About KIPP

Together with families and communities, KIPP creates joyful, academically excellent schools that prepare students with the skills and confidence to pursue the paths they choose—college, career, and beyond—so they can lead fulfilling lives and build a more just world. KIPP is a national network of tuition-free, public charter schools open to all students. There are 255 college-preparatory KIPP schools in 20 states and the District of Columbia, serving more than 100,000 students. Nationally, KIPP students are graduating four-year colleges at three times the national average for low-income students.

About KIPP Albany Community Public Charter Schools

KIPP Albany Community Public Charter Schools (KIPP Albany) is a network of high-performing public schools that has been committed to creating joyful, academically excellent schools in Albany since 2005.  KIPP Albany is affiliated with KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) Public Schools, a national network of over 10,000 educators serving 160,000 students and alumni. For the 2021-2022 school year, KIPP Albany schools will serve over 1,600 students in grades K-8 and will employ more than 225 staff.  We are committed to furthering anti-racism, equity, and racial justice in all our efforts, and expect all of our stakeholders to participate in this work so that we can create a future without limits for our students, together.

Further regional growth is on the horizon with the Troy Prep K-12 schools planning to join the KIPP Albany network (new name TBD) at the start of the 2022-23 school year. Serving over 2,500 students in grades K-12 at seven schools across the Capital Region will allow increased curriculum offerings for students, professional development for staff, and enhanced family and community partnerships.

ABOUT TROY PREP HIGH SCHOOL

Troy Prep currently manages three schools serving students in grades K through 12. Troy Prep High opened in 2017 and serves 9th-12th grade.  We believe in strong authentic relationships between teachers and students, supported by effective school systems and an engaging instructional model that enables students to flourish academically and personally. Troy Prep schools are consistently some of the city’s top-performing, with our graduates going on to attend top tier colleges and universities.

The principal is the primary school leader responsible for driving academic and character outcomes for students with the main focus being on instructional leadership and development of school educators to improve their instruction and drive student achievement.  This role will be responsible for both leading the current high school while simultaneously being a key designer in the launch of an expanded co-ed high school.

 DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES

• Oversee, lead, and communicate the vision that informs the school’s culture, goals, and behavior management.

• Set ambitious school-wide vision and goals, aligned with the KIPP region, that lead students on a path to and through college.

• Manage and develop a strong school leadership team (including Assistant Principals, Deans of Students, Instructional Coaches, Special Education Coordinators, and College Counselors) that supports teachers and staff to provide strong student outcomes.

• Partner with the school’s Director of Operations to effectively co-lead the instructional and operational goals of the school.

• Lead, problem-solve, and make determinations for school-wide issues in a solution-focused manner.

• Plan and prioritize time and resources to meet and achieve goals timelines.

• Model expectations for leaders, teachers, and students on school-wide practices for a positive learning culture, including pursuing challenging professional goals, open to receiving constructive feedback to develop and continually model a leadership style of excellence.

• Cultivates and maintains collaborative relationships with internal and external business partners and stakeholders.  

• Establish and maintain an effective, collaborative team of people jointly responsible for the attainment of school goals and committed to achieving excellence.

• Represent the district, region, or school in workgroups or projects as assigned.

• Develop and implement an integrated plan of services that meets the academic, recreational, emotional, cultural, health, and spiritual needs of the employees, students, and families.

• Responsible to manage and reduce risk in the area(s) of responsibility and reporting it if it is outside of the area(s) of responsibility or seeking assistance when needed to resolve the matter.  

• Assures health and safety risks are controlled or removed.

• Responsible for building and cultivating a diverse, lasting, and sustainable organization by developing a high potential pipeline of future School Leaders and creating systems for the ongoing development of school staff by teaching and insisting that they are true owners of the work and coaching and assigning stretch activities.

• Collaborate with Talent and HR, build systems, structures, and partnerships to recruit, hire, manage, grow and retain diverse and high achieving employees that adhere to organizational guidelines.

• Coach, mentor and support employees to be accountable for performance expectations and follow through with organizational protocols and procedures

• Develop own and school staff’s knowledge and expertise in effective instructional design and academic standards to provide rigorous and high-quality instruction.

• Continually monitor progress on all measures of school and staff performance. Timely address employee’s performance expectations by holding team members accountable to the behavior and performance management system and school expectations.

• Lead analysis of and develop teachers’ ability to analyze student data to identify strategies that will move students toward mastery. Document all feedback and observations within the schoolwide tracking system.

• Regularly observe and coach instructional leaders to ensure they are providing high-impact, actionable and bite-sized feedback to teachers weekly.

• Ensure teachers can collaborate, analyze their practice and their student data, and adjust instruction in content teams.

• Manage whole-school professional development workshops that drive highest-impact improvements in teacher practice.

• Build systems, structures, and relationships to create equitable, inclusive students, families, and employee environments that honor and support a diversity of backgrounds and perspectives through modeling and facilitating courageous conversations.

• Complies with all federal, state, local laws and regulations

• Adheres to organization policies and procedures; promotes and supports mission, vision, and values including developing and participating in internal surveys and data collection for continuous improvement initiatives.

• Performs other duties as assigned.

CORE COMPETENCIES

• Ability to set direction across an entire school and motivate others to action.

• Proven ability to manage and implement change and continuous improvement initiatives. 

• Act as a positive role model and effectively manage emotions and demonstrate tolerance and empathy.

• Demonstrate an understanding that changing behaviors and habits require repetition and practice. 

• Exhibit patience and flexibility with others and display a high level of social and emotional intelligence.

• Possess excellent management and mentoring skills with a confirmed success in developing leadership capacity in an educational environment.

• Decision making, organizational, and communication skills including attention to detail, oral and written communication skills, and listening and training skills.

• Established computer literacy including but not limited to MS Office Suite and other database systems. 

• Facilitates opportunities to connect with students by being present and available during arrival and dismissal, by appearing at school functions, and by meeting with students.

• Ability to handle confidential and sensitive information with extreme discretion.  

• Manage and implement change and continuous improvement initiatives.  

• Significantly demonstrated project management skills.  

• Outstanding communicator with the ability to resolve conflicts and issues.

• Demonstrated student achievement results by managing and coaching teachers and leaders to excellence.

• Belief that all students, regardless of background, can go to and through college or on to the career of their choosing.

• Resilience, focus, and determination on student outcomes.

• Exhibited commitment to the school’s unique community.

• Adept at data analysis and ability to extract meaningful insights across school-wide data.

• Advanced expertise in school-wide academic standards and state assessments required of students’ knowledge and skills to demonstrate mastery.

• Ability to translate student mastery requirements into instructional plans and strategies. 

• Demonstrated passion for and a commitment to the mission and vision for high-quality public education and the character traits we value: Zest, Grit, Self-control, Hope, Love, Social Intelligence, Gratitude, and a Sense of Humor.

• Deep understanding of appropriate application and differentiation of high-leverage instructional strategies

• Command of instructional design and the benefits and tradeoffs of school design decisions in driving student achievement.

• Demonstrated ability to create inclusive environments that honors and supports a diversity of backgrounds and perspectives.

ELIGIBILITY & REQUIEMENTS

• Bachelor’s Degree required, Master’s preferred.

• At least three (3) plus years of experience as a school principal, preferably in the high school environment, required.

• At least ten (10) plus years in education, preferably in the high school environment, and with progressively increasing responsibilities, required

• Proven ability to influence cross-functional teams in a rapidly changing environment.  

• Must be able to work a flexible schedule outside of regular business hours.

• Ability to create and work within an inclusive environment that honors and supports a diversity of backgrounds and perspectives.

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job.  Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.  

• Prolonged periods sitting at a desk and working on a computer.

• Must be able to access and navigate all areas of the school and other facilities as needed. 

• Specific vision abilities required by the job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and the ability to adjust focus.

• The employee needs to be able to read, write and speak English fluently.  

• While performing the duties of this job, the employee is required to stand, walk, sit, use fingers to type, handle or feel objects, tools or controls, reach with hands and arms, climb stairs, balance; stoop/bend and reach, kneel, crouch or crawl; talk, hear.  

• Dexterity to write and operate standard office machines such as computers, printers, copiers, fax machines, phones, and calculators is required.   

• Ability to occasionally lift and/or move up to 20 pounds.

Compensation Range is $114,000 - $126,000, commensurate with experience, and includes benefits.

KIPP Albany Community Public Charter Schools is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, sexual preference, national or ethnic origin, age, disability, pregnancy, or veteran status