Board approves $27,000 digital recruiting contract after debate over ROI and tracking; member raises translation concern for handbook

The Sioux City Community School District board approved a $27,000 contract with Amplified Digital to support recruitment and outreach, but the vote followed extended questioning about whether the district can measure hires produced by the ads.

Board chair Miller pressed staff on return on investment, saying "clicks is not a return," and asking how the district will know whether clicks translate into hires. Barb Caskey described a two-part contract: geofencing at targeted career fairs and ongoing pay-per-click social advertising. "What we've talked with our digital advertising company is to assist with our career fairs... when anyone that is targeted to walking inside of that geofence will be able to see our recruitment material," Caskey said. She added that careers-page traffic rose about 25% after targeted campaigns.

Staff and IT explained tracking limits. Chad Fingal said capturing clicks that lead to hires would require code on the application page and that PowerSchool may not allow that change. A board member suggested making the application question "How did you hear about it?" mandatory to better link hires to outreach.

Separately, during the parent/guardian/student handbook discussion a board member raised concern that the district's translation method relies on automatic browser translation ("It's like Google does the translation") and warned about asking parents to acknowledge by checking a box when translations may be machine-generated. Staff said they would confirm which languages are supported and provide exact details to the board.

The digital-advertising motion passed after the discussion; staff committed to follow up with more detailed analytics and a presentation to the board on recruitment metrics.