FILLED-Common Ground is Seeking a Specialist, Culture and Climate

Common Ground High School

Specialist, Culture and Climate (Full-time)

About the Position

We are seeking an engaging and analytical Specialist, Culture and Climate  to join our team for the 2021-2022 School Year (Certified position).

Candidates should possess prior experience developing and/or managing student culture systems using restorative practices, and shaping a positive school wide climate by supporting students, educators, and families. Candidates should have prior teaching experience and hold a valid teaching certification in CT in any content area (or aligned experiences that could lead to a CT teaching certification).

The  Specialist, Culture and Climate will lead the school’s culture team to develop a positive and productive culture of learning through the development and implementation of a robust behavior management system.  This position is supervised by the Assistant School Director and will work closely with instructional staff, families, and students. 

This is a 10 month position on the Common Ground High School Teacher Salary Scale, with compensation commensurate with education and experience. 

The Responsibilities of the Specialist, Culture and Climate are as follows: 

Positive School Wide Culture and Climate:

• Set and attain ambitious annual goals to build a positive and POWERful school wide culture of pride, ownership, wonder, effort and respect

• Further Common Ground’s commitment to fostering strong, responsive relationships by bringing together students, staff, and families to celebrate positive contributions, heritage, and accomplishments of community members

• Lead the culture team in maintaining safe, welcoming, and productive spaces during the academic day by monitoring classrooms, arrival, dismissal, hallways and gathering spaces to set a positive school culture

• Provide professional development, resources and coaching to staff on topics such as trauma-informed practices, de-escalation, classroom management and culture

Restorative Practices:

• Design and implement a positive behavior management system that uses data to develop both proactive interventions and restorative responses to behavioral incidents

• Maintain a system for family communication, engagement, and participation in shaping behavioral and attendance plans, contracts, and initiatives

• Manage system for peer and student/faculty mediations, restorative conferences and circles to resolve conflict and build positive relationships

• Develop supportive relationships with various stakeholders, including students, teachers, and families

• Use trauma-informed strategies to help students build social/emotional skills

• Work closely with social workers and members to the culture team to support students in crisis

Data Analysis:

• Develop and maintain systems for collecting and tracking accurate safety and student behavioral data

• Analyze data to share with stakeholders and inform schoolwide decisions about approaches to attendance, restorative practices, family engagement, etc.

• Create and present formal reports on school culture and safety, as requested.

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