Director of Enrollment Management, Marketing, and Communications - St. James - Arlington Heights - Vic. I

Archdiocese of Chicago•Houston, TX

15h

About The Position

The Archdiocese of Chicago Catholic schools serve more than 40,000 students in 150+ elementary and high schools, making it one of the largest private school systems in the United States. St. James School, serving over 600 students from early childhood through eighth grade, is a faith-filled environment committed to academic excellence, character formation, and student success. The Director of Enrollment Management, Marketing, and Communications will be responsible for developing and executing strategies to manage enrollment, marketing, and communications for the school. The main focus of this position is retention and recruitment.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in marketing or related specialization, or equivalent professional experience.
Excellent organizational skills and attention to details.
Demonstrated ability to be self-directed and self-motivated.
Strong relationship management and interpersonal skills.
Superb verbal and written communication skills.
Ability to work effectively with volunteer leaders and colleagues.
Ability to manage new initiatives and bring ideas to the school’s leadership team.

Nice To Haves

Familiarity with social media platforms/analytics, Canva, Microsoft Office, G-Suite, and ability to update websites.
Experience in a school setting.
Practicing Catholic.

Responsibilities

Develop, implement and manage all aspects of the enrollment management plan, in collaboration with the principal and other members of the enrollment management team, to establish enrollment goals including marketing budget, new enrollment, retention, parent activation, and communication & branding.
Establish and manage the annual marketing budget to ensure new enrollment, retention and parent activation tactics can be carried out effectively to meet enrollment goals.
Manage all aspects of nurturing prospects and securing new enrollments, including community and parish outreach, online presence, email communications, enrollment events, private tours, paperwork processing, and onboarding of new students.
Manage all aspects of the student retention process, including re-enrollment process, parent satisfaction surveys, customer service focus of school staff, keeping parents informed, new family integration, and Catholic Schools Week activities.
Lead an engaging parent activation program, including inspiring current and potential new parent ambassadors to generate positive word-of-mouth testimony, build awareness of the new family referral bonus program, and generate ongoing & strong online reviews.
Ensure consistent messaging in communications and adherence to the school’s branding guidelines, including website, marketing materials/advertising, social media, school newsletters, and school signage.
Work closely with St. James Parish, Family & School Association FSA and Director of Stewardship and Development for marketing and fundraising efforts.
For the 2026/2027 School year, focus on planning and implementing event(s) for St. James School 100 year anniversary.
Manage Smore Newsletter Builder for weekly current family newsletter, weekly staff newsletter, and email communications to current families.
Manage prospective and new family onboarding emails and newsletters.
Plan, manage and implement events such as Open House, Baby Bulldogs Program, Meet Santa Event, Memorial Day Parade, Village of AH Sounds of Summer, AH Frontier Days, Giving Tuesday, New Family Onboarding.
Establish and work within event budgets.
Act as the main point of contact for events.
Coordinate with volunteers for events.
Promote events with graphics through social media channels, parish bulletin, weekly newsletter, print media/distribution, and creation/distribution of outdoor banners and yard signs, and community outreach.
Provide branded giveaways.
Manage all social media channels (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) using Sprout Social.
Run paid ads on social media as needed.
Keep current with social media trends.
Review SJS performance trends and adjust social media strategy as needed.
Maintain and update the website using WordPress Content Management System, including content, graphics, events, and the Current Families Portal.
Create, maintain and export forms for registrations.
Follow brand guidelines to ensure a consistent and professional representation of the school in all communications and materials.
Create all graphics including logos, print media, digital media, and presentations using Adobe Creative Cloud (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Lightroom) and Canva.
Use the school Sony DSLR Mirrorless camera with additional lenses to capture engaging and school appropriate images/videos for marketing.
Perform photography/video of school happenings such as first/last days of school, graduation, athletics, Broadway Bulldogs, clubs, classroom projects, and school masses.
Adhere to photography guidelines and permissions.
Contribute to and maintain online photo gallery for parental download.
Build and maintain community outreach relationships with Village of Arlington Heights, local Park Districts (Arlington Heights, Palatine, River Trails, Prospect Heights), and Saint Viator High School.