.

Goldrich distinguished communications and PR work from marketing, and recommended a mix of tactics for enrollment and recruitment goals: student‑led storytelling and video, targeted digital advertising by zip code, boosted social posts, and search‑engine/AI optimization to ensure accurate, findable district information. He noted the district has already invested in social media, a branding video, and some print materials and suggested scaling low‑cost student internships for content creation.

Student board member Malia urged the district to involve existing student media programs and video‑production classes as low‑cost ways to surface student voice and highlight campus programs, from robotics to athletics. Board members asked the administration for rough cost estimates for paid enrollment campaigns and for data metrics the district currently tracks (social followers, open rates on Monday messages, ParentSquare metrics).

Superintendent Dr. Devin Serrano noted the communications team will continue to compile metrics and consider pilot campaigns; board members recommended prioritizing student storytelling and search‑optimization work that could improve discoverability in web and AI searches.