Location: Glendale, California
Website: Glendale USD
Enrollment: 25,000+
Demographics: NCES Data
The Challenge
Glendale Unified School District (GUSD) prides itself on offering an array of high-quality academic opportunities to more than 25,000 students in Glendale, California.
This commitment to excellence has not only set GUSD apart in their community but also contributed to the district’s student enrollment growth in recent years — driving demand for their highly sought-after magnet schools and special programs:
- Dual-Language Immersion (DLI)
- STEAM
- Visual and Performing Arts
- CTE Pathways
- AP Programs
- Transitional Kindergarten
However, this growth has come with a balancing act for GUSD’s enrollment team: they must maintain equitable access to their programs, run a complex student lottery, and ensure the enrollment experience is easy and intuitive for all families, many of whom are new to the United States.
“In just the past few years, our priorities have evolved significantly,” explains Melvin Barrientos, GUSD’s Enrollment Coordinator for Student Support Services. “With the wars in Europe, many families have relocated to this area, resulting in increased demand for our DLI and magnet programs. This means we must ensure our processes are accessible to all families, particularly those with language barriers.”
While GUSD’s previous enrollment system had served the district well enough, it lacked configurability and was challenging to use, driving the enrollment team to look into a new enrollment management software for their increasingly complex enrollment needs.
The new system would need to accomplish a variety of tasks:
- Ensure that all families can access, understand, and fill out applications in their native language
- Enable easy troubleshooting when families need assistance
- Manage a very complex student lottery
- Handle inter- and intra-district permits/releases
- Improve the overall efficiency of the enrollment team
- Provide easy data management and integration with the district’s SIS
To meet these enrollment software needs, GUSD needed a solution that could masterfully handle a high bar of complexity — yet simultaneously make the entire process feel straightforward and intuitive for families.
The Solution
GUSD ultimately selected SchoolMint Enroll to manage enrollment for three complex, key areas: DLI, magnet programs, and inter- and intra-district transfers.
When asked why GUSD selected SchoolMint Enroll over other, less expensive options, Barrientos explained that only SchoolMint had the right combination of out-of-the-box flexibility, ability to manage complex enrollment processes, and ease of use for the administrative team and parents.
1. Out-of-the-Box Configurability
Unlike other systems, which often require expensive external support to make changes, SchoolMint Enroll empowers GUSD to customize workflows, forms, and priorities directly within the platform. This hands-on control ensures the system is aligned with the district’s evolving needs.
“What I like about SchoolMint Enroll is that you’re in control of it,” explains Barrientos. “It’s customizable. I can make it the way I want it, which works perfectly for our district’s unique needs. For example, I can tailor workflows to meet specific needs, like boundaries and exceptions. I can get in the system and do it myself.”
2. Complex Student Lottery Management
“We rely on SchoolMint Enroll since we have very complicated lottery needs. And by ‘complicated,’ I mean it’s hard for somebody to come in and figure it out on their own,” Barrientos says.
GUSD’s lottery and placement system is inherently complex due to a variety of competing factors:
- High demand yet limited space for their DLI and magnet programs
- Multiple lottery priorities (language proficiency requirements, sibling preferences, geographic considerations, etc.)
- Compliance with district policies and state laws
- Integration of inter- and intra-district permits
“SchoolMint does a really good job of letting us input priorities, so as long as you program it correctly, you get the results you need,” he says.
3. The Enrollment Experience
SchoolMint Enroll helps GUSD ease the enrollment process for families in a variety of ways:
- Making it easier, faster, and more convenient for them to complete applications via computer or mobile device — even without an email address.
- Having an intuitive, user-friendly interface that guides families through enrollment while minimizing confusion and reducing errors.
- Offering 17 fully translated, in-platform languages (with Google Translate integration for all others) to ensure families from all backgrounds can navigate the system with ease.
- Sending automated reminders and real-time status updates regarding their application, lottery, and placement status.
One standout feature for the enrollment team has been the ability for staff to view applications from a family’s perspective in real-time. “This is amazing about SchoolMint Enroll: the fact that if a parent calls me, I can log in, have the same view as that family member, and walk them through their problem,” Barrientos says.
Here, SchoolMint Enroll has marked a notable difference from the district’s previous system. That previous system, Barrientos explains, “wasn’t as easy as SchoolMint Enroll. If a parent encountered an error, we had to ask, ‘Can I have your login information?’ And families really didn’t like that.
“But SchoolMint Enroll allows us to see everything live. If a family is in the middle of an application and can’t move forward, I can see what’s going on and, for example, tell them, ‘Oh, it’s because the birthday doesn’t match that grade.’ This has been especially helpful when someone’s on the phone and I can solve the issue right in front of them.”
The Results
“SchoolMint Enroll has been a game changer in streamlining the enrollment application process,” says Barrientos. “It’s made my role as a coordinator of student support services more efficient and effective because it allows me to do other things — and not just be IT.”
The most significant benefit SchoolMint Enroll has brought to GUSD has been an increase in customer satisfaction for families and staff alike.
As he explains, “It’s not just myself using the system. It’s our assistant superintendent, our director of elementary, our director of secondary, our director of student support services, our teacher specialists who oversee the specialized programs. It’s my staff, who oversees the intra-district permits, so SchoolMint Enroll making it all very easy is its biggest benefit.”
“I would recommend SchoolMint Enroll to any district, especially if they have a complicated lottery system or programs like we do. SchoolMint Enroll makes it so much more streamlined, allowing your time to be spent on other things the district may need you to spend time on.”
1. Better Data Management and Informed Decision-Making
SchoolMint Enroll’s real-time reporting tools have enabled GUSD to make data-driven decisions, such as determining the feasibility of opening new classes or adjusting program capacities.
The platform also provides Barrientos with a centralized place for organizing and accessing accurate enrollment data. “Having all applications in one platform eliminates the need for manual tracking, and then I can easily access, organize, and analyze the data,” he explains.
“I was recently in a meeting where someone asked if we could add Transitional Kindergarten (TK) at a school site, and I was able to pull up the data and say, ‘We have this number of applicants for TK.’”
With that data, Barrientos was able to show that GUSD had more demand for TK at that particular school rather than a DLI program. “That real-time reporting helps when I’m in meetings like that,” he says. “It allows us to make these strategic, high-stakes enrollment decisions.”
2. Improved K-12 Lottery Transparency and Equity
SchoolMint Enroll has empowered Barrientos and his team to input priorities and run lotteries live in front of families, which provides assurance that placements are fair and accurate.
This live process not only builds trust but also reinforces the district’s commitment to equity by ensuring that every family, regardless of background, has an equal opportunity to access GUSD’s sought-after programs.
“When I do the lottery, I run it live and press the button in front of everyone so they can see it,” explains Barrientos. “That’s how much faith I have in SchoolMint Enroll’s lottery system. Families can trust the process because they see it unfold in real-time.”
By increasing transparency and ensuring equitable access, SchoolMint Enroll has helped GUSD uphold its mission of fairness while meeting the diverse needs of its community.
3. Zero Phone Calls
“When we ran our 2023 lottery in our previous enrollment system, I was essentially IT support the whole time,” explains Barrientos. “We switched over to SchoolMint Enroll for the 2024–2025 school year, and we opened DLI and magnet school applications on November first.”
On November 1, 2024, Barrientos remembered how the application process had gone the previous year and was expecting a similar barrage of phone calls and requests for support. He and his team braced themselves, then went live with applications.
And as Barrientos recalls:
We opened up applications, and I went to my staff afterward. I walked where their offices are, and I said, “Hey, do you guys hear that?”
And they were confused and said, “No.”
I said, “Exactly.”
It was silence.
“That’s because we’re able to test out a lot of these things,” he adds. “We have a sandbox in SchoolMint Enroll, where we can pretend to be a parent and do all these things. Nowadays when a parent calls and says something’s wrong, 99% of the time it’s user error.”
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