Chief Academic Officer

Job Summary: Reporting to the Chief Executive Officer, the chief academic officer (CAO) is responsible for both sustaining and improving the culture of high academic excellence in all Magnolia Public Schools. The school leaders at each school as well as the curriculum and instructional support staff will report directly to the CAO who will have primary authority and accountability for the academic performance of all schools. The CAO provides leadership, vision, and strategic direction for MPS’s curriculum, instruction, assessment and school improvement initiatives overseeing professional development for all school leaders and supervising academic management of the schools.

Job Duties:

• Provide scalable instructional program leadership to all school leaders with specific responsibility for planning, development, implementation, assessment and improvement across all schools.

• Develop and lead principals and school teams in their roles as instructional leaders and site managers.

• Monitor, provide feedback to and evaluate school leaders providing clarity of roles, functions, goals and accountability.

• Determine and implement the MPS’s academic priorities. Review assessment tools on a regular and on-going basis and analyze performance for effectiveness in improving student achievement.

• Assist the CEO in the development of a strategic plan and scalability of the existing instructional model that will ensure excellence and high standards as MPS expands to serve more students.

• Support leadership at schools to ensure high quality implementation of the educational design, including standards, assessments, instructional guidelines, and the school culture.

• Assist school leaders in monitoring and evaluating effectiveness of programs as well as identifying appropriate program resources to ensure that curricula are student-focused and aligned with MPS’s missions, core values, academic standards, and strategic goals.

• Assure that curricula is aligned to national and state standards and help create curricula that allows for efficient and effective lesson planning.

• Regularly observe and evaluate student work through classroom walkthroughs and observations.

• Recruit and train highly qualified incoming school leaders. Develop plans to help capitalize on individual leader strengths as well as plans to help them improve and address areas of potential growth with real time feedback.

• Facilitate collaboration among school leaders and school sites.

• Collaborate with school leaders on hiring of staff when appropriate.

• Assist school leaders with on-boarding of new teachers and staff.

• Support school leaders on creating coherency in culture and routines within the school culture.

• Work with the school leaders to field parent and community concerns, questions and outreach, helping with action plans when necessary.

Job Requirements: Any combination of education and experience which would provide the required knowledge and abilities is qualifying. A typical way to obtain these would be:

• Bachelors degree from an accredited four-year institution, Master’s degree preferred.

• Experience as a principal of a high-performing K-12 school.

• Experience leading high-performing teams and managing staff, while providing constructive feedback and coaching to team members.

• Strong leadership abilities including an encouraging, motivating presence to help with conflict management, team building, mentoring and coaching, goal-setting, prioritization and strategic planning.

The ideal candidate will have a strong understanding of the assigned work, which requires initiative, judgment, discretion, and the ability to make independent decisions within established policies and procedures set forth by the Board of Directors, and Federal, State & County laws, ordinances, and regulations.

Physical Demands and Work Environment: 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. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to sit for long periods of time. In this position, you must be able to lift and/or move up to 50 pounds. This job description should not be construed to imply that these requirements are the only duties, responsibilities, and qualification for this job. Incumbents may be required to follow any additional related instructions, acquire related job skills and perform other related work as required or assigned.

• Charter School acknowledges and agrees that all persons are entitled to equal employment opportunity. Charter School shall not discriminate against applicants or employees on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, gender, gender expression, gender identity, sexual orientation, pregnancy, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, age, marital status, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, military and veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by California or federal law. Equal employment opportunity shall be extended to all aspects of the employer-employee relationship, including recruitment, selection, hiring, upgrading, training, promotion, transfer, discipline, layoff, recall, and dismissal from employment.