2025 Principal (pool)
- Full-time
- Start Date: Next year opening
- Department: School Leadership
Company Description
KIPP
KIPP Public Schools is a network of 280 public charter schools, 15,000 educators and 175,000 students and alumni. While each of our schools is as unique as the community to which it belongs, we are united around a shared promise: Together, A Future Without Limits. You can learn more at www.kipp.org.
WHY TEACH AT KIPP?
At KIPP, we see the gifts in everyone who walks through the doors of our schools - especially our teachers. Their skill. Energy, Love. Their determination. On the good days and on the hard days. So we support our teachers to make the most of those gifts
The KIPP Difference
Respect - For our teachers’ innate talent and desire to learn, for their professional growth, and for the lives they lead beyond our walls. We offer pay and benefits that reflect our appreciation for the invaluable role our teachers play in lighting paths to opportunity for students
Support - As our teachers progress through the day, the year, and their careers, we ensure they always feel the KIPP Team and Family at their backs, with opportunities to lead and support to grow
Purpose - Together, our students, schools, families and communities share an ambitious mission to create a future without limits. We need talented teachers to realize it. Shape the future for your students and yourself by joining us in our work.
KIPP Jacksonville Public Schools
KIPP Jacksonville Public Schools is part of the KIPP national network. Together with families and communities, we create 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.
In the 2025-26 school year, the KIPP Jacksonville region will be comprised of four schools educating 3,000+ students, kindergarten through twelfth grade, in the North and Westsides of Jacksonville, Florida:
- KIPP Impact Academy: Kindergarten – 8th grade
- KIPP VOICE Academy: Kindergarten – 8th grade
- KIPP Bessie Coleman Academy: Kindergarten – 8th grade
- KIPP Bold City High School: 9th - 12th grade
For the current school year, teachers at KIPP Jacksonville Public Schools work the following hours Monday through Friday and may have occasional meetings or special school events outside of these hours. Hours for teachers and students may vary slightly by school.
K-8 Staff: 7:30am - 4:30pm K-8 Students: 8:00am - 3:30pm, Wednesday K-8 dismissal is at 1:30pm
High School Staff: 6:45am - 3:45pm, High School Students: 7:15am - 2:30pm, Wednesday High School dismissal is at 12:30pm.
Every Wednesday is a student early release day, which allows teachers to participate in weekly professional development and content team meetings. *This doesn’t include Wellness Wednesdays when all staff leave at student dismissal.
To support these schools, we will employ approximately almost 300 full-time staff members. We seek educators and colleagues that represent our core values of high expectations, growth mindset, commitment to team, trust, joy, and sustainability. To learn more about what it is like to work and teach at KIPP Jacksonville Public Schools, please visit www.kippjax.org/teach. To see all openings, visit our Regional Job Board.
Job Description
POSITION OVERVIEW
Please note this posting is for the School Principal position “pool” - meaning, while our team has not yet identified openings for this position, we will interview potential candidates for future, possible openings. Priority applications will be considered on a rolling basis from the date the role is posted. Please only apply to this role if you meet the specific requirements outlined at the bottom of the posting.
At KIPP Jacksonville Public Schools, the School Principal’s primary role is to be the instructional leader of their building. The School Principal drives high-quality academic and school environment outcomes for their students and staff. In the event our organization has an opening, we would select a School Principal from the School Principal pool to be a “successor” to a sitting School Principal
The School Principal should spend about 70-75% of their time daily on instructional leadership - specifically, leading and developing their administration team and their teachers to improve outcomes for student achievement. The School Principal builds lasting and sustainable systems for the ongoing development of their team. Typically, a School Principal manages their team of Assistant School Principal a school-based operations leader, school counselors, and other teacher leaders at their school. They report directly to the Chief Schools Officer and work closely with a variety of stakeholders including the shared services team for KIPP Jacksonville, families, etc.
School Principal are vision-setters and are skilled at building a culture for their team that has commitments for social justice and educational equity for all students that mirror the region’s vision and goals.
As a school-based administrator, this position is year-round and performs duties as assigned by their manager. Typical hours for school-based leaders vary Monday through Friday and there may be occasional meetings, special school events, or commitments that fall outside of typical business hours and days.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:
Be the face of the school, its biggest cheerleader and loudest advocate
Set ambitious school-wide vision and goals, aligned with the KIPP region, that lead students to have choice upon graduation
Plan and prioritize time and resources to achieve annual goals
Cultivate a diverse, high-potential school leadership pipeline (from teacher leader to AP to successor) and develop leadership team members by teaching and insisting that they are true owners of the work and coaching and assigning stretch activities
Model expectations for leaders, teachers, and students on school-wide practices for a positive learning culture
Builds a joyful, academically excellent environment
Works to build relationships based in trust with and among all stakeholders
Works to build restorative practices for all stakeholders
Develop systems and structures to hire and retain diverse, highly-effective staff
Work proactively with the talent team to find mission-aligned staff members
Actively retain highly-effective staff and work to build capacity of those in need of improvement
Build own and school staff’s knowledge and expertise in effective instructional design and academic standards
Develop teachers’ conceptual understanding of what students must know and be able to do and what instructional methods drive student mastery
Develop knowledge of how standards map to curriculum and assessment
Develop teachers to provide rigorous and high quality instruction
Lead analysis of and develop teachers’ ability to analyze student data to identify strategies that will move students toward mastery
Regularly observe and coach instructional coaches to ensure they are providing high-impact, actionable and bite-sized feedback to teachers on a weekly basis
Ensure teachers can collaborate, analyze their practice and their student data, and adjust instruction in content teams
Lead whole-school professional development workshops that drive highest-impact improvements in teacher practice
Cultivate School Principal’s own success and sustainability by engaging lifelines and renewing to get stronger
Be a lifelong learner
Be an active member of of the School Principal Team sharing best practices and learning with each other
Qualifications
QUALIFICATIONS/MINDSETS:
Student Focus: Belief that all students, regardless of background, have the ability to go to and through college; demonstrated commitment to the school’s unique community
Direction Setting: Ability to set direction across an entire school and motivate others to action
Performance Management: Demonstrated student achievement results from teachers and leaders that he/she manages and coaches
Talent Development: Demonstrated success in developing leadership capacity in others
Cultural Competence: Demonstrated ability to create inclusive environments that honors and supports a diversity of backgrounds and perspectives
Instructional Leadership: Adept at data analysis; ability to extract meaningful insights across school-wide data
Instructional Leadership: Expertise in what the school-wide academic standards and state assessments require of students’ knowledge and skills to demonstrate mastery; able to translate student mastery requirements into instructional plans and strategies
Instructional Leadership: Deep understanding of appropriate application and differentiation of high-leverage instructional strategies (e.g. engagement, pacing, active monitoring, etc.) based on comprehension of child development and pedagogy
Instructional Leadership: Command of instructional design and the benefits and tradeoffs of school design decisions in driving student achievement
Achievement Orientation: Demonstrated resilience and focus on student outcomes
Persistence - Keeps persevering despite challenges
Solutions-Oriented - Addresses problems from an active posture to find a way or make one
Self-Awareness - Able to diagnose impact of self in various contexts and situations and adjust accordingly
Openness to Feedback - Ability to take feedback while remaining emotionally constant and adjust as needed
REQUIREMENTS
Possesses a deep commitment to both racial and educational equity; supports the building of an organization that reflects the community KIPP serves; holds self and others on team accountable for centering equity
KIPP Jacksonville believes that our staff will represent our core values—high expectations, a growth mindset, commitment to team, trust, joy, and sustainability. We search for established educators who embody them.
Demonstrated ability to drive academic results directly and through others
Demonstrated people leadership, management and coaching experience with a passion for leading adults
A minimum of five (5) years of teaching experience with at least two years of that experience in a grade level chair, content chair, department chair or equivalent teacher leader role
A minimum of four (4) years of experience as an assistant principal or equivalent role
Master’s Degree
HIGHLY PREFERRED
Five (5)+ years of experience as an assistant school principal or equivalent role OR two (2) + years of experience as a school principal or equivalent role
Pathway to certification for administration in Florida
Familiarity with Florida Administrative Code and Florida Statutes pertaining to K-12 schools
COMPENSATION
The starting salary for this role is typically $85,000
Free individual health benefits (including medical, dental and vision)***
Free individual short-term and long-term disability insurance***
403b retirement program with a company match***
Professional development
Offerings are subject to change year to year.
Additional Information
APPLY
Please complete an application and upload a resume via our job board. No applicants will be considered that submit resumes through other job postings. Link to job board here: https://careers.smartrecruiters.com/KIPP/jacksonville
Please note in the application if you have a school preference based on location.
If you're a current KIPP Jax team member, you should:
1) Inform your current manager of your interest in the role and
2) Complete the online application
QUESTIONS
If you have questions about positions at KIPP Jacksonville, please email LaShawnda Anderson at LAnderson@kippjax.org. Please understand that resumes and/or cover letters are not accepted via email and you will be redirected to apply via the website.
KIPP Jacksonville Public Schools is committed to a policy of equal treatment for all individuals applying for employment at our schools. KIPP Jacksonville does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, gender, handicap, age, religion, sexual orientation or national or ethnic origin.