2024-2025: Elementary School Principal

Bricolage Academy is searching for an Elementary School Principal/Elementary School Principal in Training

About Bricolage

Bricolage is a New Orleans charter school that started in 2013 with a Kindergarten and has grown by adding one grade each year. We now serve preK - 8th grade students.

Bricolage has a mission of advancing educational equity by preparing students from diverse backgrounds to be innovators who change the world. We bring together students and families who ordinarily wouldn't come together to create a new community that fosters creativity, belonging and a place where children can embrace their unique greatness to pursue the life of their dreams.

Bricolage is a diverse community, but we are committed to being an anti-racist one. This means devoting time to understand what racism is, exploring how it manifests, and taking actions to dismantle it. Also, Bricolage's diversity is not itself an end. Rather, we believe our diversity is a means to amplifying empathy, advancing equity and facilitating creativity and innovation.

Specifics about the Role

Position Title: Elementary School Principal

Reports To: CEO

Direct Reports:

• Elementary School Directors of Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment (3)

• Elementary School Directors of Culture (1)

• Co-curricular Teachers (4)

Vision for the role:

The Principal sets the vision for the academic and cultural model of the school and communicates and builds investment in that vision among staff, students and families. The principal is a living model of all that we value at Bricolage, and should be viewed as a standard bearer for academic, culture and school life.

Function / Bucket

Responsibilities

Develop and continuously improve academic model

• Ensure (and is ultimately responsible for) continuous improvement of student outcomes

• Create strategic vision for school academic model, ensuring that it incorporates evidence-based best practices, aligns curriculum, instruction, and assessments, meets state, federal, and college/career standards and requirements, and meets the needs of all students

• Ensure continuous improvement of the academic model, informed by ongoing analysis of student performance data and input from school leaders

• Decide on innovative approaches to incorporate into academic model

• Anticipate challenges related to the academic model and proactively provide solutions

Build a culture focused on academic achievement and equity

• Define and promote a strong academic culture centered on college, career, and civic readiness (aligned with the academic model) throughout the organization

• Promote educational equity as a guiding principle across school, and ensures it is reflected in curriculum, instruction, classroom management and program offerings and design

• Determine approach to drive educational equity across the school

Student supports (Academic, Behavioral, Social, Emotional)

• Ensure that school model includes an effective tiered system of supports to meet the needs of all students, including special populations (e.g., special education, ELL)

• Define how academics team incorporates practices and approaches that support students’ social and emotional development

• Ensure that students know the behavior expectations and are held accountable for meeting them

• Form & maintain authentic and caring relationships with students and families

• Approve all out of school suspensions

Resource alignment

• Distribute funding, staff, and tools to ensure that chief priorities of academic model are accomplished successfully

Talent management

• Create a culture that encourages top talent from diverse backgrounds and identities to seek out challenging roles, build relationships with them, and work to support and retain them

• Determine performance standards for program staff

• Support implementation of performance evaluation system across team, ensuring key competencies for effective instructional delivery are appropriately assessed In area of focus

• Approve offer letters for all school based staff

• Lead staff discipline and dismissal meetings

Professional development

• Set vision for instructional staff professional development program

• Ensure professional development for instructional staff supports implementation of academic model and drives improvement of student outcomes

• Project future academic performance trends and needs, and uses data to inform continuous improvement of professional development

• Guide school leadership team to deliver feedback and manage hard conversations

Qualifications

Required

• Strong belief in the Bricolage Academy mission, vision and core values

• Strong belief in and commitment to diverse, equitable, and inclusive educational access and equitable outcomes

• Strong belief in and commitment to the city of New Orleans

• Bachelor’s degree

• Deep understanding of Common Core standards

• Demonstrated success raising student achievement

• At least 4 years of teaching experience

  • With demonstrated use of culturally responsive teaching strategies

• At least 2 years of school leadership experience that includes

  • Coaching teachers around Common Core standards aligned instruction & building and maintaining a strong, positive classroom culture

  • Planning and leading PD

  • Leading the collection of, analysis of, and action planning around student performance data

  • Writing Common Core standards aligned curriculum or leading the implementation of Common Core aligned scripted curriculum

  • Identifying evidence based approaches to building and maintaining a safe, inclusive, equitable, supportive, and joyful classroom and school community

Preferred

• Has designed and led the implementation of school culture policies, systems, structures, & routines - meeting cycles, form & templates, tracking mechanisms, communication, evaluations, etc.

• Has coached mid level leaders

• Has attended Standards Institute as a teacher or leader

• Has attended Good to Great Institute as a teacher or leader

• Has completed a formal school leadership training program (Leading Educators, New Leaders for New Schools, Relay NPAF, KIPP Leadership Fellowship, Uncommon Impact, etc.)

People of color strongly encouraged to apply. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.

Bricolage Academy does not discriminate in employment on the basis of race, religious creed, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, marital status, sex, gender or gender identity, age, sexual orientation, or any other status protected by applicable federal, state or local law.