Founding High School Principal
The Role
Are you ready to work alongside youth and families to design a new high achieving, racially and socially just Springfield high school? Veritas Prep seeks a full time Founding Principal in Residence (PR) who knows all young people can achieve great things and is ready to partner with them to create a school where they can thrive and prepare for future success. Please consider this exciting opportunity to build on the successes of Veritas middle schools and the high school design process thus far, and lead the development of a new, rigorous, and innovative high school.
What You’ll Do
As the Founding PR of Veritas Prep High School (VPHS), you’ll participate in a one-year full-time residency and planning process to prepare you to become a principal at VPHS while establishing the programmatic and operational details of the school. You’ll work side by side with the middle school staff and high school design teams to internalize the Veritas model, mission, and approach, and to build a strong bridge to high school and an excellent 9-12 program. You will collaborate with staff, students, families and community to synthesize and codify our shared vision; establish the details of school culture, the academic program, operations and more; lead the hiring of the founding team; and prepare to launch the school in the fall of 2022.
In Year 1, you’ll:
- Work with the Executive Director, the Director of High School Design (DHSD), and high school design teams (consisting of teachers, leaders, staff, students, families and community members) to plan and execute the launch of VPHS in 2022-23
- Collaborate with the DHSD to train and prepare design team members for their tasks–this includes students, families, community members and staff
- Finalize our shared vision, values and plans for high school roll-out and collaborate with the DHSD to project manage program development and timelines
- Understand and utilize Veritas Anti-Racism Standards to drive all aspects of VPHS development, including culture and discipline, curriculum and academic program, professional development, hiring, leadership, and management
- Develop an innovative, challenging, and socially just high school program, that ensures rigorous opportunities for Scholars and varied learning pathways that prepare them for college and high impact careers
- Oversee the development and or procurement of quality curricular materials that are standards-aligned, representative of our diverse Scholars and that explicitly address systems of power and oppression and strategies to dismantle them
- Build systems and strategies to ensure differentiated supports for Scholars and strong social-emotional learning so all Scholars can achieve at high levels
- Build an assessment strategy and monitoring systems to continuously gather feedback and adapt to improve Scholar success
- Balance opportunity and sustainability in the design by carefully considering aspirational goals with long term viability of design decisions
- Work with the DHSD to develop strong family, community and higher education partnerships and integrate those partnerships into the VPHS vision and program
- Work with the Director of Talent to hire a passionate and diverse team of effective teachers, operations, and support staff for year 1 of the high school
- Participate in leadership coaching, feedback, and professional development with current Veritas leaders and external providers
- Work with network and school leaders to develop a comprehensive orientation and PD program for founding teachers and staff
In Year 2, you’ll:
- Lead and manage the launch of VPHS with the inaugural 9th grade class
- Leverage the Veritas Anti-Racism Standards for regular reflection and assessment of work to refine our approach
- Effectively lead, manage, support and inspire staff to provide excellent instruction and support to all Scholars at VPHS
- Implement a year-long high-quality professional learning strategy and schedule for teachers and staff
- Implement systems and strategies to foster shared and distributed leadership
- Implement high quality curriculum, instruction and assessment and continuously monitor impact on Scholar success to improve
- Continue to foster family, community and organizational partnerships that enhance our program and Scholar experience
- Work collaboratively with high school design teams and new staff and Scholars to build out details for sophomore year and beyond
What You’ll Need (Qualifications)
- An unwavering belief that all students can achieve amazing things
- A passion for continuous growth as a leader
- Deep understanding of systemic racism and its impact in education
- Commitment to anti-racist practices and policies
- Strong track record with cultural responsive and trauma-informed practices.
- Bachelor’s degree, master’s preferred (Education/Psychology)
- Five years of secondary teaching experience (preferred)
- Three years of school leadership experience at the high school level (preferred)
- Experience successfully developing and leading diverse people and teams
- Expertise in high school curriculum and programming in at least one content area
- Have or be eligible for a MA/DESE administrator license (Principal/Assistant Principal, Grades 5-12), including SEI endorsement
- Current authorization to work in the United States – a candidate must have such authorization by his or her first day of employment
Wondering if you should apply? Are you an experienced educator who is passionate about giving every child access to an education that will prepare them for wherever life takes them? Are you a life-long learner who thrives on feedback? If you answered yes, you should apply!
Think you don’t quite meet all the qualifications listed above? Apply anyway! We are looking for a truly diverse team of leaders, and research shows that historically marginalized groups are less likely to apply if they don’t meet every requirement. We want to recruit and support a diverse staff, to understand the history of inequity in education, and to ensure students see teachers, staff, and leaders who look like them working in their schools.
Still not sure? Set up a call with a recruiter by emailing recruitment@vpcs.org.
Veritas Prep is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate against employees or qualified job applicants on the basis of race, religion, color, sex, age, national origin, disability, veteran or military status, marital status, sexual orientation, genetic information, gender identity or expression, or any other status or condition protected by applicable law. This policy extends to, but is not limited to, recruitment, selection, compensation, benefits, promotion, training, and termination.
About Veritas Prep
Veritas Prep Charter School (VPCS) was founded in Springfield in 2012 with the mission to prepare students in grades 5-8 to compete, achieve, and succeed in high school, college, and beyond. VPCS now serves more than 370 Springfield students and is one of Massachusetts’ top-performing middle schools. Building on the success of VPCS, Friends of Veritas Prep partnered with the Holyoke Public Schools, launching Veritas Prep Holyoke (VPH) in 2018 as part of Holyoke’s innovative turnaround efforts. VPH is a neighborhood enrollment school currently serving grades 5, 6, and 7 and growing one grade per year through grade 8.
We are excited to develop a high school for our Springfield scholars which is tentatively scheduled to launch in the fall of 2022 with 100 students in Grade 9, and ultimately, serving roughly 350 students in grades 9-12.
Veritas Prep schools provide a college prep curriculum in a safe, positive, and rigorous learning environment that allows students to thrive both academically and socially. Our educators believe in expecting the best from every student and in the power of building strong relationships with students and families, creating a community that supports the achievement of all. To learn more about Veritas Prep and the close-knit academic community of teachers and scholars in Springfield and Holyoke, please visit www.veritasprepma.org.
Director of Communications
The Opportunity
Nationally recognized nonprofit venture philanthropy seeks a Director of Communications to lead our core communications activities and oversee the development and ongoing execution of our organization-wide strategic communications plan.
Our Organization
NewSchools Venture Fund is a national nonprofit that supports and invests in promising and innovative education entrepreneurs and leaders and helps them accomplish their respective missions to achieve outstanding results for the schools, students and educators they serve. We are committed to helping students graduate high school prepared and inspired to achieve their most ambitious dreams and plans. Through our investing, management assistance, network building, and thought leadership, NewSchools helps to reimagine PK-12 education.
We have a fun, passionate, inclusive, bold, accountable, and connected culture where employees at all levels have the opportunity to grow and contribute. Please visit our website to learn more about NewSchools Venture Fund and our core values.
The Role
NewSchools seeks a Director of Communications to bring our communications strategy to life. This is an opportunity to shape our organization’s public profile and to tell the story about NewSchools and our ventures – the investments we’re making, the great work our ventures are doing, and the lessons and ideas worth sharing from that work.
The Director of Communications will be the bridge between our investment teams that are generating valuable lessons for the field and key audiences such as funders, entrepreneurs, and policymakers that will benefit from them. This will be accomplished through the creation of a comprehensive functional strategy for the overall organization while also building the infrastructure to respond to the needs and priorities of our investment teams as they arise.
The Director of Communications will directly manage a team of communications professionals who help to shape our external messages and use multiple communications channels to share our work, insights, and data of NewSchools and our ventures. The Director of Communications will also work closely with the investment teams and other senior leaders to identify compelling stories that inform and influence key audiences.
The Director of Communications will work remotely from anywhere in the U.S., though if they are based in the Bay Area, you will be able to work from our office in Oakland, CA when it is safe to do so.
Responsibilities
The primary responsibilities will include, but are not limited to:
- Set vision and strategy for our organizational communications
- Determine (and continually refresh as needed) the top level communications priorities and strategies for NewSchools Venture Fund
- Collaborate with development and investment team leads to help inform and align org-wide comms strategies and messaging, and to ensure that these strategies/messages meet their particular audiences’ needs
- Develop an updated vision for our communication style and voice, grounded in our established approach along with a future direction as defined by our senior leadership team
- Set annual communications objectives and key results that simultaneously chart a path and can be responsive to an ever evolving landscape
- Create high-level plans and messaging to address unforeseen opportunities or threats and build rapid response plans for either crisis situations or opportunities to influence a national conversation
- Develop and oversee execution of keys activities aligned to the vision and strategy
- Create and execute against a plan for our communications, and publications, and events that is both responsive to timely topics and current events and proactively communicates in our areas of expertise
- Identify key digital channels for delivering communications and build the infrastructure to efficiently leverage those channels
- Establish and maintain relationships with journalists and other key media gatekeepers
- Collect and interpret data from web analytics and other sources to improve outreach and dissemination tactics
- Identify publishing opportunities and speaking engagements at conferences, forums, panels, etc., to raise the organization’s profile among target audiences
- Produce periodic performance reports for the leadership team and broader team
- Propel internal teams to articulate a clear story of impact and pursue an aligned communications strategy
- Support development and investment teams to articulate a clear and compelling narrative about their work and the work of their donors and ventures
- Identify and segment each team’s nuanced audiences and map overlap
- Create key messages segmented by teams to plan and deliver individualized communications strategy
- Ensure alignment across the organization and develop a process for navigating misalignment (e.g. strategies between investment teams do not align, overall communications needs across the organization exceed functional capacity, etc.)
- Create a process for supporting investment teams to create communications as they surface opportunities
- Create the infrastructure to drive efficiency and effectiveness of communications
- Build a comprehensive communications calendar that includes both organization level, funder-focused and investment team level communications
- Identify partnership opportunities with like-minded organizations for events, publications, and research
- Create a vision for tiered levels of support from the communications team (ranging from the communications team fully drives to minimal support)
- Create clear roles and responsibilities for the members of the communications team and line up cost-effective and high quality supplemental external capacity as needed
- Select and oversee all external communications channels:
- Oversee and expand our presence on our current online platforms (Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Medium, Vimeo, and blog) and the content that we share on them
- Write original content for our web properties and for publication with colleagues
- Create relationships with external media such as newspapers, blogs, and other online media for cross-posting blogs, collaborations, and publishing original pieces
- Amplify the social media presence of individual team members
- Set a vision for and manage maintenance of a mailing list of subscribed audiences including policies and systems for managing segmentation and crossover
- Determine and manage a cost-effect team budget focused on the highest-impact activities as identified through carefully planned and tracked engagement metrics
- Build and maintain a bench of high-quality and vetted writers, graphic designers, web developers, videographers, and other contractors to use for various projects
- Train and develop NewSchools team members as communicators:
- Periodically design and facilitate learning experiences for the NewSchools team to improve their individual abilities in areas such as maintaining an effective social media presence, blog writing, and op-ed writing
- Occasionally provide targeted one-on-one coaching on specific communications skills
Skills & Qualifications
Success in the position will require, but not be limited to, the following proven competencies:
- What you’ve accomplished:
- Demonstrated ability to create and lead the execution of an organization-wide communications strategy that met or beat its objectives
- Proven track record working with social and traditional media; ability to determine the best media type to achieve goals
- Experience with media relations and the ability to expand connections with the range of outlets covering PreK-12 education preferred
- Skills you have developed and knowledge you have acquired:
- Deep knowledge of the PreK-12 education sector including key leaders, organizations, political dynamics, and trends
- Ability to understand programmatic work and create and implement communication plans that will promote organizational priorities
- Excellent vendor/partner management skills
- Proven communicator; excellent writing/editing and verbal communication skills
- Ability to manage multiple priorities and deliver high-quality work on time
- Strong analytical skills; able to conduct independent analysis, draw conclusions, and make concrete, actionable recommendations
- How you work and what you value:
- Passion to reimagine learning for children, particularly those in underserved communities
- Deep commitment to the values of diversity and equity
- Values differences and operates in ways that foster inclusivity and belonging
- Comfortable with ambiguity, and can use failure and an iterative approach to work to find success
- Self starter and entrepreneurial; is energized by driving towards shared goals and helping to create clarity across an org
- Enjoys working on a team and operates in ways that will build trust with teammates (integrity, respect, consideration, etc.), and is eager to meet the needs of multiple constituents with a service mindset
- Leverages manager for strategic support while capable of fully accountable for execution of the communications function
Education & Experience
- Demonstrated commitment to serving underserved communities
- A minimum of ten years of work experience with a career focused in communications and marketing
- Communications experience in our adjacent to the PreK-12 sector
- Experience managing individual contributors
Compensation
A competitive compensation package including base salary, performance bonus and complete benefits is available.
NewSchools Venture Fund has a strong commitment to diversity. Candidates of all backgrounds are encouraged to apply.