Principal or Vice Principal CEO, Kairos Academies
Job Description
Kairos Vanguard seeks CEO for Kairos Academies
About Kairos Academies
Kairos Academies (“Kairos”) started in 2018 on the idea that a new model of education was needed to prepare students for lifelong learning and civic engagement. This model focused on student agency, with the belief that applied learning would best be cultivated when driven by student choice. Merely an idea in 2018, Kairos has since grown into a regional leader within the charter school community and now educates over 400 students between grades 5 through 8. Kairos will be growing into a high school over the next four years.
The mission of Kairos is to empower students to direct their own lives and learning. By leveraging the Summit Learning Program and scaffolding a typical class day around project-based competencies, Kairos personalizes the learning experience and nurtures student autonomy. The model develops not just academic knowledge, but also incorporates the organizational, social, and emotional competencies students need for true agency. In addition to the various programs and groups that support these initiatives, we use a coach-mentor relationship to ultimately guide students along these related continuums.
Kairos is located in the Dutchtown neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri, which is one of the most academically underserved neighborhoods in St. Louis. Given the neighborhood’s need for education and a wider appetite for personalized learning within greater St. Louis, Kairos has a uniquely diverse student base.
The Kairos CEO is an employee of Kairos Vanguard, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting Kairos by providing services and other resources. Kairos Vanguard will look to the Kairos Academies Board and other Kairos stakeholders to identify the needs and profile of the next CEO.
The Opportunity
The CEO will have the opportunity to shepherd the growth and trajectory of Kairos’ unique and exceptional educational community. Kairos seeks an educational leader who believes in the school’s mission, its founding principles, and its model as well as someone who is inspired by and eager to contribute to its diverse and growing community. In addition to effectively and efficiently overseeing all ongoing operations, high priorities for the CEO include:
- Developing and stewarding a comprehensive strategy to sustain Kairos’ growth trajectory, which includes the opening of a high school in 2022 and possible expansion to K-4 in future years.
- Providing leadership, direction, and oversight to an emerging Executive Team which includes a Chief Operating Officer, a Chief Strategy Officer, a Chief Financial Officer, a Middle School Leader, and a High School Leader.
- Providing informed guidance and insight to the school’s academic leaders to influence instruction, maximize student achievement, build a cohesive school culture, and implement Kairos’ vision with fidelity.
- Ensuring that standard operating processes and procedures are in place and that self and others are held to high levels of accountability.
- Creating and sustaining a work environment that is collaborative and inclusive, one which honors and values diverse opinions and allows staff to balance work and life.
- Creating an environment that nurtures and rewards innovation and supports the staff in the development of self-directed learning.
- Cultivating and sustaining external relationships with Kairos’ existing sponsors and funders and growing the number of those who want to contribute to Kairos’ success.
- Serving as Kairos primary spokesperson and external representative to diverse audiences to increase enrollment in and engagement with the school.
- Examining and understanding critical trends and issues that could impact Kairos’ long-term health and future expansion.
Desired Credentials/Profile of the Ideal Candidate
- A minimum of five years of educational leadership, or equivalent experience, along with prior teaching experience.
- Passion for and a continued commitment to Kairos’ unique mission, vision, and educational model.
Skills and Experience
Leader Committed to Kairos’s Model and the Summit Learning Program
- Able to remain faithful to Kairos’ founding vision and its commitment to the Summit Learning Program.
- Passion for how Kairos “does school.”
- Eager to create a personal connection to the school and meld self to the Kairos model rather than reinvent Kairos as a traditional charter school.
- Committed to meeting the individual needs of each student through personalized learning.
- Confidence and experience to let the fire grow at a start-up school, while also knowing when to douse the flames.
Experienced Education Administrator
- Practical experience leading a school or educational organization of Kairos’ size and scale.
- Skilled at managing and supporting a cross-disciplinary senior leadership team.
- Able to inform K-12 school design and practice to ensure student achievement.
- Capable to influence, advise, and coach academic and/or instructional leaders.
- Intimate understanding of the role of a teacher and classroom management informed by personal experience as an educator.
- Knowledge of charter school governance.
Strategic Implementer
- Able to develop and deliver a strategic implementation plan for a start-up school.
- Possess the confidence and experience to take a new school to the next level, with the ability to balance structure with creativity.
- Capable to inform and support the development and implementation of standard operating procedures and processes.
- Discipline to insist on streamlined operations and high levels of school-wide accountability.
- Decisive leader who is assured, yet humble, and willing to solicit and consider the views of diverse stakeholders.
Empowering Manager of People and Culture
- Empathetic, self-aware, and real human who is an active listener and can relate to and value the diverse experiences and opinions of all who engage with Kairos.
- Possess high emotional intelligence with the ability to build and sustain an inclusive community and culture.
- Eager to guide, support, and maximize the potential of emerging staff and teachers new to their careers or the profession.
- Able to build trust and foster respectful communication.
- Committed to fostering a work/life balance to prevent burnout and increase staff retention.
Excellent Networker, Communicator, and Fundraiser
- Able to serve effectively as Kairos’ primary external representative.
- Be a tireless advocate for the school, its students, and families.
- Engender supportive relationships built on trust throughout the Kairos community.
- Excellent communication skills to present the school’s vision and successes to funders, parents, sponsors, the media, and the general public.
- Experience raising philanthropic funds to allow Kairos to deliver its robust educational model.
- Able to grow and foster deep and mutually beneficial relationships with sponsors and funders.
