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30 Aug 2018

School Network Staff Director of Schools

RePublic Schools
 Jackson, Mississippi, United States

Job Description

Who We Are

RePublic Schools is a network of high-performing public charter schools based in Nashville, TN and Jackson, MS with a mission to reimagine public education in the South and prepare all of our scholars to graduate from college. In addition to providing a world-class traditional academic curriculum, we empower our students to be change-makers by teaching them to code – starting in the 5th grade.

Despite the fact that our scholars come from traditionally underserved communities (approximately 85% identify as low-income, and nearly 95% as students of color), we have seen them defy the odds to achieve outstanding results. RePublic’s schools have scored in the top 5% of all open-enrollment public schools across the state of Tennessee for both student growth and absolute achievement – making ours the first (and only) charter schools in state history to achieve this dual distinction.

At RePublic, we cultivate a cohesive community of families, staff, and scholars committed to doing whatever it takes to ensure our scholars succeed. RePublic made history in 2015 and opened Mississippi’s first charter school, Reimagine Prep, and have since opened a second middle school and are set to launch our network (and Mississippi’s) first charter elementary school in July 2018. To support and develop our growing team of dynamic school leaders in Mississippi, we are looking for a Director of Schools in Jackson, MS for the 2018-19 school year. Candidates must share our unwavering belief that all children in Mississippi can achieve at high levels and change the world. Sound like you?

What You’ll Do

Overview

At RePublic, we believe that the Principal is the most impactful leadership position in the organization. Equal parts instructional visionary, strategic mastermind, data-driven decision-maker, people developer, and community builder, the Principal stands at the nexus of the highest-leverage unit of change in a child’s life: the school. While we believe that great Principals have a core set of skills, experiences, mindsets, and beliefs, we also believe they become truly excellent through the intentional coaching and ongoing development of a manager who is deeply dedicated to their success. RePublic’s Director of Schools in Jackson will be charged with directly managing, coaching, and developing our Principal team in Jackson to run schools that demonstrably change the trajectories of students’ lives and move RePublic closer to achieving our mission.

Beyond these core responsibilities, the Director of Schools will serve as a primary internal and external facing leader within RePublic’s region in Jackson as we continue to expand our impact in this community. The Director of Schools will work on RePublic’s network leadership team, and report directly to RePublic’s CEO.

Responsibilities

  • Drive instructional excellence and create a culture of academic ownership, by:
    • Setting highly ambitious and feasible goals for student growth and achievement;
    • Leading Principals, each school’s leadership team, and teachers to collectively and individually monitor academic progress of all scholars and analyze student achievement data to drive instructional decisions and change course as needed to ensure transformational academic outcomes;
    • Fostering a school-wide culture in which students love learning, are obsessed with reading, think critically, and take ownership over their own academic and extracurricular progress and inquiry; and
    • Building strong relationships with families, students, and staff to ensure collective investment in instructional priorities, initiatives, and expectations.
  • Empower and develop leaders by:
    • Owning all aspects of leading, inspiring, managing, and developing a Principal team of three – two middle school Principals, and a founding elementary school Principal – each of whom manage teams of dynamic, driven, and diverse individuals (nearly 90 part and full-time staff members in the 2018-19 school year);
    • Leading Principals to set clear, ambitious, and measurable short and long term goals and priorities for each school that align with RePublic’s mission, instructional principles, and priorities, and coaching principals to invest their teams in achieving these goals and priorities and making progress against these known to all teammates;
    • Designing and directly facilitating robust professional development weekly for Principals and other school-based leadership team members as needed (i.e. Assistant Principals) that sets staff up to: master the fundamentals of classroom management and building warm and demanding classroom cultures, backwards-design lesson planning and intellectual preparation, relationship-building and communication with scholars and families, data-driven action planning, and implementation of school wide cultural, academic, operational, and extracurricular systems and initiatives;
    • Training and coaching leaders to effectively move the practice of the members of their school-based leadership team, and subsequently, individual teacher instructional practice and students’ academic achievement, through high-leverage and consistent observation and feedback cycles; and
    • Creating a culture where all staff give and receive feedback fluidly – both positive and constructive – as part of daily practice to move the entire school forward.
  • Support and lead in the region’s growth and expansion by:
    • Working with RePublic’s Talent Team and our Principals to recruit, select, and hire top talent from across the nation to teach, lead, and support the mission and vision of RePublic in Jackson;
    • Managing the leadership team to develop culture and operational systems that create a school environment where scholars feel safe, able to take social and academic risks, and excited to come to school each day;
    • Leading Principals to empower school teams to build deep relationships with families and scholars such that key stakeholders are inspired to remain with the school, and committed to persisting through challenges to produce scholars that are bound for success in college and in life;
    • Overseeing the growth of our schools (facilities as well as the academic and extracurricular program) as they expand to full growth over the next 5 years;
    • Serving as a liaison to the broader Mississippi (and national) educational community to champion the work RePublic is doing in Jackson and build a network of supporters committed to seeing our scholars succeed; and
    • Ensuring compliance of the schools with the full scope of federal and state regulatory requirements.

Who You Are

Our ideal Director of Schools will have an unwavering belief that our students can achieve at an exceptionally high level. Beyond that, a successful candidate is:

  • Deeply committed to serving our kids. You have elected to work with historically underserved students, and do this work because you believe that all students, regardless of background, are capable of excellence – and that it’s on us as adults to get our kids there. You can speak knowledgeably about our mission, and demonstrate a commitment to our educational model. You understand that educational inequity is more pronounced in the South than anywhere else in the nation, and you want to work with RePublic in part because of our commitment to this region.
  • A proven school leader, instructional nerd, and a driver of results. You’ve demonstrated ability to drive results in the pursuit of an ambitious vision and strategy, and you combine your exceptional strategic, analytical, and critical-thinking skills with your penchant to use data to drive decision-making to achieve impressive outcomes. You’ve got a background in instructional excellence, and leadership, and have both achieved your own impressive results in the classroom and have moved other teachers and leaders to do the same.
  • A people developer. You’ve led, directly managed, and coached teams and individuals to achieve wildly impressive results for scholars. You love and actively seek opportunities to develop others through ongoing coaching, clear expectations and accountability, strong inspirational and motivational skills, high leverage feedback, and targeted professional development.
  • …and a people leader. Let’s be real – managing people is hard. You’ve coached, directly managed, and demonstrably moved the effectiveness of other adults before taking this job. You build relationships across lines of difference, inspire and motivate others to buy into your vision, navigate challenging conversations with finesse, make tough calls, communicate effectively in all formats, give and receive feedback fluidly, and model/hold a high bar for adult excellence and exuberance.
  • A systems builder. You’re comfortable with ambiguity, and thrive in situations where you get to build something out of nothing, or create order out of chaos. You choose start-up over bureaucracy any day.
  • A masterful executor. You appreciate big picture, but you know it’s all in the details. Your organizational systems ensure you get things done. You manage projects fluidly, fiercely prioritize, and track timelines, data, and information in an organized and systematic fashion. When you say you’ll follow up with someone, you do it – and you are known as someone who doesn’t drop balls.
  • A growth-minded tinkerer. You are self-aware and humble enough to understand where you rock, where you need to pick up your game, and how this impacts the people you lead. You seek feedback constantly because you’re hungry to get better, and you take extreme initiative and ownership of the outcomes of the people you coach and manage.
  • A strong communicator. You’ve got a knack for speaking and writing clearly, succinctly and persuasively such that expectations are clear, timelines are delineated, and excellence is defined. People would describe you as someone who is able to build relationships across lines of difference that allow you to motivate and inspire from a place of authenticity.
  • A gritty problem-solver. You keep it cool when things are crazy, approach problems with viable solutions, and know when you need to roll up your sleeves to support your team.
  • Other qualifications:
    • At least 2-3+ years of experience as a Principal, in high-performing public charter schools
    • Demonstrated significant student achievement results as a school leader, and in‐depth experience in school leadership and leading Principals and other school-based leaders
    • A bachelor’s degree with a preference for a graduate degree in a related field.
    • Valid teaching certification in TN, MS, or in states with reciprocity not required, but strongly preferred.

 

 

Salary is competitive and commensurate based on experience. Compensation at RePublic includes a comprehensive benefits package.

How to Apply

To Apply

Bureaus: Tennessee. Job Categories: Full-Time. Job Types: School Network Staff.