Principal or Vice Principal Executive Director
Job Description
New Legacy Charter School is a free, public school for pregnant and parenting high school students and their children in northwest Aurora. We are located at 2091 N. Dayton Street, Aurora, CO 80010 and serve approximately 95 high school students and 65 children in an on-site early learning center. The school is authorized by the Colorado Charter School Institute and opened in August of 2015, with our first class graduating in June 2016.
We offer students a rigorous, relevant, and engaging education so they are empowered with the skills needed to raise healthy children and graduate prepared for success in college and careers. Our vision is to see young families creating a legacy of education leading to compelling careers, financial independence, and positive parenting. Our school model includes combining flexibility with a strong school culture based on healthy relationships and student leadership.
While we are still learning and growing, we are also proud of some of our initial successes. In our first two years, 100% of our graduates finished high school with acceptance to at least one college in hand—effectively altering the life course of our students and their children. Our graduation numbers increased by 150% from year one (9 graduates) to year two (24 graduates) and our graduation rate increased from 75% to 83%. In year two, our Early Learning Center (ELC) earned a Level Four rating in Colorado Shines, placing it in the top quartile of childcare centers statewide, and 93% of children in the ELC ended the 2016-17 school year meeting widely held expectations for development. In addition, our high school students consistently show significant growth on the Adult Adolescent Parenting Inventory, which measures parenting attitudes and beliefs associated with reduced risk of child abuse/neglect.
Position Overview: Reporting directly to the New Legacy Charter School Board of Directors, the Executive Director (ED) serves as the highest administrator at New Legacy Charter School. The ED is cumulatively responsible for all aspects of organizational health, including but not limited to: enacting the school’s vision/mission; overseeing the realization of the high school and early learning center’s goals and outcomes; meeting the school’s fundraising and other financial goals; maintaining CDE accreditation; maintaining the ELC’s strong rating in Colorado Shines; guiding the school’s professional culture; being accountable to the school’s authorizer; and managing finances, development, and human resources. The ED is ultimately responsible for the execution of all programs and procedures in alignment with the school’s mission and vision, with input from a broad range of constituents.
Employment Status: This is a full-time, exempt, at-will position. The Executive Director reports directly to the Board of Directors.
Supervises: Early Learning Center Director (ELC Director), High School Director (HS Director), and Operations Director.
OVERALL LEADERSHIP RESPONSIBILITIES: As the chief executive of NLCS, many of the ED’s responsibilities are cumulative and involve organization-wide leadership.
- Enacting Mission and Vision: Maintain alignment between all programs and the overall vision, mission, and core values of New Legacy Charter School.
- Organizational Leadership: Work with the ELC Director and HS Director to develop, maintain, and enhance all aspects of New Legacy Charter School to ensure positive outcomes for students and a strong, collaborative professional culture. Supervises direct reports in a manner that promotes success, efficiency, and on-going development. This includes effective delegation; training, development, and support of staff; establishing performance requirements; and evaluating staff supervised.
- Strategic Planning and Implementation: Consistently plan for efforts to achieve the strategic outcomes of all aspects of organizational health and growth, including but not limited to academics, child development, health and wellness, support services, organizational stability, and financial strength. Maintain alignment between the school’s mission/vision and the policies and strategic direction of New Legacy Charter School’s Board of Directors.
- Board Work: Report to the board and maintain a positive, working relationship with the Board. It is incumbent upon the ED to keep the Board informed of all financial and legal matters, and to work with board members on the various committees. The ED is expected to attend all committee meetings, within reason, and to share updates on the school and bring back recommendations from the committees to be implemented in practice.
INTERNAL MANAGEMENT: The core elements of internal management are those key pieces that flow naturally from our mission and are the central, measurable things New Legacy Charter School will do to see our vision become a reality. The ED is responsible for:
- Enforcement of Rules and Regulations: Honor all local, state, and federal laws, rules, and regulations. Appropriately and directly respond when infractions occur.
- School Culture: Develop and maintain a staff culture that embodies the school’s core values and brings the mission/vision to life. To do this, the ED will work directly with the ELC and HS Directors to develop and maintain this school culture.
- Financial Management: Ensure accurate financial management and oversight to guarantee that NLCS secures all needed revenues (including enrollment projections), stays within the board-approved budget, and effectively protects assets. Ensure effectiveness of accounting and auditing consultants.
- Human Resources: Establish systems that ensure that recruiting / selection processes benefit NLCS; ensure that employment legal requirements are met; and ensure ongoing care and overall HR administration meets the needs of employees and NLCS.
- Internal Communication: Implement high quality, timely, and effective communication from New Legacy Charter School leadership to the staff, students, board members, committee members, and other internal stakeholders.
EXTERNAL RELATIONS: The ED is the most externally facing employee of the school and much of the role is building and maintaining positive working relationships with external partners.
- Development Work: Ensure the financial health and longevity of the school by cultivating relationships with foundations, corporations, and individuals who provide financial support to the school. Ensure that the school meets its short- and long-term fundraising goals.
- Community Outreach and Partnerships: Be the face of the school to the external community. Although the ED may not be the primary point person for every relationship, the ED must be aware of, connected to, and nurturing relationships with all organizations (including and not limited to: Nurse Family Partnership, Aurora Public Schools, Stanley Marketplace, internship sites, etc.). Community outreach may also include advocacy at the local and state policy level.
- Authorizer Relationship: Maintain a strong relationship with the school’s authorizer, currently the Charter School Institute (CSI). Funding and external assessments go through CSI and it is essential that the ED maintains a positive, working relationship with the authorizer.
- External Communication: Implement quality, timely, and effective communications from New Legacy Charter School leadership to key partners, the community at large, and other critical stakeholders.
Our assessments adapt to the child in real-time while she takes the test and can be administered online or through your local network. The results, based on the stability of our data, provide rich insight into learning as it occurs. The implications for instruction and beyond are profound.
One Size Doesn’t Fit All
Each child learns differently. So we developed computerized adaptive assessments that test differently, allowing teachers to see their students as individuals – each with their own base of knowledge.
Tests That Adapt to the Student
NWEA Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) tests present students with engaging, age-appropriate content. As a student responds to questions, the test responds to the student, adjusting up or down in difficulty.
MISSION ALIGNMENT: Mission-aligned members of the New Legacy community share the following values and beliefs. As the organization’s leader, the ED is expected to model all of the following as well. Mission-aligned NLCS members:
- Dedicate themselves to the school’s mission and vision, adopting a “whatever-it-takes” attitude in helping our students succeed.
- Understand that relationships are essential to working with students who have been disengaged from their education and are at-risk of dropping out of school. Staff members pursue appropriate and healthy relationships with students, including advocating for them and their success.
- Believe our students have strengths and assets, and build on these strengths in their work. Maintain a positive attitude and a solution-based approach to challenges in the work place.
- Oversee open and consistent communication with students and their families about their academic progress, health success and needs, parenting success and needs, individual graduation plans, and college planning. Also communicate proactively with colleagues about student needs to ensure integrated support.
- Are committed to restorative justice as a mean of addressing conflicts or challenges in the community, whether between students, staff members, or students and staff members.
- Are committed to inclusive excellence. This means they are willing to engage in conversations about privilege, power, equity, and diversity, and are willing to invest time in community-building and professional development based on inclusive excellence.
- Are active participants in a supportive and demanding professional community that fosters respect, trust, honesty, risk-taking, open-mindedness, flexibility, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
Required Qualifications: Applicants for the Executive Director of NLCS are expected to meet the required qualifications and, ideally, many of the desired qualifications as well.
- Have at least three years of executive leadership experience.
- Have a master’s degree in school administration or a relevant field.
- Have experience with development and fundraising.
- Have experience managing a complex budget, including working with restricted revenue streams.
- Be a highly collaborative, results-oriented, adaptable, problem-solving self-starter who seeks feedback to continue professional growth.
- Have excellent written and verbal communication skills.
- Commitment to and experience working with students from diverse backgrounds with unique academic and personal needs.
Desired Qualifications:
- Previous experience working in an Early Childhood Center or in a Middle School or High School.
- Have a teaching license.
- Have experience with charter schools, either as a teacher or with charter school laws generally.
- Experience using data to inform instructional planning and practice. Comfortable using Microsoft Excel, sharing and analyzing student performance results, and constantly working to improve practices.
- Experience working in an entrepreneurial, dynamic school or similarly demanding environment.
- Be positive, thoughtful, passionate, motivating, and empowering with staff and students.
- Be computer savvy, with proficiency in email, word processing, spreadsheets, Google Docs, etc.
- Have experience using Infinite Campus.
- Familiarity with the greater Denver area.
Application Process
To apply for the Executive Director position, submit a resume and statement of interest to Hiring@newlegacycharter.net. Please include references. Salary is $75,000-$85,000 with benefits, commensurate with experience.
In the statement of interest (no more than 2 pages), applicants should address the following questions:
1) Why are you interested in working at New Legacy Charter School?
2) What role should public schools play in addressing issues of equity in our society?
3) How can schools best find a balance between setting high academic expectations for individual students and supporting these students by “meeting them where they are” in life?
