Instructional Support Campus Culture Specialist
Job Description
Campus Culture Specialist
VOICE Charter School (http://www.voicecharterschool.org/) is an elementary and middle school located in Long Island City, Queens that serves about 650 students across grades K-8. We are located just minutes from Manhattan (two stops outside of Manhattan on the F, N, and W train lines) and Long Island City’s growing waterfront district, thriving arts community, and rapid residential growth. We are looking to identify extraordinary educators and administrators committed to urban education who wish to join a dynamic professional learning community.
Our mission is to create a safe and healthy learning environment that will nurture, motivate and challenge all of our children to achieve the highest level of academic excellence and to develop into mindful, responsible, contributing participants in their education, their community and the diverse society in which we live.
What makes VOICE different?
At VOICE, it’s not just about the music. It’s about the people. It’s about what you can be. It’s about using your passion. It’s about relationships. It’s about having the opportunity to choose. It’s about caring enough. It’s about each individual child and adult.
We believe in efficacy. At the core of our academic culture is the idea that all students are capable of doing well in any discipline. At VOICE, all students will learn – being smart is not something that you are, it is something you become. At VOICE, you will be pushed to become more.
We support and develop the effectiveness of our teachers. We believe that teachers need time to collaborate to build their practice, so we provide our team with over two hours of planning time a day as well as additional days for collaborative thought partnership and planning during the school year.
We promote participation in music and the arts. As music and art help develop problem solving and critical thinking skills and open children’s imaginations, all VOICE students participate in and learn from daily activities in the arts including rigorous choral training. We design our arts-integrated curriculum to bring joy and wonder to the lives of our children, providing them with the skills necessary to forge their own path.
All Staff at VOICE:
- Love and nurture all of our students as they become deeply caring and responsible individuals;
- Take personal responsibility and work collaboratively to ensure that all students achieve and grow, understanding that the performance and progress of our students is directly under our control;
- Ask questions and empower students to exercise curiosity and wonder about the world around them;
- Hold themselves to the highest standards;
- Push and support themselves, their students, and their colleagues;
- Proactively seek and incorporate feedback;
- Help each individual child gain the opportunity to choose what his or her future will be.
________________________________________________________________________
Position Responsibilities:
The Campus Culture Specialist promotes a safe school culture that nurtures, motivates and challenges students to achieve the highest level of academic excellence and to develop into mindful, responsible contributing participants in their education and communities by implementing VOICE’s approach to behavior management and crisis de-escalation, supporting staff around preventive strategies, and establishing and maintaining partnerships with families.
Student Support
- In collaboration with faculty, social workers, deans, and classroom assistants, implement a range behavior management approaches with a goal of maximizing all students’ instruction time, which may include but is not limited to: de-escalating student crises, employing restorative practices, administering appropriate consequences, training and collaborating with faculty and staff, supporting with due process for student suspensions
- Develop relationships w/ all students to support their socioemotional & behavioral needs
- Employ a range of strategies to support a values-based school culture, which may include but is not limited to maintaining a regular presence in classrooms and hallways, working to document, train, and implement consistent school culture practices
- Ensure VOICE’s incident process is followed, which may include but is not limited to creating anecdotals and incident reports to document and communicate student behaviors, interviewing students, verifying that appropriate parent/guardian/family communication is made, training and following up with faculty and classroom assistants on process, implementing or supporting follow-up actions or student consequences
- Communicate with parents/families/guardians and participate in meetings with faculty and staff regarding student behavior and follow-up actions needed
- Serve as a first responder for student crises as they may arise; follow the proper protocol and systems for transporting and monitoring students in Restoration; follow up on child’s reintegration into classroom and thoroughly document each scenario
- Provide support to faculty and staff around student culture and discipline, which may include but is not limited to professional development and consultations
Lunch, Recess, Arrivals, Departures and Bussing
- Ensure the safety of students during lunch/recess periods and bussing/arrivals/dismissal by serving as primary coordinator, which may include but is not limited to training students, faculty and staff on procedures and directly supervising faculty and staff
- Expedite student arrival, departure and all bussing
- As needed, serve as the designated “late leader” in a weekly leadership rotation in order to ensure all students are safely supervised while waiting to be picked up by their parents/families/guardians after bussing ends
Scheduling and Coverage Coordination
- Create schedules for classroom assistants
- Plan and communicate daily coverage plans for Upper / Lower ES team in response to planned leaves and special events, as well as unplanned call-outs/absences
- As needed, provide coverage for classrooms and school duties
Team Management
- Serve as primary supervisor for classroom assistants in division
- Employ strategies in developing supervisees and cultivating team culture, which may include but is not limited to leading team check-ins and participating in 1:1 meetings
- Collaborate with the Dean and School Director to support classroom assistants as they develop instructional skills
- Supervise and support individual supervisees’ professional development and job responsibilities, which may include but is not limited to providing coaching, feedback, training and helping to manage conflicts as appropriate
- Provide supervisees with regular performance evaluations through VOICE’s formal mid-year and end-of-year performance evaluation processes
- Ensure general coverage as appropriate
Staff-Wide Professional Expectations
- Embrace and be an ambassador of VOICE’s mission, vision and values
- Collaborate communicate and maintain effective and professional relationships as member of an interdisciplinary team of educators, support staff, and administrators
- Participate in required meetings and events, which may include student events, school concerts, parent-teacher conferences, on- and off-site conferences and trainings, others.
- Meet expectations related to punctuality and professionalism including but not limited to reporting to work on time, following the appropriate call-out and lateness procedures, timely responding to emails, consistently meeting deadlines and communicating appropriately on progress on projects and goals.
- Proactively and appropriately seek assistance and/or guidance when faced with challenges appropriately provide and receive feedback to/from students, parents, faculty, classroom assistants, support staff, and administration
- Reflect on professional practice through self-reflection and engagement in informal and formal feedback processes
Position Qualifications:
Behavioral Qualifications
- Unwavering commitment to VOICE mission, vision, and values
- Models high standards of integrity, trust, openness, and respect for others
- Demonstrates integrity by honoring commitments and promises
- Operates and follows through on assigned tasks and projects under specific time constraints and by specified deadlines
- Is productive and carries fair share of the workload; focuses on quality and expends the necessary time and effort to achieve goals
- Seeks to understand and meet and/or exceed the needs and expectations of customers and clients; treats customers and clients with respect
- Builds and maintains excellent positive relationships with and between team members
- Recognizes the constructive value of and embraces feedback
- Responds and adapts to developing challenges and obstacles when under pressure calmly and logically to develop working solutions in a timely manner
- Identifies and seeks to resolve and prevent problems
- Approaches new challenges as opportunities to improve skills and abilities, seeking advice and feedback to constantly improve
- Seeks opportunities for personal and professional learning
Skills and Knowledge
- Exercises discretion regarding sensitive personal and legal information
- Effectively prioritizes tasks in order to meet deadlines
- Responds to requests in a professional manner, even in difficult circumstances; provides accurate and timely service
- Works effectively and cooperatively with others to achieve goals
- Writes clearly and concisely; listens attentively to others and responds appropriately; takes into account the audience and nature of the information
- Verbally articulates progress against tasks clearly and concisely; communicates ideas, suggestions and concerns as well as outcomes and progress throughout the course of a task or project
- Regularly applies feedback and training outcomes to the work to grow continuously in and add value to the role
- Ensures that all problems encountered are addressed at the appropriate level and communicates all relevant information on a timely basis with accuracy and completeness
- Manages up and laterally by proactively providing supervisors and clients support and solutions to move work and projects forward
- Delegates tasks clearly and concisely, holding others accountable to deadlines and outcomes
- Identifies and seeks to resolve and prevent conflicts with team members
- Monitors workloads and provides feedback
- Deep understanding of accountable and restorative approaches to student support such as Love and Logic and Ross Greene
- Sensitivity around parent relations
Educational Background and Work Experience
- Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university required; degree in in Social Work or Counseling preferred
- At least two years of full time experience supporting and supervising children
- Experience in response to intervention
- Preferred Bachelors Degree in Social Work or Counseling
- Experience working in an urban school setting preferred
- Experience working in a school or therapeutic setting with groups of children preferred
Compensation and Benefits: Compensation is competitive and based on experience. We offer a comprehensive benefits package, including participation in the commute benefits program and partial reimbursement for monthly commuting expenses, gym reimbursement, cultural enrichment reimbursements, frequent access to baked goods, and many opportunities to get to know your VOICE colleagues!
VOICE Charter School is an Equal Opportunity Employer. In its employment decisions, VOICE does not discriminate on the basis of an applicant or employee’s race, color, religion, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, national origin, disability, veteran status, unemployment status, or any other status protected by law.
