Uplift Education: Primary School Academic Director (Principal) Pool (26-27)

Campus Leadership

The Academic Director is responsible for establishing and maintaining a vision for the school and campus with high expectations for staff and scholars. They will develop and execute on a strategic vision for the school that aligns with network priorities, establish and maintain a shared vision of success for staff members and scholars, outline clear goals for the school and create targets and aligned strategies to continually improve scholar outcomes through teacher and staff effectiveness, and serve as a visible campus leader in the community with families, community partners, and board members.

Instructional Leadership (Coaching, Planning & Management)

The Academic Director is responsible for setting the vision for instruction for the school and leading the school in managing instructional and academic outcomes, aligned to Uplift's IB vision for excellence. They will establish and implement systems and protocols to regularly and effectively assess school-wide instructional practice, coach and develop Deans, teacher leaders and a portfolio of teachers, observe staff members regularly and provide targeted feedback, monitor progress of teams (grade level/content area) through debriefs, observation, and academic data review at frequent checkpoints, create, deliver and manage professional development offerings for staff members aligned to campus priorities, facilitate data meetings and action planning with leadership and other key teams, and analyze and synthesize school, teacher, and scholar data regularly in order to plan effective course corrections.

People Management & Development

The Academic Director is responsible for cultivating the highest level of professional capacity of all staff members at the school. They will establish school norms for all people managers at the school around people management and development, recruit, hire, mentor and retain high-quality and high-performing staff members, define expectations and goals for staff performance across all areas of their job to ensure school operations and goals are fulfilled, provide day-to-day feedback and coaching (performance/technical and developmental) to staff, serve as a thought partner and guide for planning professional development for direct reports aligned to developmental goals, observe employee performance, record observations, and conduct rigorous performance evaluations based in continuous improvement and accountability for results, supervise all employee discipline situations and make decisions about termination or suspension.

Scholar Culture & Family Partnership

The Academic Director is responsible for leading staff members, scholars and families to establish a positive, IB aligned, achievement-oriented school culture in compliance with state/federal law and Uplift policy. They will ensure the student handbook and Code of Conduct is published and applied in compliance with Uplift guidelines, and that all related procedures regarding student discipline, investigations and documentation standards are correctly executed, ensure rules are implemented consistently and that scholar discipline is appropriate and equitable in accordance with the handbook and Code of Conduct, with an emphasis on the use of restorative practices, support the Dean with preparing for and facilitating meetings/conferences with parents, scholars and teachers, facilitate and/or conduct high priority meetings with parents, scholars and teachers with emergency or repeated violations of the Code of Conduct, including making recommendations for scholar expulsion, create or facilitate the creation of systems to ensure strong plans are in place for scholar services and management (support services, discipline management, etc.), and encourage and foster strong relationships with families to encourage community involvement in the school.

Professional Growth & Learning

The Academic Director is responsible for acting professionally and ethically at all times, while relentlessly pursuing continual improvement. They will model and demonstrate the highest standard of professional conduct, ethical principles and integrity in decision making, actions and behaviors, seek and engage in learning opportunities to develop holistically as leader (technical skill development, adaptive leadership development, cultural development), attend and participate in network leadership meetings, academies, conferences, as applicable, implement practices learned at professional development, monitor and evaluate implementation for effectiveness, and share findings with network leaders.

Administrative Functions

The Academic Director will collaborate closely with school and K-12 campus leadership teams to ensure strong implementation of programs and events. They will manage resources (people, financial) effectively to support school and organizational goals, utilize funds in compliance with organizational, state and federal guidelines in order to achieve school goals, establish organizational structures and systems for scholar and teacher management and retention, coordinate the planning of daily school activities with leadership team and staff.