Elementary School Principal

TITLE: Principal

DEPARTMENT/ENTITY: Instructional Leadership

REPORTS TO: Managing Director of Schools

Background

Each school has a committed leadership team and staff that strives to work collaboratively to build a warm, joyful culture of rigor. Public Prep is committed to investing in our adult learning culture. As a team member at Public Prep you can anticipate a learning environment where growth mindset, humility and data informed decision making is evident through professional development that takes place within coaching cycles, observation and feedback, and targeted professional development opportunities within the network and from outside providers.

Public Prep offers a competitive salary commensurate with experience, qualifications, internal equity, and budgeted amount for the role. The salary for this position starts at $150,000. We offer a comprehensive benefits package. It includes Oxford Medical, United Dental/Vision, life insurance, parenting benefits, flexible spending account, generous paid time off, commuter benefits, referral bonuses, professional development, and a 403(b) package with a 5% employer match.

Public Preparatory Network is an Equal Opportunity employer. Public Preparatory Network is committed to the principles of equal employment opportunity for all employees and applicants for employment. For more information about Public Prep, please visit their website.

Primary Function & Position Overview

The Principal is responsible for aligning the school’s instructional vision to the network priorities and vision and supporting all staff members to meet the vision. At Public Prep, we believe that the people in front of our scholars each day are the key determinants of their ultimate success. We believe that trajectory-changing teachers are not born - they are coached and developed by strong school-based leadership teams deeply dedicated to their success. The Principal is the most impactful leadership position at Public Prep, and participates in strategic decision-making, at the school and network level. Equal parts instructional visionary, strategic mastermind, data-driven decision-maker, people developer, and community builder, the Principal stands at the nexus of the highest-leverage unit of change in a child’s life: the school.

Who You Are

Our ideal candidate for a Principal has an unwavering belief that our scholars can achieve at an exceptionally high level. Beyond that, they are:

• Deeply committed to serving our kids. You have elected to work with historically underserved scholars, and do this work because you believe that all scholars, regardless of background, are capable of excellence - and that it’s on us as adults to get our kids there. You understand that the challenges faced by scholars in New York City are unique and specific, and you’re excited to work within the communities we serve.
• A proven school leader, and a driver of results. You've demonstrated the ability to drive results in the pursuit of an ambitious vision and strategy, and you combine your exceptional strategic, analytical, and critical-thinking skills with your use of data to drive decision-making to achieve ambitious outcomes.
• A people developer. You’ve led, directly managed, and coached teams and individuals to achieve strong results for scholars. You love and actively seek opportunities to develop others through ongoing coaching, clear expectations and accountability, strong inspirational and motivational skills, high leverage feedback, and targeted professional development.
• ...and a people leader. Let’s be real - managing people is hard. You’ve coached, directly managed, and demonstrably moved the effectiveness of other adults before taking this job. You build relationships across lines of difference, authentically inspire and motivate others to buy into your vision.
• A masterful executor. You appreciate the big picture, but you know it's all in the details. Your organizational systems ensure you get things done. You prioritize your time and fervently plan to maximize the time each day you spend moving adult practice. You do the things you say you’ll do, and you communicate when you won’t. You delegate when needed, set deadlines, and hold others accountable to get across important finish lines.
• An A+ Communicator. You’ve got a knack for speaking and writing clearly, succinctly and persuasively. You think about time, place, and format to share a message that will resonate to accomplish your goals.
• A gritty problem-solver. You keep it cool when facing challenges, approach problems with viable solutions, and know when you need to roll up your sleeves to support your team.

Key Responsibilities

The Principal will drive rigorous instruction and create a culture of academic ownership by:

• Ensuring that scholar achievement results for all demographics (GenEd, SpEd, ELL, etc.) meet or exceed school-level targets across academic assessment tools;
• Engaging in clearly defined processes and structures for planning, executing, assessing and reflecting on the implementation of coherent instructional programs and pedagogical approaches within classrooms, grade levels, and departments throughout the school grounded in the expectations for Common Core aligned instruction;.
• Working alongside the school leadership and home office teams to drive teacher improvement by creating and implementing systems, structures, and opportunities that support and develop teachers to implement rigorous, College and Career-Ready standards and lead to high scholar achievement and growth;
• Leading the school in maintaining a rigorous instructional core by ensuring that College and Career-Ready standards-aligned instructional materials and curricular resources are supported and implemented across all classrooms; and
• Building strong relationships with families, scholars, and staff to ensure collective investment in network instructional priorities, initiatives, and expectations.

The Principal will empower and develop teachers and leaders by:

• Training and coaching all mid-level leaders to effectively move individual teacher instructional practice and, subsequently, scholars’ academic achievement, through high-leverage active coaching and consistent observation and feedback cycles;
• Planning and executing strategies of supportive supervision that is differentiated and proactive (including, but not limited to, classroom observations, intellectual preparation meetings with grade/department teams, providing support in unit unpacking, modeling scholar data debriefs, etc.);
• Owning all aspects of leading, inspiring, managing, and developing a staff of dynamic, driven, and diverse individuals;
• Leading, facilitating, and developing mid-level leaders to facilitate robust school-based professional development that sets staff up to: master the fundamentals of classroom management, backwards-design planning and intellectual preparation, relationship-building and communication with scholars and families, data-driven action planning, and implementation of schoolwide cultural, academic, operational, and extracurricular systems and initiatives;
• Directly coaching and managing school-based Academic Directors and Directors of Student & Family Affairs and providing dotted line management support to the school-based Director of Operations and Assistant Director of Student Support and ensure alignment across the School Leadership Team (SLT) work scopes to reach network and school-level goals; and
• Creating a culture where all staff give and receive feedback fluidly – both positive and constructive – as part of daily practice to move the entire school forward.

The Principal will lead the school’s continued excellence by:

• Overseeing the recruitment, cultivation, and coaching of all staff as well as supporting a broader strategic talent management structure that addresses all stakeholders and roles;
• Nurturing a warm, safe, and rigorous learning environment characterized by experimentation, collaboration, investment and cultivation of all individuals in their roles;
• Recruiting, selecting, and hiring top talent from across the nation to teach, lead, and support the mission and vision of the network;
• Managing the leadership team to develop culture and operational systems and outcomes that create a school environment where scholars feel safe, able to take social and academic risks, and excited to come to school each day;
• Leading the school team to build deep relationships with families and scholars such that key stakeholders are inspired to remain with the school, and are committed to persisting through challenges to produce scholars that are bound for success in college and in life;
• Effectively managing resources by creating, maintaining, and supporting systems that align to the network vision and priorities and ensure a strong learning-focused environment;
• Ensuring evidence-based decision making guides all meetings for scholars who are identified for services and ensure appropriate follow through with necessary stakeholders takes place;
• Making administrative decisions in accordance with applicable laws, regulations, and network policies and procedures (i.e., NYSED, NYCDOE, EEOC, DOL, SUNY, etc.) in decision making and reporting;
• Serving as a liaison to the broader local (and national) educational community to champion the work Public Prep is doing and build a network of supporters committed to seeing our scholars succeed; and
• Ensuring compliance of the school with the full scope of federal and state regulatory requirements.

Additional Qualifications

• At least three (3) years demonstrated success improving scholar outcomes in a leadership capacity at an elementary or secondary public or charter school.
• An M.A., Ed.M or Master’s degree in Educational Leadership and/or Educational Administration, preferred.
• New York State Certification as a School Administrator, preferred.
• Fluency in Spanish, preferred.