Director of School Culture and Family Engagement (Leadership Fellow) - East Harlem Scholars

Location: New York, New York

Start Date: Summer 2013

About East Harlem Scholars Academy

Founded upon the 54-year legacy of East Harlem Tutorial Program (EHTP), East Harlem Scholars Academy is a public charter school that prepares students with the academic skills, strength of character and social and emotional well-being to excel in high school and college, to lead in their communities and to realize their best possible selves. As a vital education center in East Harlem, EHTP operates out-of-school time programming that provides academic enrichment, college-ready resources and social-emotional support for students in grades K-12. In 2011, EHTP extended its service to the community by opening a K-8 public charter school, East Harlem Scholars Academy. Due to the success of Scholars Academy and the growing demand for high- quality public education options in East Harlem, we will be opening Scholars Academy in 2013. Through our rapidly expanding services, EHTP is on track to serve over 1,500 scholars by 2015. For more information about our guiding principles and academic program, please visit our website at http://www.eastharlemscholars.org.

Position Overview

We believe that a positive school culture is critical to fostering student success and hold family members as full educational partners in our work. As a member of the School Leadership Team, the Director of School Culture & Family Engagement will play a critical role in the success of East Harlem Scholars Academy by overseeing the implementation and refinement of policies and programs that promote school culture and family involvement.

Responsibilities of the Director of School Culture & Family Engagement may include, but are not limited to:

• School Culture & Program Support
  • Encourage supportive classroom communities that maintain East Harlem Scholars Academy's high academic and social expectations for students
  • Help lead recognition and celebration events (e.g., for perfect attendance or academic achievement) and other school-wide culture-building activities
  • Conduct regular school culture walkthroughs to maintain a high bar of excellence
  • Oversee Scholars Academy After School program to ensure consistency with Scholars Academy procedures and expectations
• Family Engagement
  • Build relationships with families of East Harlem Scholars Academy scholars through frequent communication
  • Create and lead a schedule of events throughout the year to involve families in school community
  • Engage families in support of the school's goals by communicating student progress, upcoming events and programmatic changes at Scholars Academy
  • Lead onboarding process for new families, potentially involving home visits with new parents
  • Coordinate the activities of the Parent Leadership Council
  • Establish protocols and best practices to ensure that teachers communicate regularly with parents
• Student Behavior
  • Write, update and maintain systems and policies for attendance, entry, breakfast, class transitions, cafeteria usage, lunch, bathroom usage, dismissal and homework
  • Implement existing behavior management system and create meaningful incentives to reward good behavior and effective consequences to correct misbehaviors
  • Analyze school-wide trends in attendance, behavior, homework and class transitions, communicate these trends to staff and lead initiatives to address challenges
  • Work with teachers to create individual plans for students with behavior challenges; partner with teachers to provide extra interventions
• Reflection and Continuous Improvement
  • Actively work to improve own practice, to acquire and enhance the skills and knowledge necessary for excellent instruction and to generally increase effectiveness in the school community
  • Assume responsibility for all scholars' success by holding staff and oneself accountable to expectations set by the East Harlem Scholars Academy community
• Leadership Training
• As a Leadership Fellow, participate in regular leadership development seminars offered by Scholars Academies, and attend external conferences to enhance current practices and fine-tune leadership skills
• Submit quarterly reflection assignments and explore areas for additional leadership development

Skills and Experience:

• Experience working with diverse populations of students, parents and families;
• Commitment to continuous improvement and learning through professional development;
• Demonstrated success in raising the achievement levels of traditionally at-risk students;
• Belief in the East Harlem Tutorial Program's mission, education model and core values
• Spanish proficiency required

Educational Background and Work Experience:

• Minimum of two year's experience in relevant educational positions with a strong record of student achievement;
• Experience in staff development;
• Masters Degree in Elementary Education, Social Work or related field preferred

Compensation:

Compensation for this position is competitive and commensurate with experience. In addition, East Harlem Scholars Academies offers a comprehensive benefits package.

Source: http://www.idealist.org/view/job/mJfkHHzjxFCp/