Vacancy Announcement
High School Social Studies Teacher
Long Term Substitute SY 2020-2021: Immediate Opening
Location: New Haven, CT
About Common Ground High School
Common Ground High School is the nation’s longest-running environmental charter high school, founded in 1997. Our 225 students form an inclusive, powerful community of learners and leaders. These students benefit from a unique learning environment: an urban farm and 20-acre site, home to state of the art school facilities, adjacent to West Rock Ridge State Park, and located in the City of New Haven. We strive to create a learning environment grounded in foundational building blocks: rigor, responsive relationships, relevance that’s rooted in the local community and environment, and real roles & rights. Common Ground’s graduation rate consistently surpasses the state average, and between 97 and 100% of our students are accepted to college each year.
Common Ground High School is part of a community nonprofit organization that also operates an urban farm and community environmental education center. As a whole, Common Ground is a center for learning and leadership, inviting people across ages and identities to connect to their urban environment, build community, grow into their full potential, and contribute to a just and sustainable world. We work toward this mission through active, authentic learning rooted in justice and our environment: a farm, in a forest, in a city.
About the Position
We are seeking one passionate, creative, and certified Full-time Social Studies teacher for the 2020-2021 school year.
This teacher will have the opportunity to:
- Teach Common Ground’s Integrated Social Studies classes
- Work with the Core Curriculum team to support students through a culturally relevant integrated curriculum with a focus on social justice.
- Act as a strong team member for Common Ground’s small, dedicated, creative faculty; teaching an elective or supporting instruction in another Common Ground course for one period a day, and acting as teacher or co-teacher for a guidance group (advisory).
This is a full-time, salaried position for the 2020-2021 School Year. The Social Studies Teacher position will be collaborating with three experienced teachers, and an instructional coach. The Social Studies teacher will have the opportunity to work both independently in their own classroom and as part of a strong interdisciplinary team in creating an innovative classroom experience.
We are looking for candidates who demonstrate some or all of the following:
- Experience working directly with racially and economically diverse high school aged young people, and with low income young people and people of color in particular.
- Connecticut teacher certification, or the ability to establish certification for the coming school year.
- Experience and skills teaching, providing one on one support, and building productive relationships with high school age young people.
- The ability to collaborate, communicate, and work effectively within a team that includes multiple teachers and community partners.
- A passion for and experience with work at the intersection of environmental, social, and food justice.
- Knowledge about and passion for working for an organization that is committed to social justice, the dismantling of systems of oppression, and creating a just, equitable, and inclusive culture.
- Creativity, sense of humor, and commitment to collaboration and relationship building
- Excellent communication skills.
- Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience.
We are also excited to consider candidates who have:
- Background in the themes at the center of the Common Ground core: how we meet our basic needs for food and build just food systems, how we survive and thrive as individuals and communities, how we fulfill our potential and create the world we want.
- Background in food systems and justice, sustainable agriculture, environmental education, youth development and community building.
- Experience in trauma-informed work, restorative justice, social emotional learning/literacy.
- Background in experiential, place-based, and/or project-based learning.
- Experience working with Google applications, online course management platforms, and other online learning tools.
How to Apply:
Interested candidates should send a cover letter and resume to Applications@commongroundct.org. We will be reviewing applications as received, until the position is filled.
Equal Opportunity Employer
Common Ground is particularly eager for candidates who can help us to fulfill our commitment to building a racially and culturally diverse faculty and staff. Common Ground has a commitment to examining the intersection of social, environmental, and food justice issues; how systems of oppression, including white privilege, impact the organization’s work; and how resistance to those systems can offer windows into a more sustainable society.
Common Ground is committed to the recruitment and retention of staff that is reflective of the communities we work with. We strongly encourage applicants from people of color, immigrants, women, people with disabilities, members of the LGBTQ community, people whose native language is something other than English, and other underrepresented and historically marginalized groups.
It has been the policy and will continue to be the strong commitment of the Common Ground and all contractors and subcontractors who do business with Common Ground to provide equal opportunities in employment to all qualified persons solely on the basis of job-related skills, ability and merit. Common Ground will continue to take Affirmative Action to ensure that applicants are employed and that employees are treated during employment without regard to their race, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, mental disorder (present or past history thereof) age, physical disability (but not limited to blindness), marital status, intellectual disability, sexual orientation, gender identity and criminal record. Such action includes, but is not limited to, employment, promotion, demotion or transfer; recruitment or recruitment advertising; layoff or termination; rates of pay or other forms of compensation, and selection for training, professional development, attendance at conferences or other opportunities for advancement. Common Ground, its contractors and subcontractors will continue to make good faith efforts to comply with all federal and state laws and policies which speak to equal employment opportunity. The principles of Affirmative Action are addressed in the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments of the United States Constitution, Civil Rights Act of 1866, 1870, 1871, Equal Pay Act of 1963, Title VI and VII of the 1964 United States Civil Rights Act, Presidential Executive Order 11246, amended by 11375, (Non-discrimination under federal contracts)< Act 1, Section 1 and 20 of the Connecticut Constitution, Governor Grasso’s Executive Order Number 11, Governor O’Neill’s Executive Order 9, the Connecticut Fair Employment Practices Law (Sec. 46a-60-69) of the Connecticut General Statutes, Connecticut Code of Fair Practices (46a-7081), Deprivation of Civil Rights (46a-58(a)(d)), Public Accommodations Law (46a-63-64),
Discrimination against Criminal Offenders (46a-80), definition of Blind (46a-51(1)), definition of Physically Disabled (46a-51(15)), definition of Intellectual Disability (46a51(13)), cooperation with the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities (46a-77), Sexual Harassment (46a-60(a)-8), Connecticut Credit Discrimination Law (360436 through 439), Title I of the State and Local Fiscal Assistance Act of 1972. This Affirmative Action Policy Statement re-affirms Common Ground’s commitment to equity in the workplace and the principles of Equal Employment Opportunity
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