Executive Director of Elementary Schools

University Prep Schools • Detroit, MI

1d • Onsite

About The Position

University Prep School is seeking an exceptional, mission-driven education leader to join their Executive Leadership Team as Executive Director of Elementary School Leadership. This strategic leadership position is at the helm of the elementary school network, directly responsible for the excellence of school leaders and the academic and organizational outcomes of every student. The Executive Director directly supervises four elementary school principals and an Elementary Enrollment Manager, ensuring schools operate with operational precision and instructional rigor. The role emphasizes that school principals must be comprehensive leaders, masterful in both instruction and operations, building systems, relationships, and coaching cultures to achieve this. The network invests heavily in its people, requiring this leader to be trained through Relay Graduate School of Education's Principal Supervisory Fellowship or to commit to completing the year-long fellowship, as supervision is considered a craft requiring specific training. University Prep Schools' academic model is anchored in four integrated pillars of culturally responsive pedagogy: Culturally Responsive Teaching (honoring student identities and cultures with high academic expectations), Project-Based Learning (applying knowledge through real-world problem-solving and STEM-driven work), CREW (an advisory model for strong relationships, academic ownership, and social-emotional skills), and Distributed Leadership (empowering teachers and leaders to innovate and improve). These pillars create academically demanding, culturally affirming, and student-centered learning environments. The Executive Director of Elementary School Leadership is the steward of this model at the leadership level, ensuring every coaching conversation, feedback cycle, and development plan reflects and reinforces these pillars, and holding others accountable to them.

Requirements

• Master's degree required
• Michigan Administrator Certificate required, or actively working toward state completion requirements
• Minimum of 5 years as an elementary school leader/principal and/or central office administrator
• Demonstrated competence in Special Education law and compliance
• Demonstrated competence in leading and coaching Project-Based Learning
• Experience building or supporting culturally responsive teaching practices at scale
• Proven experience designing and delivering high-quality professional development for adults
• Track record of leading major initiatives from concept to full implementation
• Experience executing high-impact strategy across a team or organization
• Executive presence with the ability to operate credibly at the leadership table and on the school floor
• Exceptional coaching skills
• Strong emotional intelligence; able to perceive, interpret, and use emotion to connect, motivate, and lead
• Ability to lead teams through complex, adaptive change
• Sharp analytical thinking — you can distill root causes from data and translate findings into action
• Outstanding written and verbal communication
• Unwavering commitment to University Prep's Core Values: We work well by ourselves and in teams, We care about people, Our actions have a purpose, We think big and do, Learning is exciting

Nice To Haves

• Master's in Educational Leadership strongly preferred
• Completion of Relay's Principal Supervisory Fellowship — strongly preferred
• Candidates who have not yet completed the fellowship must be willing and enthusiastic about committing to the full year-long program as a condition of employment

Responsibilities

• Serve as a full member of the U Prep Executive Leadership Team alongside the Chiefs, contributing to network-wide strategy, organizational decisions, and culture-setting.
• Bring a school-level lens to executive conversations and translate organizational priorities into real outcomes for principals, students, and families.
• Coach and evaluate elementary principals to be high-performing leaders in both instructional leadership and operational excellence.
• Ensure every principal on your team is growing and leading their school with clarity and confidence through frequent observations, structured feedback cycles, and individualized development plans.
• Ensure that every principal deeply understands and faithfully implements all four pillars: Culturally Responsive Teaching, Project-Based Learning, CREW, and Distributed Leadership.
• Coach principals to observe instruction through this lens, give teachers feedback rooted in this framework, and build school cultures that make the model visible and real for every scholar every day.
• Provide direct leadership and support to the Elementary Enrollment Manager, ensuring enrollment systems, processes, and family-facing experiences reflect the mission and standards of University Prep School.
• Ensure that principals are equipped to lead rigorous, high-quality instruction.
• Support leaders in knowing what excellent, culturally responsive, PBL-centered teaching looks like, how to observe and provide meaningful feedback to teachers, and how to build instructional cultures that produce consistent academic growth.
• Hold principals accountable for the operational health of their schools, including compliance with Special Education law, student safety, staff management, enrollment, and school culture.
• Develop, implement, and own the framework for principal evaluation and professional growth across the network.
• Establish clear expectations, create feedback structures, and design professional development that meets principals where they are and moves them forward, always in service of the U Prep model.
• Design and deliver professional development for principals and assistant principals that is practical, grounded in evidence, and immediately applicable.
• Leverage your Relay training and network-wide context to bring the best thinking to your team.
• Guide principals to lead schools that fully comply with federal and state regulations, including IDEA and Special Education requirements, district policies, and all relevant legal obligations.
• Create opportunities for principals to learn from each other, challenge each other, and build the kind of collegial trust that makes a school network greater than the sum of its parts.
• Model the collaboration, distributed leadership, and open communication you want to see in every building.

Benefits

• Competitive and commensurate with experience Salary
• Medical Coverage — comprehensive health benefits
• 401(k) — up to 6% employer match
• Paid Time Off — 8 sick days, 4 personal days; vacation days for year-round staff
• Career Development — dedicated investment in your professional growth
• Tuition Reimbursement — Master's program reimbursement through Grand Valley State University
• Relay Fellowship — fully supported participation in the Principal Supervisory Fellowship

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Executive
• Number of Employees: 101-250 employees