FILLED- Common Ground is Seeking a Charter School Assistant Director

Common Ground Charter School – Assistant Director

About Common Ground High School

Common Ground High School is the nation’s longest-running environmental charter high school, founded in 1997. Our 230 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 an Assistant School Director to join our team for the 2021-2022 School Year.  Candidates should possess CT Intermediate Administrator certification (092), and prior documented experience in educational leadership.  This is a 12 month position with a salary in the ED Salary Band. Placement within that band will be aligned to prior experience in a Director level role and the level of supervision assigned to the role. 

Common Ground anticipates all students and staff to be fully in person for the 2021-2022 school year.

The Assistant School Director is part of Common Ground’s administrative leadership team and will be under the supervision of the School Director to help direct the school’s strategic plan.  This position will be assigned a portfolio determined by school need and assigned by the school director. In the 21-22 school year the position will focus on supervision and support of the school’s Pathways and Culture & Climate Departments.

Responsibilities of the Assistant School Director are as follows:

Promote student postsecondary access & success 

• Guide the Pathways department to ensure student access and participation in extracurricular opportunities (internships, Green Jobs Corps, community service opportunities, etc.)
• Support the continued development and implementation of the school’s advisory program
• Direct the guidance counseling plan to ensure students meet critical milestones to attain access to college and other post-secondary programs.

Promote student attendance

• Monitor and enforce attendance policies
• Share attendance data with staff
• Communicate with parents as needed
• Make appropriate referrals (SSST, outside agencies, and courts)        

Oversee student discipline

• Facilitate School Climate Committee
• Facilitate multi-year, scaffolded roll-out of a Restorative Justice discipline methodology
• Oversee discipline process: referrals, consequences, documentation, follow-through
• Create ISS schedules
• Monitor and enforce bullying and harassment policies, including retention of appropriate paperwork
• Create and monitor student progress reports
• Create and monitor student behavior plans
• Communicate with parents and staff as needed

Promote school pride and positive school climate

• Help to coordinate and facilitate school-wide PBIS initiatives
• Promote school POWER theme
• Assist Student Affairs Manager with student orientations, school assemblies and other school-related events 

• Ensure supervision of halls/cafeteria/open spaces during student free time

• Assist the Student Affairs Manager with student leadership initiatives

Assist with staff evaluation and development 

• Determine state-required staff professional development topics and ensure calendaring and delivery of staff PD sessions
• Provide mentoring/coaching to supervised staff
• Facilitate the development and evaluations of assigned staff
• Conduct observations and document evidence for select teaching staff

Assist Director with other school activities 

• Assist with  compilation of state attendance and discipline reports
• Assist with maintenance of school calendar
• Assist with recruiting (open houses, interviews, and scheduling visits)
• Other support as needed

Qualifications for this position:

• Deep, unshakable belief in the capacity of all young people to learn and lead.

• Demonstrated commitment and understanding of environmental justice, environmental leadership, anti-racism, and the dismantling of systems of oppression 

• • Proven track record of coaching and supervising teachers and staff, building a strong community of practice among educators. 
  • Demonstrated skill building positive school culture, strong relationships with students and their families.
  • Demonstrated ability to build a productive, positive, and equitable adult culture, and demonstrate exceptional problem solving, communication and emotional intelligence skills

• Prior experience as a teacher and leader in urban public schools; prior experience working in or with charter schools is preferred.

• Connecticut school administrator certification (092), or the ability to obtain this certification.

How to apply

To apply, please send a cover letter and resume to Applications@CommonGroundCT.org. 

In your cover letter, please describe why you are passionate about joining the Common Ground community and how your qualifications and experience fit with the goals and responsibilities of this position. 

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