Sr. Director of Elementary Schools

Wayside Schools • Austin, TX

8d • Onsite

About The Position

At Wayside Schools, we seek staff with diverse backgrounds, experiences, perspectives, talents, and ideas to meet the needs of our growing body of scholars and dynamic programming. At Wayside, we know that leaders who possess specific traits and competencies are more likely to be successful in their roles and in their service to staff, scholars, and families: passion for our mission, a deep connection to issues of social justice, a commitment to all scholars we serve, and a focus on personal growth and development. The Senior Director of Elementary Schools will serve as a key partner for the Chief Academic Officer, working to develop, align, support, and manage elementary campus leaders and programs. The Senior Director of Elementary Schools is responsible for the overall quality of school leadership and implementation of programming, working to maintain a relentless focus on continuously improving our leaders, our programs, and ultimately, the academic, social, and emotional outcomes for our scholars. The Senior Director of Elementary Schools will approach this work through the coaching, development, and management of elementary campus principals. The Senior Director of Elementary Schools will report directly to the Chief Academic Officer and will serve as a key partner in the Network Academic Leadership Team. This is an ideal opportunity for a dynamic and visionary organizational leader, with significant people and change management experience, to play a critical role in shaping a quickly evolving, premier PK-12 charter management organization committed to growing scholars who will become college graduates, successful, well-rounded professionals, and engaged community members.

Requirements

• Master’s Degree in an education-related field
• Highly developed communication skills
• A high degree of organization
• Able to work with a variety of online systems
• An understanding of the Texas Academic Accountability System
• Able to analyze academic data and plan for improvement as needed
• A proven track record of success managing school leaders to achieve ambitious goals
• Outstanding leadership and management skills, particularly as it relates to building teams, working through others, promoting collaboration, managing conflict, goal setting, and holding people accountable
• Understanding of the Science of Reading
• An entrepreneurial spirit and demonstrated success in building a program, department, or organization
• The flexibility needed to accommodate the breadth and depth of responsibilities and priorities
• Outstanding written, speaking, and organizational skills, including excellence in backwards planning long-term goals, accountability, and progress monitoring systems
• Ability to interact with a broad range of stakeholders with different interests and needs
• Deep commitment to improving the lives of scholars from low-income communities
• Demonstrated passion for the mission, vision, and values of Wayside Schools
• High proficiency in Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, Word, and Google Suite
• Three years of teaching experience, elementary preferred
• Campus Principal for at least 3 years, elementary preferred
• Strong understanding of curriculum and instruction at the elementary level, PreK-5th grade, to be able to identify problems of practice and develop the AI application to solve the problems.

Nice To Haves

• Administrative Certification preferred
• A high degree of organization
• An understanding of the specific, unique characteristics of public charter schools, preferred, Texas-specific knowledge is a plus
• previous experience supporting the full array of responsibilities and challenges faced by school principals preferred but not required
• Prior experience building AI applications is not required. Training on building AI applications is provided to the applicant hired for the position. Coding knowledge is not required. Applications are built by writing prompts in English.

Responsibilities

• Manages 3 elementary school principals
• Builds a strong, cohesive team culture that promotes continuous growth and improvement
• Serves as a thought partner to direct reports as they lead their respective teams; coaches and supports direct reports to address their key roles and responsibilities
• Works in collaboration with the CAO to hire school principals and assistant principals and execute the organization’s talent strategy in schools, including providing best-practice coaching and development, annual goal setting, priority planning, and succession planning
• Plans and implements professional development collaboratively and independently for elementary school principals and other academic leaders in the network
• Supervises and coaches principals in the creation and implementation of effective professional learning opportunities for their staff
• Completes performance evaluations of direct reports in collaboration with the CAO
• Supports the development of assistant principals and successor leaders across all schools
• Work with principals to implement the academic strategies, all aspects of the talent strategies, and support principals to implement their school priorities in alignment with Wayside Schools' vision, mission, and strategic plan
• Implements the curriculum and improvement strategies prescribed by the academic team
• Works with principals to develop and implement long-term plans for curriculum, assessment, and school improvement
• Ensures that the principals have a clear plan for improvement of instruction and school culture
• Engages principals in weekly academic program analysis and progress monitoring through data collection, analysis, and action plans
• Manages long-term and annual school planning
• Supports the development of strong school operational systems and processes with a focus on data collection, scheduling, and specialized (Special Education, ESL/Bilingual, Response to Intervention, Social and Emotional) programs and services
• Participates in the Wayside Academic Leadership Team that sets and oversees the development of priorities, action plans, and strategies for all Wayside Schools programming
• Works with the Wayside Academic Leadership Team to develop a vision and comprehensive long-term plan for the design of the schools and school programming
• Recommends system-wide goals, monitors, and reports back to the CAO on the progress toward achieving those goals
• Works with the Network Support Team to ensure that all of the operations, technology, talent, and finance needs of the schools are met
• Liaises with external stakeholders, community agencies, donors, and other third-party constituencies
• Prepares regular dashboard and Academic Reports for the Board on the progress of schools and key academic priorities
• Support elementary campuses as they build and use AI applications to solve problems of practice in the classroom.
• Build AI applications to solve academic problems of practice.
• Support campuses with training on how to build AI applications.
• Support campuses with the implementation of AI-created unit plans and lesson plans.
• Stay current on emerging AI tools and platforms relevant to K-12 education and bring recommendations to the CAO and Academic Leadership Team

Benefits

• Free Health Insurance, including major medical, dental, vision, and life (Employee Only)
• Sustainability Fridays
• Free Pre-K for Staff Children
• Professional Development and Coaching
• 403(b) plan
• Texas Retirement System Plan
• Stipends for candidates who meet special program qualifications

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director