Principal or Vice Principal Founding High School Principal
Job Description
Who We Are:
School in the Square (S2) is a fast-growing charter school currently serving elementary and middle school students, with plans to serve families from Pre-K – 12 with the opening of a high school with 9th grade in Fall, 2023. S2 engages, educates and empowers its students to respond mindfully and creatively to life’s opportunities and challenges. Drawing its name from the concept of the public square or “la placita”, our mantra is “Relationships First”. S2 is where communities come together to solve problems and celebrate successes. Here, students, families and educators are seen, heard, and inspired. S2 students build the academic foundations, social-emotional intelligence, and the leadership skills necessary to excel in college and professional life. Our community is grounded in principles of justice, equity, diversity and inclusivity (JEDI), enacting a culturally responsive and sustaining lens to our pedagogical practice and consistently examining the ways we can continue to walk firmly in the pursuit of social justice and against injustice of any kind. We take seriously our obligation as an anchor institution in our community. We understand that our students’ ability to learn is directly impacted by their access to basic needs. Through our Family Support Program, we support over 200 families every month with bimonthly food pantries and other essential services, including internet hotspots and rent relief.
Our High School:
Our high school expands on S2’s vision of our dual language elementary school (Dos Amigos) and middle school. Our high school will be culturally responsive, have a rigorous academic program with adequate scaffolding and support for all students to be successful, and have a focus on students developing their voices and sense of agency that they will use to forge their own futures and help their communities.
Student Inquiry will be at the heart of the culturally responsive curriculum, in which students will see themselves reflected while serving as well as a window to a wider world. All students will graduate with at least a Regents diploma and the opportunity to achieve a Regents Bilingual Seal.
Students will also have the opportunity to participate in a variety of community service and service learning experiences through grade level and discipline based projects. Students will have the opportunity to participate in external internships with community-based organizations, governmental agencies and in the financial services sector and early college experiences.
Our Bilingual Founding High School Principal
School in the Square Charter School is seeking a dynamic, experienced, and transformative founding High School Principal to lead S2 through its next stage of development. The High School Principal is responsible for the overall performance, management and operations of the S2 High School in Washington Heights. The High School Principal is responsible for ensuring the S2 mission is fulfilled daily on behalf of the students and families. The High School Principal reports to the Executive Director of S2 and supports and coordinates with the Executive Director’s ongoing efforts in policy design and implementation. Specifically, the High School Principal is responsible for the following:
Responsibilities of the Founding Principal:
The Principal will drive rigorous instruction and create a culture of academic ownership by:
- Ensuring that high quality curriculum and pedagogy is implemented across subject, content areas and tutorial settings. Ensure effective inclusion of diverse learner populations;
- Overseeing use of daily, weekly and monthly assessment systems throughout the school aligned to state standards and designed to accelerate student outcomes and their passion for learning. Work with administrators, staff, students and families to utilize the information to improve learning and teaching;
- Coordinating instructional, assessment, curricular, culture support with the Executive Director for the school;
- Developing and implementing an effective high school strategy that enlists staff, families and students in a common effort for student college and career readiness.
- Supporting S2’s commitment to fostering strong relationships with families, students, and staff to ensure collective investment in student success.
The Principal will empower and develop teachers and leaders by:
- Ensuring that systems are implemented effectively to develop, support, coach and supervise teachers in a way that builds teacher knowledge, inspires and enlists them, and holds them accountable for student learning;
- Lead, facilitate, and develop mid-level leaders to facilitate robust school-based professional development that helps staff master the fundamentals of classroom management, backward-design planning relationship-building, communication with students and families, data-driven action planning, and implementation of schoolwide cultural, academic, operational, and extracurricular systems and initiatives; and
- Creating a culture where all staff give and receive feedback fluidly – both positive and constructive – as part of daily practice
The Principal will lead the school’s continued excellence by:
- Supporting the Executive Director in increasing student enrollment to grow the high school from grades 9-12;
- Ensuring the implementation of effective youth culture systems that build off strengths-based leadership development research and enlist staff and students to establishing an effective and caring culture in the school;
- Establishing effective and regular ongoing systems of communication with teachers, students and parents within the High School. Supporting the Executive Director in communication to the Board and State Education Department; this includes the following:
- All members of the school community are fully engaged and can bring their whole selves to the school
- A warm, caring, and strengths-based culture is built, deeply committed to student learning and success, that values openness, hard work, and achievement
- Ongoing work on diversity, equity and inclusion for staff, students, and families;
- Demonstrating commitment to personal and professional continued growth as is being fostered among the staff.
Who You Are:
- Experienced as a full-time effective, impactful school administrator with a minimum of three years of high school leadership with demonstrated success improving student outcomes in a leadership capacity. Skilled in current teaching methods and educational pedagogy, with knowledge of co-teaching strategies and differentiation to meet individual student needs
- A strategic, solutions-focused thinker with strong communication and planning skills
- A strong relationship builder, you get personal fulfillment by teaching, coaching and collaborating with students and colleagues
- Able to lead restorative practices, a strong believer in anti racism education, culturally responsive and sustaining pedagogy, trauma informed practices
- Skilled and analytical with the ability to gather and analyze data extracting insights and reporting
- A graduate of a M.A., Ed.M or Master’s degree in Educational Leadership and/or Educational Administration, preferred
- Certified as a New York State School Administrator
- Fluent in Spanish, biliterate in Spanish preferred
What You Can Expect From Us:
At S2 we take as much care of our staff as we do of our students. S2 is committed to supporting our leaders by helping them build sustainable, rewarding careers that center on each educator’s passions and multi-disciplinary interests. All of our faculty and staff are valued professionals and we are proud to provide extended planning time, team-building and collaboration, comfortable and friendly working conditions, and more to ensure our team members all have the tools they need to succeed.
In addition to meaningful and rewarding work, S2 provides ultra competitive salaries, an excellent benefits package with employer paid life insurance, a 401K program with a 6% organizational match, longevity bonus, generous paid time off, access to a federal student loan debt reduction program and a friendly work environment.
Anyone who joins our team must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
School in the Square proudly values diversity. We are an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer.
