Principal, Carlton Innovation School - Salem Public Schools SY2023-2024

Application Due Date: Open Until Filled

Position Start Date: July 1, 2023

Terms of Employment: Calendar Year (12 months)

Salary: Competitive

Salem Public Schools

Salem is a small, diverse city with a proud maritime and immigrant history. Salem Public School educators are passionate about urban education and understand the urgency of improving student achievement. We respect and value the racial, cultural, and linguistic diversity of our students and their families, and have a strong commitment to the Salem community. We seek individuals who are able to serve all of our students, regardless of ability, economic status, gender/gender identity, language, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, or other backgrounds. Salem Public Schools has a clear equity statement and core values that guide and drive our work as an anti-racist organization. Applicants who have experienced working in urban schools and have bilingual skills are strongly encouraged to apply.

Salem Public School leaders are passionate about urban education and understand the urgency of improving student achievement. They respect and value the racial, cultural, and linguistic diversity of our students and their families, and have a strong commitment to the Salem community. Salem Public Schools seeks individuals who are able to serve all of our students, regardless of ability or language. Applicants who have experience working in urban schools and have bilingual skills are strongly encouraged to apply.

Summary: The successful candidate will possess the appropriate Massachusetts Educator’s License as a Principal and will help the district to achieve its mission and related goals and objectives, to set an example of an exceptional professional educator for all students and staff to model and to provide an educational climate that fosters learning as a life-long process.

Interested applicants should read the entire posting. Only candidates who submit a complete application including a targeted cover letter, resume, and responses to three short answer questions (listed at bottom of posting) will be considered. Please note that the cover letter, resume, and short answer responses must be saved in one PDF document.

We seek a highly effective elementary principal with a track record of success. We seek an instructional leader who also possesses an exemplary managerial, instructional and operational skill-set. The leader must be committed to the belief in the potential of all students. We seek a leader who is committed to the ideals of collaboration, innovation, anti-racist work and who will do whatever it takes to center the needs of all our students as a first priority.

A Salem Public School Elementary/K-8 Principal must:

• Put students first. Students are at the heart of our schools and we look to recruit and select leaders who make decisions in their best interest.

• Strengthen the culture of teaching and learning. The new leader of an SPS Elementary/K-8 school will change ideas about how young children learn in the 21st century and will redefine expectations about what young people in America’s urban centers are capable of achieving.

• Demonstrate innovative and entrepreneurial thinking. The Salem Public Schools value robust approaches to teaching and learning, especially in urban areas where standard practices have not always served young people well. Modeling innovation in other sectors, the SPS Elementary/K-8 principal will use technology to advance improved teaching and learning practices and implement more robust assessments, support teachers and leaders as innovators, invest early in promising practices, and collect and use data to diagnose problems-of-practice and evaluate effectiveness of initiatives and to course-correct when necessary.

• Engage families and the community as equal partners in the school improvement process. The SPS Elementary/K-8 leader identifies deepening partnerships with parents, students, and the community as a key strategy for improving student learning outcomes. An effective leader is able to conduct this important work with the many diverse populations that we have represented in our district.

• Receive high levels of support in demand for high levels of accountability. Because teachers and leaders are innovators, SPS realizes that they need high-touch, meaningful, and job-embedded support. This will be provided through the district’s new and innovative network model. In exchange, the district holds instructional staff accountable for student learning, their own professional development, and their contributions to the school learning community.

• Foster professional environments that value collaboration, data use, and continual improvement. Teachers must work together to collect and analyze data to sustain cycles of inquiry and improvement. Continual learning and data-driven decision-making are core to developing and supporting highly effective schools.

Major Duties and Responsibilities:

Instructional Leadership

• Develop and implement a School Improvement Plan that sets the direction for school improvement efforts.
• Responsible and accountable for ensuring all students leave Bates ready for the demands of middle/high school.
• Analyze student achievement results to identify areas in greatest need of improvement and to inform school improvement efforts.
• Maintain a school-wide technology plan that effectively implements significant technology resources to differentiate instruction and support academic enrichment for all students.
• Ensure that the learning needs of all students__Special Education, Multilingual Learners, and General Education__are met.
• Effectively supervise the classroom teams, content-based coaches, reading specialists and other support staff.
• Support and supervise the design of rigorous, standards-based instruction with measurable outcomes.
• Institute immediate targeted interventions and monitor their effectiveness
• Conduct daily classroom observations to analyze instruction, supervise staff, and provide feedback to ensure continuous improvement in teaching and learning.
• Engage in continuous learning and on-going professional development with other principal/headmaster colleagues.
• Facilitates staff meetings to further support SPS anti-racist curriculum

Management and Operations

• Recruit and retain a diverse staff.
• Align the use of people, money, and materials to the school's instructional priorities.
• Develop systems for optimal use of time by creating schedules/procedures that maximize instructional time and provide sufficient meeting time for all teams. Deflect activities that prevent staff from focusing on student learning during team time.
• Ensure a safe and nurturing environment for students, staff, and families.
• Design and implement a professional development plan and/or strategy that addresses instructional improvement priorities defined by student achievement and the individual needs of staff members.
• Manage school, facilities, and operations.
• Comply with the state and federal laws, policies and collective bargaining agreements.

Family and Community Engagement

• Strengthen teacher and staff capacity to cultivate and sustain meaningful partnerships with families of diverse backgrounds and with community members that support student achievement and student well being.
• Establish two-way communication tools for parents in their respective languages.
• Seek and develop strategic partnerships that will provide students with access to sports and extracurricular activities that add value and help drive academic success.

Professional Culture

• Identify key levers that foster accelerated school improvement/turnaround.
• Demonstrate high expectations for all students and staff and a commitment to providing the support required to attain them.
• Demonstrate cultural competencies and antiracist leadership through behaviors and decision-making.
• Establish a collegial environment that honors and encourages staff's continuous learning.
• Manage conflicts and foster consensus building
• Foster teacher leadership through delegation, shared leadership and decision-making.

Qualifications:

• Master's Degree (Required)
• Possession of a valid Massachusetts School Principal License
• Ability to provide an accessible strong presence and demonstrate leadership by example
• Three years teaching experience and three years of successful administration experience
• Demonstrated success in leading in a diverse environment
• Understanding of the Principal's role in establishing and maintaining a safe and disciplined school environment
• Demonstrated leadership qualities, interpersonal skills, and personal characteristics necessary for working effectively with students, teachers, administrators, and parents
• Demonstrated skills in creative problem solving
• Experience supervising and/or evaluating staff
• Demonstrated ability to manage a budget
• Experience working in complex, unionized environment

What You’ll Bring:

We are looking for candidates who have diverse backgrounds and experiences, are inspired by our mission and are highly motivated to change children’s lives through education. You’ll be right at home here if you are a reflective practitioner who values collaboration with colleagues and pushes yourself, your work and the people around you to the next level. We expect our SPS employees to:

• Hold a deep commitment to students and families and value diversity - The SPS community is vibrant, diverse in background, ethnicity, language, and perspective. You embrace and affirm the backgrounds of all members of the SPS community and view our diversity as a powerful resource that supports us each in learning and doing our best work.
• Hold high expectations for yourself, students, and colleagues – You see potential in all, especially our SPS students, and maintain high expectations for achievement, while providing the support necessary to meet that bar. You hold yourself to high expectations, modeling SPS values and seeking opportunities to continuously improve.
• Build authentic, caring relationships with colleagues, students, and families – You build strong relationships across students, families, and colleagues that are collaborative in nature and contribute to the individual and collective success of SPS. You partner with families and colleagues to make decisions in the best interest of students and learning.
• Embrace feedback – You are a reflective practitioner who learns from failure, using mistakes and challenges as opportunities for growth. You model persistence and growth mindset and thrive in a culture of feedback.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:

Teaching experience in an urban public school setting

Bilingual, preferably in Spanish

Application Requirement: Interested candidates must submit a completed application along with a targeted cover letter crafted specifically to lead in SPS, a resume and a response to all three short answer questions. The targeted cover letter, resume, and short answer responses should be saved as one PDF document and uploaded to your application via https://salem.tedk12.com/hire/index.aspx or by mail to: Carlton Principal Search Committee c/o Superintendent - Salem Public Schools, 29 Highland Ave., Salem, MA 01970

Short answer questions (must be answered for application to be considered):

• Why do you want to lead a school in SPS? (Maximum 200 words__longer responses will not be reviewed or scored)
• What challenges do you anticipate if you are offered and accept a principal position with SPS? What three strategies do you anticipate utilizing in order to address these challenges and successfully improve student outcomes? (Maximum 300 words__ longer responses will not be reviewed or scored)
• SPS has a diverse portfolio of schools (i.e. turnaround, innovation school, and Horace Mann Lab and ELL/ESL programs, among many others). Our school system also serves a diverse student body. When you consider your interest and past experiences and when you consider the diverse portfolio of schools in our system, where do you believe your leadership will be best leveraged and why? (Maximum 200 words__longer responses will not be reviewed or scored)

Equal Opportunity Employer

Salem Public School District is committed to maintaining a work and learning environment free from discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, pregnancy, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital/civil union status, ancestry, place of birth, age, citizenship status, veteran status, political affiliation, genetic information or disability, as defined and required by state and federal laws. Additionally, we prohibit retaliation against individuals who oppose such discrimination and harassment or who participate in an equal opportunity investigation.