KIPP Texas Public Schools is a network of 59 public charter, open-enrollment, pre-k-12 schools educating nearly 34,000 students across Austin, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Houston, and San Antonio. Together with families and communities, our mission is to create joyful, academically excellent schools that prepare students with the skills and confidence to pursue the paths they choose —college, career, and beyond—so they can lead fulfilling lives and build a more just world.

Founded in Houston in 1994, and operating as KIPP Texas since 2018, our commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and antiracism in our classrooms, in our offices, and in the communities we serve is unwavering. We are looking to hire a diverse team of dynamic, collaborative, and dedicated individuals with an unyielding belief that every child will succeed. Join our Team and Family and champion equity, chase excellence, persist with purpose, bring joy, and help us rise together.

KIPP Texas is part of the national KIPP network of 255 college-preparatory public charter schools in 20 states and the District of Columbia. Nationwide, KIPP students complete four-year college at a rate of 36 percent, comparable to the national average for all students and approximately three times higher than the average of students from low-income communities.

You can see all our job opportunities at https://kipptexas.org/join-our-team/.

The Opportunity

The Director of Communications will steward KIPP’s brand locally and nationally by spearheading KIPP’s internal and external communications strategy. S/he/They will manage a team charged with distributing routine and critical information with key stakeholders served by the organization, including staff, parents and students.

S/he/They will serve as a support spokesperson for the organization for regional and national media outlets in 4 regions where KIPP operates schools, oversee KIPP’s owned media channels-the website, publications, social media accounts, crisis communications, programming for signature and secondary events, forthcoming intranet, earned media strategy-PR and media relations, KIPP’s internal communications and family communications strategy, donor stewardship, and organizational messaging. Under their leadership, and in partnership with the Enrollment, Advocacy, and Marketing teams, KIPP will continue to elevate and increase brand awareness of its high-performing public charter schools, student success, and commitment to the mission to a right for education for everyone. S/he/They will coach and develop a team of direct reports to achieve results in their respective functional areas.

This work will take place across all four of the KIPP Texas regions: Austin, Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston, and San Antonio.

Responsibilities

•  Develop and oversee external communications, which includes but is not limited to:

  • Organize the KIPP story: Create a comprehensive messaging document that organizes all organization priorities, attributes, and initiatives into defining messages.

  •  Manage PR and media relations across all KIPP regions and nationally, oversee and manage partnerships with PR firms, and serve as the liaison for KIPP’s blog sponsorships and partnerships, meeting the outlined brand recognition through positive media coverage by securing no fewer than 108 positive news (2 per region per month plus 12 state-wide).

  • Represent KIPP in regional media opportunities, manage regional media events, and craft documents (press releases, media alerts, etc) for external distribution

  •  Expand the KIPP audience and engage in comprehensive outreach strategies to press and partners across Texas.

  •    Develop KIPP storytellers: Focus internal communications on key messages and increase opportunities and incentives for staff, students, and families to engage with key messages.

  •   New region entry: Develop and implement strategic plans, communications, resources, and media relations tactics to help generate leads and increase brand awareness and recognition when KIPP enters a new region.

  • Work closely with KIPP’s Regional Superintendents to develop and execute regional strategic media and public engagement plans that are aligned with organizational priorities

  • Social Media: Serve as an advisor and editor of content, strategy, and planning across KIPP’s national and regional social media channels, meeting outlined social media engagement goals and metrics. Serve as a thought partner on content, strategy, and planning KIPP’s “national” channels (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) and regional channels (Facebook). Partner with KIPP’s Digital Storyteller in monitoring and respond daily to messages, comments, and notifications for all of KIPP’s national social media accounts. Support the Digital Storyteller in providing campus-level resources, training, and best practices for managing campus social media pages

  • Develop publications (as needed) that help to steward persistence and brand awareness at KIPP

  •  Update and manage KIPP’s crisis communications protocols & resources: Update the crisis communications strategic plan, resources, and resource portal for KIPP campuses.

  • Serve as the Marketing, Communications, Advocacy, & Enrollment team liaison for KIPP’s student safety and crisis communications by playing a key role in the development of staff and parent communications, resources and training.

  •  Promote KIPP leaders and programs as subject matter experts on key initiatives and objectives.

  •  Play a key role in leveraging national media to drive broad public understanding of KIPP’s mission and impact and supported key organizational goals Partner with members of the Advancement/ Government Relations team to amplify voices from KIPP’s network of parents and staff

  • Collaborate with your peers, KIPP’s Creative Director, Managing Director of Enrollment, and Deputy Chief of Advocacy on cross functional tasks

  • Work with the Director of Marketing to develop copy for marketing materials Thought partner with the Director of Marketing and Creative Services Manager to ensure the website is reflective of the latest editorial content (ongoing), allows for campuses to personalize their pages, and integrates a blog and newsroom, implements learnings, content changes, and external and internal website audits.

  • Develop and manage extensive communications strategic plans to support enrollment and recruitment efforts

•  Develop and oversee internal communications, which includes but is not limited to:

  • Serve as editor and content advisor for internal communications at KIPP Public Schools in partnership with, and by advising, your direct reports, to ensure internal communications at KIPP is timely, consistent, and rooted in a scalable and sustainable strategic framework as KIPP’s employee population continues to grow.

  • Intranet: Support with the development, implementation and management of KIPP’s intranet site that should be the go-to source for all communications.

  • KIPP’s Blog: KIPP generates owned blog content 2-3/week to help share news, announcements, and information with our key audiences.

  •  Staff Communications: Develop and distribute all-staff emails from the voice of the CEO and help lead two all-staff calls annually, develop a robust internal communications strategy to build affiliation and pride among staff while consistently informing them of important information and context.

  • Event Programming: Support and manage your team to develop best-in-class programming, remarks and speeches, and memorable event experiences for KIPP’s Team & Family. Develop scripts, programming, oversee training and prep and help manage logistics and the run-of-show management for KIPP’s signature and secondary events.

  •  Family Communications: Support the management and oversight of national, regional, and campus-based family communications at KIPP, providing resources, guidance, and training to ensure families receive effective, timely and clear communications.

  •  School Messenger: Advising and training campuses on best practices and communications norms, sending centralized district-wide messages to families

• Education: Bachelor’s degree required, master’s degree in applicable field preferred Experience: 5+ years of full-time professional experience required; 2+ years of full-time people management required

• The persistence and grit of being a self-starter and problem solver who takes the lead, navigates challenges deftly, and can adjust an approach based on cultural environment and results to make a lasting impact;

• The ability to work independently, in a remote environment, where your co-workers and peers are spread out across the state of Texas;

• A competency and familiarity of using various forms of current and new technology (including collaboration platforms, video platforms, etc.) to support and enhance communication across dispersed teams and to deliver key messages in creative ways to different audiences;

• Skilled writer in both English and Spanish (preferred) with attention to detail and experience in writing internal and external communications, messaging, and leveraging communications to build organizational culture;

• Evidence of high-level organizational and analytical skills, and ability to manage and coordinate multiple projects and tasks simultaneously.

• Social media fluency

• A comfort level with uncertainty and find enjoyment in the process of continuous learning, experimentation, iteration, and improvement;

• A philosophy of best practices AND adjusting to an ever-changing environment and diverse audiences;

• An entrepreneurial spirit and commitment to finding new voices and stories;

• Cultural competency allowing the ability to relate to and communicate with staff and parents from diverse cultural, language, religious, and socio-economic backgrounds;

• Strong work ethic coupled with critical thinking skills and an enthusiastic and passionate approach to the work;

• Personnel management experience, including team building experience

• Ability to occasionally travel to Austin, Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston, and/or San Antonio;

• Bachelors or graduate degree in English, journalism, marketing, communications, digital communications, or a closely related field; or equivalent experience.

Compensation and Benefits

In addition to a competitive salary scale, a part of KIPP Texas’ competitive benefits options, KIPP offers all employees an $0 HMO plan for the employee only. In addition to our $0 plan, KIPP provides a $600 employer contribution towards a Health Savings Account and a variety of other supplemental benefits such as Dental, Vision, Short and Long-Term Disability, Pet Insurance, Life, etc.