Bilingual Campaigns for Charter School Networks

For charter networks whose families are predominantly Spanish-speaking, bilingual is not a marketing flourish. It is the difference between families who feel served and families who feel translated for.

What charter networks need from bilingual

The day-to-day reality of a charter school network with Spanish-speaking families is messier than the brand language acknowledges. Enrollment season opens and the marketing collateral was built in English, then handed to a translator the week before. Robocalls go out in English with Spanish on the back end. Board reports describe the family-engagement work in English without quoting any of the families.

Charter networks that get this right treat Spanish-speaking families as a primary audience, not a translation step. That means bilingual brief, bilingual story selection, bilingual asset development, bilingual review.

What I deliver

• Bilingual enrollment marketing. Open-house collateral, application process, family information sessions — designed in both languages from day one.
• Family communications during a school year. Newsletters, urgent updates, calendar communications. The parent who reads the Spanish version should not be reading a worse version of the English one.
• Earned media in English and Spanish-language press. Local outlets — Univision, Telemundo, El Diario NY, regional Spanish-language press — that move enrollment and reputation in your community.
• Board reporting and donor communications that surface the bilingual reality of the work rather than translating it out.

Where the work shows up

I currently lead marketing and communications at School in the Square, a PreK–12 dual-language English/Spanish public charter network in Washington Heights and Inwood serving 800+ students. Family engagement, enrollment, board reporting, crisis comms — all developed bilingual, with Spanish treated as a primary audience rather than a translation requirement. The infrastructure that comes from doing this daily is what consulting clients hire me to build for them in compressed time.

"Spanish-speaking families notice when the Spanish version is a worse version of the English one. The fix isn't a better translator. The fix is starting bilingual."

When to bring me in

Before enrollment season opens, not the week before. Before a major announcement that will reach families in two languages. Before the next annual report cycle. Bilingual built from the start costs less and lands better than bilingual added at the end.