Job Description
FirstLine Schools: PRINCIPAL FELLOW
Creating and inspiring great, open admissions public schools in New Orleans
About FirstLine Schools
In 1998, FirstLine Schools started the first charter school in New Orleans. FirstLine now operates several (P)K-8th grade schools. Our mission is to create and inspire great, open admissions public schools in New Orleans.
Our faculty is a diverse and talented group dedicated to our students’ success and to their own growth as teachers. Our schools are led by leaders who hold themselves accountable for student achievement and teacher development.
Position Summary:
FirstLine Schools is currently seeking school principal candidates who can lead and manage the learning, growth, and achievement of students at the elementary level (PK-4) at a K-8 FirstLine School. The School Principal will be responsible for ensuring the success of the school, as demonstrated by high academic achievement and a strong school culture by working with the School Director, School Leadership Team, and Network Leaders to provide instructional, cultural, and team leadership.
Leader Fellow Designation:
A Leader Fellow serves in a leadership role for a defined one-year period as part of a structured development pathway. Fellows are expected to perform the full duties and responsibilities of the role while receiving targeted coaching and mentorship from a senior leader. The designation signals a developmental appointment focused on building leadership capacity while maintaining full accountability for role outcomes. After the one year period, the goal of the fellowship is that the person is able to assume a leadership role at FirstLine Schools, so long as there is a position available.
Position Responsibilities:
The Fellow will be placed at a FirstLine School in a support capacity, partnering with school and network leaders to assist in advancing academic achievement and strengthening school culture. The Fellow will support the work of the School Director, School Principals, Assistant Principals, and Network Leaders by contributing to key initiatives, providing instructional and operational support, and helping to execute established priorities. Responsibilities include the following:
Instructional Leadership
- Ensures high achievement through a rigorous curriculum aligned to state and Common Core standard
- Systematically uses formative assessment data, continually improving instruction, and layers of learning support
- Develops and coaches small school staff; teachers and leaders to ensure that the achievement of all students is increased
- Ensures strong lesson plan preparation, high quality classrooms and routines and strong teaching strategies
- Ensures all students receive personalized learning and strong academic services
- Teaches a class or models teaching to staff (school leaders at FirstLine may be asked to cover a class or teach a class)
Cultural Leadership
- Ensures all faculty, students, and parents are aligned with the school’s mission, vision and values and the FirstLine Commitments
- Models the values and commitments consistently and ensures leaders are developed to model these values
- Ensures their small school is realizing the vision for student culture and family relationships that are joyful, warm and hold high expectations.
- Motivates and inspires action, commitment, and initiative while managing continual change and improvement
- Models to all staff, students and parents the key mindsets that are the core of the FirstLine way: urgency and effective effort, growth mindset, self awareness and personal development, welcoming feedback, effective communications, and relationship building.
- Builds a culture of trust where productive conflict can thrive
- Delegates as appropriate to better achieve school goals and develop others
- Ensures clarity of job design for all lower school staff
- Recruits and selects talented team members
- Provides high quality professional development
- Manages the performance of all teachers and staff and sets clear expectations
Strategic Leadership
- Communicates the school’s vision and goals
- Sets strategies to achieve goals
- Regularly reviews progress, and adapts as needed
Other duties as assigned
Education & Experience:
- Demonstrated record of success raising test scores in an open-admissions urban school
- At least five years experience as a teacher in an open-admissions urban school teaching
- At least two years of leadership in an open-admissions, urban school, with experience in developing instructional expertise
- Record of success in leading adults; experience with management and supervision
- Knowledgeable about Common Core Standards and aligned instruction
- Solid grounding and experience with primary curriculum and instruction (expertise in reading is preferred)
- Leadership experience with significant areas of responsibility, preferably in a high-performing urban public school
- Be proficient in using data in the decision-making process
- Preferred, but not required: MA, MBA or Med
Desired Qualities & Characteristics:
- Believe in every student’s ability to achieve in a rigorous college or career prep curriculum
- Achieve results based on agreed-upon expectations
- Take personal responsibility
- Highly detail-oriented
- Models a team player mindset and willing to jump in as needed to support the school
- Collaborate effectively with a range of stakeholders
- Share a commitment to creating great schools in New Orleans
- Strong written and verbal communication skills
- Model the FirstLine Commitments and school values
Physical Requirements:
Must be able to perform all required job functions with reasonable accommodations, if necessary.
SCHOOL PRINCIPAL reports to: School Director
How to Apply: Please apply online via: http://www.firstlineschools.org/careers
Salary is competitive and commensurate with experience. FirstLine Schools offers a comprehensive benefits package with a generous 403b plan.
FirstLine Schools provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, marital status, amnesty, or status as a covered veteran in accordance with applicable federal, state and local laws.
About FirstLine Schools
Mission & Vision
Our Mission
The mission of FirstLine Schools is to create and inspire great, open admissions public schools in New Orleans
Our Vision
Our schools will prepare students for college, fulfilling careers, and a healthy life by nurturing students in mind, body, and spirit.
Why FirstLine Schools?
We Believe In:
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Deeply Committing to Teacher Support and Growth
- FirstLine recruits and retains a diverse group of teachers who hold high expectations for their students and strive to create joyful classrooms where students are responsible for doing the majority of thinking, writing, and discussion in class.
- FirstLine teachers receive weekly coaching and lesson feedback from a school-based instructional coach and also participate in network-wide bi-weekly Professional Learning Time.
- FirstLine teachers are developed over their career using our “Vision of Excellence” classroom teaching rubric.
- FirstLine has instituted a teacher career pathway that focuses on our commitment to developing teacher skillfulness. Teachers have access to increased teacher leadership opportunities and compensation as they grow.
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Working to Becoming an Antiracist Organization
- FirstLine’s commitment to doing what is right for kids is rooted in doing the necessary work of deeply examining policies, procedures, and practices to ensure we are working toward dismantling the effects of systemic racism on our students.
- FirstLine partners with Overcoming Racism, an organization that seeks to build more equitable institutions through comprehensive race and equity training, which benefits all staff, and through us, our students, and their families.
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Focusing on Social / Emotional Learning and Community Building
- FirstLine is committed to training teachers in trauma-informed approaches that nurture supportive and caring relationships as the foundation of positive culture, enabling teachers to de-escalate behaviors and thus reduce suspensions.
- FirstLine’s signature program, Edible Schoolyard New Orleans (ESYNOLA), teaches children and adults to make healthy connections through food and the natural world. Hands-on garden and culinary / nutrition education classes have provided FirstLine students with social/emotional learning opportunities since we built the first school garden at Samuel J. Green School in 2006 immediately following Hurricane Katrina. Through this work, students learn respect for life, the power of personal choice, and the value of community.
- FirstLine is implementing the Valor Collegiate Academies’ social/emotional learning curriculum, involving staff and student individual personal storytelling and reflection work and community circles.
- We are committed to innovation, to constant assessment, and to making the thousands of small changes needed to keep improving our practice.
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Creating a Sense of Belonging
- FirstLine aims to create school environments that are nurturing and supportive for students, families, and staff of all races, socioeconomic status, and abilities to ensure inclusive, safe, and brave spaces where people can show up as their whole selves.
- At FirstLine, we live by these Commitments:
- I commit to my own and others’ development.
- I commit to listening and understanding.
- I commit to speaking with honesty and respect.
- I commit to doing what it takes to serve others.
- I commit to keeping myself and others safe in mind, body, and spirit.
- I commit to bringing my personal joy to our work.
- I commit to holding myself and others accountable.
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Striving for Academic Excellence
- FirstLine fosters a culture of academic excellence and intellectual curiosity through instruction that meets the learning needs of every student. A FirstLine education helps students develop the academic skills and character strengths needed to succeed in school and in life.
- We set expectations high for our students and develop teachers to have the will and skill to help them meet these expectations.
- FirstLine aspires to offer classes that are rigorous, engaging, and joyful, where students drive most of the thinking and discussion, and we coach and develop our teachers and leaders to get there.
- FirstLine utilizes culturally relevant curriculum that provides “windows and mirrors.” Our children are more engaged when they see themselves represented through a historically accurate socio-political lens that broadens students’ choices and develops them into justice-oriented, curious, creative global citizens.
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Cherishing Family and Community
- As New Orleans’ oldest homegrown charter school organization founded in 1998, FirstLine was created and always values its deep and long-standing partnerships with families and community-based organizations, churches, and local universities.
- FirstLine partners with Valor Collegiate Academies and Tulane University’s Safe Schools program, a National Institute of Justice initiative, to teach teachers how to incorporate social/emotional learning and trauma-informed practices in their instruction – encouraging relationship building and providing emotional support for students during class, which promotes learning.
- FirstLine engages artists, musicians, writers, and athletic educators to create a rich array of afterschool and summer programs and classes, all of which are free and open to all students.
- FirstLine maintains communication with our families and understands the challenges our families face economically, especially during a pandemic, and works to link families to community resources and social services, working in partnership with Communities in Schools and our team of mental health professionals.