Burgundy Farm Country Day School, a progressive JK-8 school set on a pastoral 26-acre former dairy farm just outside Washington, D.C., seeks a relational, strategic, and community-centered leader to serve as its next Director of Admissions. 

Burgundy offers something genuinely rare in the competitive DC metropolitan independent schools market: an education that is experiential, joyfully student-centered, and academically rigorous. For a mission-driven admissions leader, this is an opportunity to join a school where children are known as whole people, where a close-knit community of students, families, faculty, and alumni is central to the experience, and where the work of admissions carries real impact for the school's future.

Burgundy's culture is as distinctive as its campus. Built on kindness, respect, and a genuine belief that every voice matters, Burgundy is a school where children arrive each morning with joy and leave each afternoon happy and fulfilled, having spent much of their day outdoors, engaging the natural world and former farm campus as a living classroom. Faculty bring deep experience and knowledge to their work, teaching with the kind of creativity and conviction that comes from professional autonomy. Families are not peripheral to the Burgundy experience; they are woven into its fabric, forming a multigenerational community that extends well beyond the years their children are enrolled. And threaded through everything is a deep and sincere commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion and to preparing students to engage thoughtfully and compassionately with a complex, diverse world.

Burgundy enters its next chapter with real momentum and a clear-eyed sense of the work ahead. Enrollment growth is the priority: expanding the school's reach across the greater DMV region, telling Burgundy’s story and impact, connecting with communities and families who may not yet know Burgundy, and building a broader and more diverse enrollment pipeline. Equally important is helping families understand that Burgundy's progressive, experiential approach produces graduates who are academically and socially prepared and who thrive and contribute in diverse ways to their high school communities. Burgundy graduates are in demand for their remarkable talents, and through them, Burgundy makes a special contribution to the DMV community and to the world. That is a story worth telling with clarity and conviction, and the incoming Director will be its primary author. As Burgundy enters its 80th year, the School must be enrolled more fully in order to thrive for another 80.  For the right leader, this is a chance to shape how one of the region's most distinctive schools is known and to build a strong maximum enrollment. 

Reporting to Head of School Jeff Sindler and serving as a member of the Administrative Team, the Director of Admissions leads all aspects of enrollment management, including recruitment, admissions, financial aid, and re-enrollment, while supervising the Admissions Coordinator and partnering closely with colleagues across the school. This is a role that sits at the intersection of relationship and strategy, requiring someone who is equally at home building a connection with a prospective family and architecting a long-term enrollment plan. It calls for a leader who moves through the community with genuine curiosity and care, who becomes a true student of what makes Burgundy distinctive, and who brings both the vision to imagine what Burgundy's enrollment future could look like and the drive to make it real.

STRATEGIC PRIORITIES

In close partnership with the Head of School, the Administrative Team, and key members of the Burgundy community, the Director will lead and strengthen the school’s enrollment efforts by prioritizing the following:

• Design and implement a cohesive admissions recruitment and yield events strategy, bringing clarity and purpose to the calendar and ensuring each interaction meaningfully engages prospective families
• Grow and diversify the enrollment pipeline by expanding outreach across the greater DMV region, including deeper engagement in Washington, D.C. and Maryland, building sustained relationships with feeder schools, community organizations, and mission-aligned partners, and ensuring that recruitment strategies intentionally reflect the school's commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion
• Articulate and amplify Burgundy’s story in ways that clearly communicate the rigor, distinctiveness, and long-term value of its progressive, experiential educational approach
• Strengthen family engagement and retention efforts by building meaningful, ongoing relationships with families from initial inquiry through graduation, ensuring a consistent, supportive, and deeply personal experience over time
• Elevate students, parents, and alumni as ambassadors, including revitalizing the student ambassador program and more intentionally leveraging community voices to share the Burgundy experience
• Foster a sense of shared ownership of admissions work across the community, engaging faculty, staff, and colleagues in communications, advancement, and academic leadership as active partners in welcoming prospective families, ensuring consistent messaging, and supporting the school's long-term enrollment health
• Bring structure, clarity, and consistency to admissions operations, ensuring a thoughtful, responsive experience for families while using data to inform strategy and decision-making

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS 

Strategic Enrollment Leadership

• Oversees all aspects of the admissions operation, including recruitment, admissions, financial aid, retention, and re-enrollment
• Serves as a member of the Administrative Team, collaborating closely with the Head of School, division heads, faculty, and business office to align enrollment goals with programmatic priorities and long-term financial sustainability. 
• Supervises the Admissions Coordinator and partners closely with the school’s Database Manager to ensure accurate and efficient management of enrollment and contract processes. Oversees the integrity and effective use of enrollment data systems (e.g., Veracross, Ravenna) 
• Provides regular enrollment reports and data analysis to the Head of School and Board of Trustees

Recruiting & Outreach

• Leads all aspects of the recruitment and admissions process, ensuring a highly personalized, responsive, and mission-driven experience for prospective families
• Meets with and communicates effectively with all prospective families
• Designs and executes a high-touch, relationship-centered follow-up system to guide families through inquiry, application, financial aid, and enrollment
• Represents the school at local and regional fairs, events, and professional associations
• Executes open house and targeted recruitment events in collaboration with faculty, parents, students, and school leadership
• Oversees all aspects of the application process, including scheduling visits, coordinating assessments and interviews, managing application review, and communicating admissions decisions
• Attends and manages evening and weekend events

Enrollment Management & Operations 

• Partners with faculty and staff to support a consistent, mission-aligned experience for prospective and current families
• Collaborates with teachers and administrators to effectively communicate the school’s program, values, and student experience to prospective families
• Works closely with the business office on enrollment forecasting, tuition strategy, and financial planning. Develops and manages the admissions and enrollment budget, including marketing and outreach expenditures
• Directs and oversees Burgundy’s Parent and Student Ambassador program that helps welcome new families to the school
• Maintains longitudinal enrollment data and generates reports to inform strategy and institutional planning
• Conducts regular surveys and gathers feedback from prospective and current families to continuously improve the admissions and enrollment experience
• Performs other duties as assigned by the Head of School

QUALITIES AND ATTRIBUTES

This is a role for someone who is both a connector and a builder: someone who moves through the community with curiosity and care, gets into classrooms, listens to teachers, and becomes a true student of what makes Burgundy distinctive, not to repeat talking points, but to tell its story with conviction. The successful candidate will be equally at home building a relationship with a prospective family and architecting a five-year enrollment strategy. They will bring genuine warmth and ease with people alongside strategic clarity and creative drive to position the school in a competitive market. The ideal candidate will have deep personal and professional alignment with progressive education, understanding not only what it means but how to make it compelling to families who may not yet know why it matters. They will be highly organized and operationally strong, comfortable rolling up their sleeves and executing the day-to-day work of a lean admissions operation while also bringing the boldness and creativity to expand the school's reach and reimagine how Burgundy finds and welcomes new families.

Additional qualities and attributes include:

• Comfort with data not only as a reporting tool but as a strategic instrument, gathering, interpreting, and presenting enrollment intelligence to inform decisions and guide institutional planning
• A collaborative mindset and the credibility to generate buy-in across faculty, staff, and parent communities, fostering a sense of shared ownership of enrollment as a school-wide endeavor
• Comfort with difficult conversations, whether navigating a challenging admissions decision with a family or making the case internally for greater community participation in enrollment
• Familiarity with the DC metropolitan independent school market, including its competitive dynamics, key communities, and prospective family landscape, is a meaningful asset

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent required
• Leadership experience in admissions, enrollment management, or a closely related field, ideally within an independent or mission-driven school environment
• Demonstrated success in developing and implementing enrollment or recruitment strategies, from initial planning through execution
• A proven track record of building or rebuilding enrollment in a competitive or enrollment-challenged environment, with demonstrated success in growing inquiries, visits, application volume, and yield
• Demonstrated commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and ability to engage and enroll families from a wide range of backgrounds and to contribute to a diverse and inclusive school community
• Exceptional interpersonal, communication, and relationship-building skills
• Strong commitment to customer service and community engagement 
• Ability to collaborate effectively across departments, including faculty, administration, and business office 
• Strong analytical skills and experience using data to inform decision-making 
• High level of professionalism, discretion, and sound judgment 
• Experience with enrollment management systems such as Veracross and Ravenna preferred

About Strategenius on behalf of Burgundy Farm Country Day School

StratéGenius was founded in 2001 in Berkeley, California, and is one of the only BIPOC-owned search firms partnering exclusively with independent schools and small education nonprofits. From the start, StratéGenius’s core tenet has been, and remains: to promote and champion equity and belonging in education by improving diversity among independent school teachers and leaders. As an ever evolving organization, our understanding of “diversity” includes a growing number of dimensions including neurodiversity and gender identity, to name a few, in addition to race, class, and religious practice.

Connections working at Strategenius on behalf of Burgundy Farm Country Day School