Community School Director

Overview

Who We Are

Center for Supportive Schools is an anti-racist, fast-paced, collegial, and team-oriented organization wholly committed to helping schools become places where students want to be. Our work directly addresses student disengagement, a root cause of diminished academic performance, students dropping out of school, and other high-risk student behaviors. We partner with schools in three areas: developing all students into leaders; empowering teachers to collaborate with each other and with students; and engaging entire school communities to improve how learning happens.

CSS is driven by the vision that one day, all students will thrive in schools that graduate them prepared for the rigors of college and lives filled with meaningful work, active citizenship, and personal fulfillment.

We are committed to antiracism. Our vision for students will not be realized absent the dismantling of systemic racism that permeates schools and society. Schools are not safe, supportive, engaging, and inspiring unless they address all areas of marginalization and eradicate all the many interconnected forms of oppression. CSS’s focus on antiracism results from the outsized role that racism has played in shaping the United States and its institutions, from the fact that racism intersects with all other forms of oppression and given that which we learn and develop – tools, frameworks, resources – in dismantling racism can be leveraged to abolish all other forms of oppression.

Founded in 1979, we are a national organization currently impacting 65,000 students annually and committed to supporting every K-12 school in the country. Most of our partners are economically disadvantaged communities where the consequences of student disengagement can be most devastating.

For more information, please visit www.supportiveschools.org. For more information about CSS’s commitment to antiracism, please visit www.supportiveschools.org/antiracism-resources.

About Community Schools

Community Schools offer a holistic approach toward improving academic performance driven by strong, collaborative partnerships among principals, parents, teachers, and CBOs. In Community Schools, parents are real and active partners in their children’s education. Each student is connected to a mentor, club, or social service. The school climate is joyful and positive. Community members spend time at the school, participating in activities ranging from athletics and yoga to financial and parenting workshops. Extended afterschool or weekend classes are commonplace. An integral part of this approach is the blending of school- and community-based services into the school day, such as health, mental health, counseling, and academic enrichment.

Who You Are

You are a highly driven visionary, out-of-the box thinker, seasoned leader, change- and goal-oriented doer, anti-racist activist looking to join a team of smart and driven educators in a rapidly changing, highly collaborative, and mission-driven environment. You are passionate about working with schools to build their capacity to offer effective programs to positively impact our youth. You have extensive knowledge of and experience working with public schools in New York City. You are a leader who has a track record of effectively leading internal and external teams. You bring a wealth of skills and experiences while also identifying yourself as a lifelong learner who is regularly seeking opportunities to grow your skills. You crave opportunities to be reflective about your practice and look forward to receiving feedback to support your continued growth.

You are a thoughtful planner and communicator and strive for excellence in all that you do. You are also highly adaptable and ready to do work in ways that work best for the schools you serve. You find energy in working directly with schools and collaborating with colleagues in service of implementing and advancing best practices. You are comfortable with and skilled at working in diverse school settings, with students, family members, teachers, principals, and other school staff. You thrive in an environment where collaborating with colleagues is valued and also thrive working independently. You are highly emotionally intelligent.

You excel at managing administrative aspects of many different programs at once with an exceptional level of detail. You implement different strategies for collecting data from schools and are not afraid to be persistent, while always maintaining a customer service mindset. You have a systems-oriented mindset and are always looking for ways to continually improve your practices, the practices of your team, and the practices of the organization you work for to better serve both the organization and clients’ needs.

You believe in building a world that is more just than the one we know. You are aware of your privileges and how your privileges might act as agents for positive change and how they might act as barriers to positive change. You are interested in being a part of communities that are diverse, equitable, accessible, inclusive, and socially just. You are actively invested in learning the most effective and caring ways to support communities that have historically been marginalized and you are invested in actively unlearning oppressive practices to reduce the risk of causing harm to marginalized communities. You are excited about the opportunity to be a part of a community of life-long learners who are also committed to their journey in learning how to be an antiracist today and every day. You are ready to join on-going capacity-building sessions focused on having racialized conversations. You care deeply about creating a more just society and believe that improving schools is fundamental to that effort. You are committed to diversity, inclusion, and equity. More than anything else, you want to make a difference.

The Role

The full-time Community School Director is responsible for the day-to-day management of a community school strategy, including building and maintaining relationships with administration, faculty, staff, students, and families as the “community organizer” of the school and community; creating, strengthening, and maintaining the bridge between the school and community; and facilitating and providing leadership for the collaborative process and development of a continuum of services for children, families and community members within the school neighborhood. The Community School Director will assist the school in developing implementation action plans, troubleshooting implementation obstacles, and planning for sustainability. They will track the school’s progress against performance goals, collect school data, and support program evaluation activities. Additional responsibilities include managing community partnerships and facilitating at School Leadership Team (SLT) meetings. Initially, the Community School Director will support establishing and implementing a community school strategy. Over time, they may support any or all of CSS’s leadership solutions that may be implemented at the school. The Community School Director will ensure that the community school strategy is implemented at exceptional levels of quality with full support, buy-in, and regular communication with stakeholders across the school community.

What You’ll Do

As the full-time Community School Director, you will:

• Build and maintain relationships with administration, faculty, staff, students, parents, and community partners in the school community
• Organize and expand upon the membership of the School Leadership Team (SLT) and Community School Team (CST) to include diverse school community stakeholders
• Facilitate regular meetings of the School Leadership Team (SLT) and Community School Team (CST), ensuring the participation of diverse stakeholders and voices and regular, positive communication within the team. Work with the SLT/CST may also include establishing and facilitating working groups to address specific community school strategy components, such as communication, evaluation, and/or after-school programming as well as hosting monthly forums for ongoing collaboration with members of the community, including parent leaders, school-based organizations and partnering organizations.
• Conduct a needs assessment process, including reviewing school and student-level data; conducting focus groups with parents, students, faculty, staff, administrators, and community partners; and reviewing and/or conducting school climate and culture survey
• Conduct a community asset assessment to identify viable partnerships that can meet the needs of students and families of the school’s community, including developing metrics for partnership evaluation
• Recruit and develop partnership agreements with people and community organizations willing to offer programs and services for students and families at the school in accordance with identified needs
• Serve as a point person for agencies and programs interested in partnering with the school and help to broker new partnerships that are aligned with school goals and needs.
• Identify evidence and research-based practices and/or partnerships that address priority areas for the school community strategy, which may include but are not limited to Parent/Family Engagement; Community Engagement; Youth Development; Academic Rigor and Instructional Practices; and Health, Mental Health, Tutoring, Afterschool Programming, Mentoring
• Develop and implement ongoing mechanisms to illicit input from teachers, school staff, SLT/CST members, parents, and students to determine ongoing needs of students and families
• Coordinate, plan, and facilitate on-site technical assistance meetings with administrators, faculty, and staff to plan for specific program implementations, problem-solve implementation obstacles, and ensure program sustainability
• Develop, maintain, and publicize a schedule of programs and activities offered at the school: foci include college and career readiness, attendance and lateness improvement, academic celebrations, student leadership, and more
• Implement and maintain a process that encourages referrals to programs and services offered at the school; provide timely feedback to those who make referrals; and alert the SLT/CST to the need for programs not already offered
• Identify needs of chronically absent students, apply interventions, and track and monitor impact of interventions on weekly basis, as part of weekly attendance meetings
• Facilitate cross-referral of students and families between service providers
• Collect and monitor program implementation data and student data for each partnership and initiative implemented, including developing “dashboard” views that allow easy data analysis and interaction by the SLT and other school stakeholders
• Facilitate at training conferences, as needed
• Other responsibilities, as needed

What You’ve Done

Education: You’ve likely earned a bachelor’s degree, which is preferred but not required.

Professional Experiences and Personal Qualities/Skills: You likely have demonstrated extensive knowledge of and experience working in New York City public schools; exceptional abilities to problem solve, plan, and prioritize; a “roll-up-your-sleeves” entrepreneurial, startup attitude; knowledge of and experience working in education reform and student support services; proven ability to work in a fast-paced environment managing multiple projects; and demonstrated high level interpersonal and cross-cultural skills, including the ability to build relationships internally and externally and to manage effective teams.

You have likely had the following experiences and have demonstrated the following attributes:

• Excellent listening, writing, and speaking skills
• Highly effective time-management, goal-setting, problem-solving, and decision-making skills
• Ability to gather, analyze, synthesize, and communicate information from various sources
• Strong public speaking and group facilitation skills
• Knowledgeable in issues related to K-12 schools and education reform
• Knowledgeable in student support services
• Ability to obtain and utilize student and school data to drive decisions
• Demonstrated ability to work independently and collaboratively
• Flexibility, resourcefulness, and willingness to work evenings and weekends when required for successful and timely completion of projects
• Ability to use discretion and judgment in handling confidential and sensitive information
• Knowledge of and an enthusiastic commitment to the organization’s mission, solutions, and offerings
• Experience with school-based program evaluation
• Connections with community-based organizations and experience facilitating partnerships with these organizations
• Ability to work effectively with school aged youth, educators, families, and communities from a wide range of cultural, social, and economic backgrounds
• Experience working in school-based settings, with knowledge about tenets of community organizing, student support services, and youth development theories
• Ability to work collaboratively, with strong relationship building skills
• Program implementation experience preferred
• Knowledgeable in technology
• Remarkable references

COVID-19 Vaccination & Testing

CSS requires all school-facing staff members to be fully vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus. As of the time of this position announcement posting, fully vaccinated means receiving two vaccination doses of either the Pfizer vaccine or the Moderna vaccine, or one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Non-school facing staff members who are not vaccinated because of a CSS- approved medical or religious accommodation must submit a copy of a COVID-19 test result 48-72 hours in advance of any CSS-related in-person interaction (this includes in-person interaction with other staff, in-person training events, office visits, business meetings, and/or school visits).

Location

The Community School Director will be based at a New York City partner school. Occasional travel to CSS’s Manhattan office, will be necessary.

Schedule, Salary, and Benefits

The anticipated starting date for this position is February 2022. The annual starting salary range for this position is $70,000-$80,000. CSS offers a comprehensive and competitive benefits plan, including health, dental, and vision insurance, and a 403(b) plan with employer match.