Superintendent Rocky Hanna brought companies before the Leon County School Board Monday, May 11, offering services aimed at easing long-standing financial pressures which are expected to worsen without intervention.
“These companies really hit at some of these issues we’ve been talking about from this dais for several years now,” Superintendent Rocky Hanna told the board.
The school district has been grappling with a tight budget squeezed by a decline in student enrollment, a rise in costs due to inflation and lower revenue coming in from the state.
The companies, Caissa K-12, TPG Cultural Exchange and the Florida Educator Health Trust, presented to the board.
Board members fired questions at the company representatives, but expressed excitement at the prospect of alleviating some of its financial pressures with no upfront costs.
Caissa targets enrollment decline
Caissa K-12, based in Memphis, Tennessee, helps school districts boost student enrollment by recovering students who previously left the district and recruiting students who have never enrolled in the district.
Company President Adrian Bond described Florida as one of the most competitive states for student enrollment.
“I think this is a measure that is going to change how districts must operate because I don’t think school choice is going away, and I don’t think states are going to create new dollars or revenue,” Bond told board members.
Caissa would canvas the community and survey families on why they left or enrolled in LCS.
The company engages in performance based contracts with school districts, receiving payment only if students enroll and remain through a state headcount period.
“You had me at ‘it doesn’t cost us anything,’ so I’m in,” board member Alva Smith said.
Bond said there are generally 37 to 58 attempts to win over families before some take the first step to register their students.
“I would love to start this now during the summer,” Hanna urged the board, emphasizing that “time is of the essence.”
The company is active in nine school districts across Florida, with its most recent contract in Broward County which has lost about 14,000 students over the last three years.
To be clear, the district is not in as extreme of a position as Broward, having only lost 1,500 students over the last three years. But this year the board voted to cut $7.8 million from its operational budget, reducing arts and athletics funding, district administrative costs and school expenses.
Bond added: “I’d say 80% of our districts have an issue of declining student enrollments. I think it is important for districts to recruit students through the front door and prevent losing them through the back door, because the competition is targeting your families.”
The district has tried to address declining enrollment before.
In 2024, the board approved a $100,000 contract with Bowstern Marketing and Hammerhead Communications, local agencies tasked to help the district market itself as a competitor against private and charter schools in the county as alternative education options gain popularity with families. The district got a new logo, marketing plans and a website redesign out of the deal.
Hanna said a campaign with Caissa would offer more capacity.
“I think we learned some things from that contract with Bowstern, but we don’t have the manpower to be as aggressive as Caissa can be, and there’s no cost to us upfront since they only get paid if they win back students so I see it as a great recruiting tool,” Hanna told the Tallahassee Democrat.
Teachers from other countries could help fill vacancies
Board members also gave the OK for a recommendation to be brought back on a contract with TPG Cultural Exchange, which recruits international teachers.
As of May 11, there are 65 instructional positions listed on LCS’s job listing portal.
School board member Laurie Cox said she has heard good things about the organization from other school districts that engage with the company and is hopeful the company can help address the district’s teacher shortage.
“I’m excited about the possible partnership if everyone sees a need for that,” Cox said.
Through TPG, teachers from other countries would work in local classrooms on federal visas. The company covers nearly $5,000 in costs typically covered by the district.
The international teachers would have the option to join the teachers union, which will soon need more members to meet the state’s latest provision for certification of public sector unions mandating more than half of eligible employees join to keep a union active.
TPG boasts a 96% retention rate of educators who are hired in districts stay for three or five years. In Florida, 30 school districts employ teachers through TPG and have noted academic improvement in their schools.
“This type of creativity and innovation I think is what makes us such a great district,” school board member Darryl Jones said.
Board considers another tax referendum
The board’s excitement for the companies’ services comes as elected leaders seriously consider asking voters to approve a new tax that will help pay salaries for teachers and other school staff.
The ballot asks voters if the board can collect a property tax averaging $300 per year from homeowners to “improve teacher pay, school safety and arts and athletics programs.”
“I think having some of those categories in there that we may need is helpful to us,” school board member Rosanne Wood said, favoring some broad wording.
McKinney-Williams and Hanna plan to revise the document and present it to the board for a vote ahead of the county commission’s ballot deadline in July.
Alaijah Cross covers children & families for the Tallahassee Democrat. She can be reached at abrown@tallahassee.com.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Leon schools may hire student recruitment firm — and there’s ‘no cost’
Reporting by Alaijah Cross, Tallahassee Democrat / Tallahassee Democrat
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