Upper Academy Director (6-12 Principal)

Neuse Charter School•Smithfield, NC

6d•Onsite

About The Position

The Upper Academy Director (6-12 Principal) is responsible for the instruction and care of assigned students, creating classroom environments conducive to effective learning, while maintaining commitment to NCS’s mission, vision, curriculum standards, and instructional excellence. This role involves explaining complex concepts, engaging with parents, staying current on educational research, assessing student performance, ensuring equal access to opportunities, fostering critical thinking, and setting high academic and behavioral expectations. The director also fosters collaboration among teachers, demonstrates integrity, empathy, and fairness, and provides leadership and direction to assigned Academy staff. This includes monitoring instructional practices, coaching, staff development, holding staff accountable, and overseeing action plans. The role also involves leading staff selection, onboarding, and retention, collaborating with NCS leadership on intervention strategies, modeling vertical alignment, and meeting state reporting and compliance mandates. Additionally, the director develops and submits state and federal applications, ensures positive public relations, follows procedures for record-keeping, maintains stewardship of school resources, attends administrative meetings, supervises students in extracurricular activities, and fosters a culture of excellence, collaboration, and responsiveness. Compliance with NCS policies and state/federal laws is essential, as is active participation in strategic planning and campus management. Budget management, grant recommendations, and assisting with the athletics program are also key responsibilities. The director must respond promptly to communications and maintain quality academic performance efforts, ensuring curriculum and instruction align with standards. They serve as a resource for teachers, conduct observations, act as an instructional coach, assist with licensure, coordinate summer school, contribute to and enforce the Student/Family Handbook, and work with the Scheduling Team. Discipline is overseen with a vision toward redirection, investigating underlying causes, and implementing suitable consequences. Training sessions are offered to increase effective instruction and proactively address potential discipline issues. Annual EVAAS verification of faculty is required. The role also involves understanding and implementing MTSS processes, collaborating with families and administrators, coordinating informational sessions, developing classroom guidance lessons, reporting to outside agencies, and participating in various school meetings and activities. Assessment preparation, scoring, documentation, and reporting are crucial, as is evaluating students’ academic and social growth using data. Student and family advocacy, reinforcing character, communicating with counselors, researching outreach sources, and navigating sensitive family issues are also part of the role.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Education or related field.
Possession of, or ability to obtain, a valid State of NC Professional Educator’s License, with endorsement for school administration.
Minimum of 5 years of successful, full-time lead teaching experience in a formal educational environment, with direct experience at their assigned level and school- or district-based administrative and supervisory experience.
Thorough knowledge of North Carolina and federal educational laws and regulations.
Ability to identify, quantify, and address staff and student needs and academic performance and programs.
Proficient with Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), PowerSchool, and related technology.
Able to support and articulate the school’s mission, goals and objectives in a positive and inspirational manner.
Expresses ideas clearly and uses language to build common understanding.
Aligns resources to accomplish key objectives and assigns clear accountability for important objectives.
Achieves meaningful accomplishments.
Inspires and motives others to take action.
Gains perspective and balances the need of daily tasks and strategic goals that impact the long-term success of NCS.
Works well across departments, focused on modeling and building collaborative relationships.
Relates well with all types of people, attentive and active listener; patient to hear others out and build rapport with dignity and tact; works collaboratively in a team environment.
Able to work effectively in a deadline-driven, multi-priority environment; exhibits effective time management skills and appropriate resource management; communicates interferences and delays to the Superintendent.
Provides accurate results that are well thought-out and complete; exhibits a high standard for excellence and attention to detail; relays information that is sufficiently detailed and promotes the desired result.
Uses logical methods to solve problems while producing effective solutions; probes all appropriate resources for solutions; takes initiative to identify and improve programs, systems and processes.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree in Educational Administration/Leadership, Curriculum, Instruction, or related field.
Experience with competency-based instructional and assessment programs.
10+ years of experience within an academic setting, including 5 years of school administrative experience is strongly desired.
Experience within a public charter school, or similar educational environment.

Responsibilities

Provide leadership and direction to the assigned Academy staff, including monitoring instructional practices, one-on-one coaching, and staff development.
Hold staff accountable and oversee action plans to completion.
Maintain accurate, written records regarding staff disciplinary actions.
Lead the selection, onboarding, and retention of highly qualified staff.
Collaborate with NCS leadership in the identification and deployment of evidence-based intervention strategies.
Model and support collaborative efforts between all Academy levels that build and strengthen vertical alignment.
Meet all state reporting and compliance mandates in a timely manner.
Develop and submit state and federal applications, documentation and reports as required.
Ensure positive public relations and relationship building with all stakeholders.
Follow procedures for safe storage and integrity of all public and confidential student services records, ensuring compliance with State and Federal law and NCS policy.
Maintain proper stewardship of school resources and management of student records in accordance with FERPA and IDEA.
Attend administrative meetings and other school events as required.
Supervise students in extra-curricular activities as assigned, including morning and afternoon carpool duty, lunch duty, game day coverage, and other reasonable requests.
Foster a culture of excellence, collaboration, and responsiveness amongst staff, students, families, and the community.
Ensure compliance across their assigned Academy with all NCS policies and state and federal laws and regulations.
Actively participate in the development and review of NCS’s strategic planning efforts, school-wide programming and initiatives, campus/facilities management plans, and related projects/programs.
Manage and assist with the development of their assigned Academy budget and ensure accurate and timely record-keeping and reporting.
Recommend budgets for grants, instructional, and professional development areas.
Assist the Athletic Director and Director of Business in oversight of the athletics program and serve as the administrator on duty at after-school home sporting events as needed.
Promptly respond to all communications within 2 business days.
Maintain quality academic performance efforts in support of school-wide assessment strategies and ensure academic programs meet or exceed student outcome goals.
Provide timely reporting as required and requested.
Ensure all curriculum and instruction efforts are aligned to and/or exceed state and national standards, including graduation requirements.
Act as a resource for teachers, facilitating high student achievement through high teacher achievement and productive communication with parents.
Conduct required observations of faculty giving high-quality feedback to ensure growth in teaching strategies.
Serve as an instructional coach to faculty.
Provide insight and resources to assist the Leadership Team in monitoring and assessing progress toward stated goals.
Assist Academy faculty in their licensure process and renewals.
Serve as Summer School Coordinator for their Academy.
Contribute to the Student/Family Handbook.
Enforce the Student/Family Handbook, including but not limited to dress code, tardiness/attendance, and behavior concerns.
Work with the Scheduling Team in creating classes and schedules and assigning student classes.
Contribute with and assist with student-centered events including graduation, pep rallies, etc.
Oversee discipline with a vision toward redirecting inappropriate behavior.
Investigate underlying causes for behavior and implement consequences suitable to the offense and age of the child.
Create opportunities for students to “turn around” negative images.
Offer training sessions to increase effective instruction and proactively approach potential discipline issues before they begin.
Conduct annual EVAAS verification of faculty.
Understand and implement MTSS processes with fidelity.
Effectively communicate and collaborate with families, colleagues, and administrators regarding student learning and progress.
Coordinate and deliver informational sessions and workshops for students, families, and staff.
Develop and provide classroom guidance lessons as Tier 1 support for students.
Report to and collaborate with outside agencies as needed.
Actively participate in department, school-wide and family meetings, curriculum mapping exercises, lesson plan development, training and professional development, and other related projects as required.
Prepare and administer assessments (i.e., formative, summative, performance-based) and score, document, and report results with a focus on mastery with the assistance of the Director of Information Technology.
Evaluate students’ academic and social growth using a variety of data sources with support from the Director of Information Technology, maintain appropriate and accurate records, prepare student reports, and communicate with parents regarding their students’ progress as required by applicable laws and policies.
Reinforce the importance of character and publicly recognize positive behavior.
Maintain frequent and close communication with school counselors.
Research family outreach sources and supply information when needed.
Navigate sensitive issues between families and school personnel.