Principal or Vice Principal Vice Principal
Job Description
K-8 SCHOOL VICE PRINCIPAL
Now Hiring for the 2022-2023 School Year
EMPLOYMENT DETAILS
Title: K-8 Vice Principal
Reports To: Principal
Commitment: Full-Time
Term: 12 Months Annually, 2022-2023 School Year
ABOUT THE POSITION
At New Foundations, the Vice Principal’s primary role is to be a high quality individual dedicated to student achievement and the school community. The Vice Principal will lead the efforts to develop positive school culture and ensure high behavior expectations for all students, develop high quality paraprofessionals, ensure rigorous instruction, engage families, and promote the mission of NFCS through programming and activities. The Vice Principal will step in for the Principal as necessary.
Our Mission: The mission of the New Foundations Charter School is to provide students with the academic, social, and emotional foundations and skills necessary to become high-achieving, socially competent stewards of their communities. The teachers and staff of New Foundations Charter School will ensure a commitment to lifelong learning and achievement of all of our students by creating an atmosphere of caring that pervades every aspect of school life and promotes responsibility for all members of our school community.
Our Vision for Impact: In 2019, New Foundations embarked on an ambitious five year strategic plan. The Strategic Plan’s “Vision for Impact” is that by June 2025, New Foundations will provide daily opportunities for all students to engage in rigorous academic preparation, integrated and well-rounded character development, and inclusive and expansive specials and extracurricular activities that prepare them for individualized post-secondary success.
ABOUT OUR SCHOOL
Founded by Sheryl Perzel and Paul Stadelberger, New Foundations Charter School opened in 2000. Our core principle was simple: be student-centered and growth focused. This ethos remains and at New Foundations we maintain that in order for our children to thrive as leading members of society, they must grow academically, socially, and emotionally today.
Twenty years later, New Foundations is a prominent public charter school serving grades K-12 in Northeast Philadelphia and a leader in academic excellence, social emotional awareness, and community engagement. In a constantly changing world, we continue our work to evolve and improve. We are ambitious about New Foundations’ future. We’re a great school, but we still have work to do to be better and to redefine what it means to be a great school.
Our Students
As an open enrollment public charter school, we seek to prepare each student for the college, career and service opportunity of their choice. New Foundations Charter School currently educates 1,500 students across a K-8 & High School campus in Northeast Philadelphia.
New Foundations has a highly diverse and representative student/family population: 57% White, 22% Black, 13% Latino, 5% Asian and 3% Mixed Races & Other; 40% Free Lunch, 30% Reduced-Price Lunch, 30% Paid Lunch. The political and ideological diversity of our student and family body is representative of the United States as a whole.
Our Buildings
The K-8 and High School buildings are located within walking distance of each other in the Holmesburg neighborhood of Philadelphia. Both buildings include recent renovations and are well-maintained to provide a positive learning environment for students and staff.
Building highlights include bright and spacious classrooms, technology-enabled classrooms, science labs, gymnasiums with full size basketball courts, cafeterias and learning commons. The buildings are near major roadways with on-site parking for staff and within walking distance from the SEPTA Regional Rail Suburban station with trains to Center City.
Our Community
New Foundations opened in 2000 and has had a strong, positive presence in its Northeast neighborhood of Philadelphia throughout the past 20 years. New Foundations is highly-regarded on various academic performance measures compared with other Philadelphia charter and district schools and we have an admissions wait-list of over 10,000 students.
QUALIFICATIONS
All staff at New Foundations Charter School are expected to:
- Embrace our mission and embody our vision for New Foundations’ future;
- Model our core values of being student-focused, serving our community and consistently engaging in solutions-oriented and caring conversations;
- Welcome the opportunity to be constantly challenged to grow, learn and improve;
- Demonstrate role model mentality in all interactions and activities;
- Have a track record of success and achievement within an environment of limited resources.
The Vice Principal at New Foundations Charter School is expected to:
- Possess a Master’s degree, its equivalent, or a higher degree, with a record of academic achievement in a relevant field;
- Possess valid Pennsylvania certification as a supervisor or principal;
- Demonstrate professional expertise and enthusiasm for instruction;
- Possess a minimum of five years of teaching experience, preferably in an urban public school or charter school setting;
- Preferably possess prior school leadership experience.
COMPENSATION
New Foundations offers a competitive salary and comprehensive benefits package. We are committed to pay equity.
RESPONSIBILITIES
Core Responsibilities
- Culture
- Instruction
- Tone Setting
- Professional Comportment
- Other
Culture
- Serves as the leader of the schools’ efforts to maintain student compliance with code of conduct, and reinforce through discipline and positive school culture.
- Serves as the direct supervisor of assistant teachers and lunch/recess staff through coordination of scheduling, providing training opportunities, communicating regularly, and evaluating performance annually.
- Works with the staff, students, parents, and community in establishing and maintaining an effective culture and safe climate to promote the improved organizational performance and higher student achievement
- Engages teachers in the observation process, including planning, feedback and targeted support.
- Collaborates with teachers to plan and implement family based activities such as Family Nights and Parent Workshops.
- Supervises the lunch and recess program to create a cohesive schedule of activities, supervision, and logistics to ensure quality programming.
- Provides oversight and logistical coordination of student activities, such as field trips, assemblies, and in-school extracurricular activities.
- Shares ideas and resources for professional development, faculty meetings, and PLC groups.
- Regular and two way communication with Principal and CEO to ensure ongoing progress monitoring and discussion of key tasks and goals
- Progress toward and the completion of long term goals is reported semi- annually
- Supports Principal and CEO in other efforts as needed.
Instruction
- Designs and implements a program of effective supervision and evaluation of all personnel in the schools.
- Leads the teaching staff in the development, adoption, evaluation, and modification of an effective program of student behavior and discipline that promotes higher achievement.
- Supervises and evaluates all assistant teachers and aides assigned to regular and special education classrooms to assure cooperation with the teaching staff and program coordinators and to provide oversight to students when outside of the classroom.
- Provides training for assistant teachers in the development of skills to improve assistance to the teachers and in support of student learning.
- Creates positive relationships with teachers and other school staff to ensure a productive work environment.
- Develops special and mutually supportive relations with parents in order to provide and sustain consistent expectations for student behavior and discipline.
- Supports teachers in the collection, maintenance, analysis, and appropriate use of data to initiate planned improvement strategies.
- Provides resources and feedback for improvement in planning, instruction, school culture, and professionalism through observations, walkthroughs, and modeling.
Tone Setting
- Articulates the expectations for results among all stakeholder groups for student behavior and discipline.
- Supports high expectations and standards for the academic and social development of all students and the performance of adults.
- Demands student behavior and discipline that ensures student achievement of academic standards as outlined in the charter agreement.
- Uses multiple sources of data collection to analyze barriers to achievement and to identify and apply behavior improvement strategies.
- Supports the efforts of the Principal to actively engage the community to create shared responsibility for student and school success.
- Documents teacher performance, reflections, and improvement efforts through the PA-ETEP teacher observation system.
Professional Comportment
- Establishes and maintains effective two-way communications with all members of the school community regarding perceptions, expectations, and results.
- Models a professional and personal belief system that is based in honesty, trustworthiness, unselfishness, and lifelong learning.
- Works towards positive and productive relationships with all school stakeholders.
- Acts ethically and professionally at all times.
- Interprets and recommends the application of all laws, regulations, policies, and procedures pertinent to the behavior and discipline of students.
- Utilizes the knowledge of laws, regulations, policies, and procedures pertinent to the behavior and discipline of students to creatively solve problems.
Other
- Become a member of the school community, building strong relationships and being highly engaged.
- Do whatever else is necessary or requested to provide students with the academic, social, and emotional foundations and skills necessary to become high achieving, socially competent stewards of their communities.
- Any and All Other Duties as Assigned by the Principal or CEO and/or Required by Statute, Regulation, or Policy.
