Principal or Vice Principal Middle School Principal
Job Description
Riverhead Charter School is a public school of choice, with no tuition, serving families of Kindergarten through eighth grade students on Eastern Long Island. We offer a private school environment in a public school setting. Riverhead Charter school offers a longer school day, 90 minutes of reading and 80 minutes of math daily. We also integrated Spanish instruction and theater in our academic curriculum from our Kindergarten students to our eighth graders. Our mission is to embrace the cultural diversity of our community and foster the attainment of each student’s full potential with the purpose of providing life-long skills for success. We set high academic standards of achievement, emphasize personal excellence and character development for our students. We are seeking a Principal that will bring a passion for the mission and a desire for working in a school setting that fosters a love for children.
The Principal at Riverhead Charter School will:
Responsibilities
Academics and Instruction
- Guides instructional staff to improve teaching and learning by providing teacher support and designing professional development.
- Ensures that all students are learning and that there are no gaps in student achievement among subgroups.
- Provides instructional leadership, coaching, and support to teachers who are working with a diverse student body.
- Ensures the use of a wide array of assessments that, together, reflect the educational philosophy of RCS that also prepare students to excel on standardized measures.
- Uses multiple sources of data to develop a plan for the ongoing improvement of student achievement.
Culture
Defines and builds a transformative school culture consistent with RCS mission and vision; manages student discipline; and promotes a social emotional learning and assessment as part of the school’s culture.
Staff
- Recruits, hires, manage, and develop the school’s leadership, instructional team, operational, and support staff
- Builds a culture of relentless self-improvement and adaptive leadership among the entire school. Recruits and hires mission aligned, qualified instructional and operational staff.
- Manages the staff performance review and compensation review processes.
- Addresses staff concerns urgently and with mission-aligned, student-focused responses.
- Ensures on-going design and implementation of staff professional development.
Community
- Establishes and maintains strong relationships with teachers, students, parents, community members, and the staff.
- Ensures that all members of the school community are engaged and valued.
- Communicates the school’s vision and goals in a way that ensures understanding and commitment from a racially, culturally, and socioeconomically diverse community of parents, students, faculty, staff, and board members.
- Oversees the development and implementation of varied forms of communication with families.
- Maintains positive relationships with the New York Department of Education and charter organizations, serving as an active leader in the charter community learning from others and sharing RCS’s best practices.
Staff and Reporting Relationships
The Principal shall formally report to the Executive Director. S/he will work closely with other stakeholders, including the school’s board of trustees; NYC Department of Education
Qualifications
Candidates must have:
- A clear record of elevating student achievement in an urban classroom for at least two years, with a strong understanding of pedagogy that drives results or of exceptional leadership working with young people in urban communities.
- Master’s degree or PhD in education
- At least 5 years of relevant teaching experience, with demonstrated student results
- New York state educational leadership or building leader credential preferred
Skills/Traits
The Principal must:
- Have an entrepreneurial spirit and be capable of managing many complex tasks with competing priorities.
- Possess strong leadership and team management skills.
- Possess strong interpersonal and communication skills.
- Be organized and self-managed, be able to handle many responsibilities simultaneously.
- Have excellent problem-solving skills
- Be committed to building a community of collaboration with a diverse group of stakeholders.
- A self-aware leader who knows how to treat all members of the school’s community with respect, appraises accurately his or her strengths and weaknesses, and is perceptive about how he or she is regarded.
- Be dependable and have excellent follow-through.
- Be aligned with the education philosophy and the school’s mission.
- A strong personal commitment to ongoing learning and growth.
- An effective and persuasive communicator, orally and in writing.
