Director of Lower Elementary in Morrisville, North Carolina, United States

Job description:
Job Description: Director of Lower Elementary (LE)

Supervises: Lower Elementary Teachers, Assistants, and others as assigned by ED

Contracted: 12 months

Purpose:

The Director of LE is an integral part of a strong administrative and educational team devoted to collaborative decision-making and to the long-term success of Sterling Montessori. The Director assists the Executive Director fulfill the educational mission of the school and in particular, helps to assure the integrity and quality of the scope and sequence of the educational program from Children’s House through Middle School as specified in the AMS Montessori School Guidelines.
General Duties and Responsibilities to Teacher/Students/Parents:

Articulate and support the integrity of Montessori Education at the lower elementary level.
Take personal and professional responsibility for creating, sustaining and nurturing an exemplary Montessori environment. This includes participating in relevant professional development opportunities.
Plan, schedule, organize and promote parent education opportunities to help parents of the Sterling Montessori community gain a better understanding and appreciation of what is happening in their child’s classroom and why it is beneficial to their child’s development.
Impart general school information regarding the employee and parent handbook to staff and families as necessary.
Meet with parents that have concerns/questions about their child’s work and learning environments.
Provide regular communication and Parent Education with all staff and parents at the LE level. This includes but is not limited to the Friday email, monthly newsletters, emails, phone calls or additions for teachers to add to their weekly newsletters.
Conduct parent meetings when requested either by the school, teacher or by the parent.
These meetings must help build a strong partnership between the school and home.
Build strong trusting relationships with all member of the administrative and director teams.
Bridge instructional and social emotional gaps between the general education setting out to all all other areas of the building and school (i.e. cross grade level alignment and teams, Exceptional Children department, 504 programming, Multi-lingual supports, Multi-Tiered Systems of Support programming, specialist team, etc).
Related to Faculty and Students:

Responsible for all hiring/firing of all necessary staff at the LE level
Attend interviews for prospective lead teachers or assistants or anyone else expected to work at the LE level.
Provide consistent and regular guidance and support to the LE Lead Teachers and Assistants.
Review and approve the daily LE schedules and ensures that each classroom has a 2-3 hour uninterrupted work cycle.
Assist in the process of curriculum review, including assessment, improvement, and implementation.
Assist in the identification and/or design of Professional Development opportunities for the LE Team. This may include but is not limited to, in-house workshops, Courses and Trainings, Parent Education Opportunities, Director led PD.
Collaborate with the Human Resource Manager in maintaining the Cumulative Student folders for all LE students.
Assists in the completion of records, reports, inventories, and ordering of materials and supplies at the LE level.
Mediates issues that arise between all members of the LE Team
Ensure that all LE staff are held responsible for following school disciplinary policies and procedures
Assist and support with matters of student discipline.
Observe all LE learning environments regularly and observe specific students at the request of the classroom teachers.
Support students and teachers by helping with student interventions this includes but is not limited to, reading interventions, behavioral interventions, and social/emotional interventions.
Conduct weekly grade level team meetings
Attend monthly Faculty meetings
Attend MTSS meetings
Support teachers through the MTSS process, this includes but is not limited to helping identify the correct MTSS forms to fill out and reviewing all the necessary work – goal setting document, intervention models, data collected, recommendations for next steps, etc.
LEA IEP meetings when needed
Participate in the class placement process, creating annual classlists each spring.
Ensure that sub folders are complete and up to date by each lead teacher.
Work closely with the EC Director, Director of Student Affairs, Directo of Operations, Director of Children’s House, and Director of Upper Elementary as needed.
Organize curriculum related discussions and instructional skill development throughout the school year for all LE staff.
Monitor record keeping and progress reporting of student performance to parents which includes but is not limited to planning, scheduling, organizing and promoting parent teacher conferences in partnership with teaching staff.
Support teachers in Parent Conferences as needed, this includes but is not limited to, sitting in on the conferences, reviewing reports, sharing observations with parents/teachers, mediating difficult conversations between parent and teacher, etc.
Review student progress and conference reports prior to sharing with the parent community.
Meet with all lead teachers monthly to discuss and evaluate goals and observations.
Document these meetings. Integrate classroom observations into this process.
Meet with all assistant teachers quarterly to discuss and evaluate their contributions.
Document these meetings. Integrate classroom observations into this process.
Support classroom teachers in areas needing growth or attention.
Act as a liaison between classroom teacher and internal, as well as, external support services.
Assist with placement of new students and those rising to the LE level.
Approve and monitor the scheduling of field trips program wide.
Approve and track time off requested by teachers for personal and professional purposes.
Responsible for signing incident and accident reports for the LE program.
Ensure that the staff is informed about food policies, food allergies and post allergies in each classroom in a visible area.
Conduct an initial orientation for new staff and follow-up meetings with employees. This meeting will include topics on, but is not limited to, confidentiality, shaken baby syndrome, Signs of Child Abuse, Emergency procedures, Student information forms, professionalism requirements, job responsibilities, tour of school, provide necessary paperwork, etc.
Document, update and maintain professional development hours for all LE staff.
Work collaboratively to arrange schedules consistent with Montessori principles for each of the LE learning environments and classrooms.
Log all incidents, accidents, and inappropriate behavior forms in a timely manner.
Create and update emergency care plans, including but not limited to updating emergency contact numbers, staff names and numbers.
Ensure that Medical Care plans are current and up to date.
Ensure that emergency information for children is available.
Educate staff on Medical Information (Epi-Pen, Benadryl, when to call 911).
Ensure that each classroom has a red bag with sufficient items in the event of an emergency
Duties and Responsibilities to Admissions:

Responsible for answering any face-to face, phone and email communications concerning the LE Program.
Conduct tours to prospective parents in partnership with the Executive Director.
In collaboration with the Admissions manager maintain class lists and rosters.
Duties and Responsibilities to Administrative Team/Board/PFSA:

The Director of LE collaborates with the Executive Director and educational leadership team in the areas of curriculum, pedagogy and professional development of academic personnel.
Assist in the accreditation process.
In collaboration with the Human Resource Manager and Director of Operations, verify that all LE employees and substitutes have completed their criminal background check and have a verification letter issued by DHHS.
Ensure that staff have all necessary trainings (include but not limited to: harassment, child abuse, school crisis, etc).
Represent the LE level to the PFSA and LHU Board as needed
Keep the Executive Director up to date on all concerns and progress in regards to staff annual goals.
Support test coordinator and Director of Student Affairs with all matters related to data collection and student assessment.
Assists in the creation of the school schedule and calendar, particularly all events at the LE level.
Approve and monitor classroom budgets – this may include but is not limited to managing requests for purchase and reimbursements.
Maintain an on-going inventory of all classroom materials and supplies.
Act as a core member of the MTSS Program where collaboration between classroom teachers, Director of EC Program, Director of Upper Elementary, Director of Middle School, Director of Student Affairs and Executive Director.
Maintain certification and willingness to administer CPR and First Aid matters including but not limited to allergy needs, minor bumps and bruises and lice checks.
Maintain an annual and operational budget for the Elementary program.
Participate in the daily functions of regulating the carpool process during arrival and dismissal times.
Support administrative team by discussing, preparing for and implementing fire and crisis drills.
Update crisis manual and in coordination with all directors and facility manager plan for all required emergency drills
Collaborate with Administrative staff to review and update Student, Parent and Employee Handbooks annually
Requirements:

5+ years of teaching experience
BA Degree (Master’s preferred)
NC Administrative License (comparable or in the process of obtaining within 12 months from date of hire)
Ability to compare and/or judge the readily observable, functional, structural, and composite characteristics of data, people, and things.
Ability to read a variety of correspondence, reports, forms, articles, proposals, contracts, etc. Ability to prepare correspondence, reports, forms, evaluations, and policies using a prescribed format.
Ability to apply principles of logical or scientific thinking to define problems, collect data, establish facts and draw valid conclusions; to interpret an extensive variety of technical instructions and deal with several abstract and concrete variables.
Ability to deal with people beyond giving and receiving instructions.  Must be able to build a dynamic engaged team of adult learners (20+ individuals, supervising over 200+ students at the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade level) and must be adaptable to perform under stress and when confronted with emergency situations.
Ability to evaluate student progress and review up to date student data in making strong instructional decisions and offering grade level direction for the team.
Familiarity and experience (3+ years) managing school wide EC and MTSS programming.
Has the capacity to conceptualize the broad goals of the school and plans accordingly to ensure that procedures and schedules are implemented well.
Ensures that the lower school program is compatible with the legal, financial, and organizational structure of the entire program and school program.
Ability to define the responsibilities and accountability measures of staff members and develop plans of interpreting observational data to support and encourage an individual and teams collective growth.
A commitment to and experience with establishing, implementing, and evaluating daily routines and standard operating procedures for the day-to-day operation of the lower elementary program.
Capacity to maintain inter-school communications with other departments (Upper Elementary, Adolescent, Children’s House, Specialists, Exceptional Children, and Operational Team) and ability to maintain healthy, strong, trusting and engaged relationships with students, staff, and parents across the entire school and program.
Willingness and capacity to hire, orient, train and assist new staff members and new students to their learning environment.
Capacity to manage, direct, and maintain records related to materials, supplies and equipment needed to carry out necessary day to day school routines.  Ability to involve the lower elementary teaching team in determining instructional supply priorities.

Preferred but not required:

3+ years of Administrative experience or 3+ years of experience supervising adult learners in a school context
3+ years of experience as a public Montessori school leader

SterlingMontessori.org