Head of Schools-Houston

Company Description

KIPP Texas Public Schools is a network of 59 public charter, open-enrollment, pre-k-12 schools educating nearly 34,000 students across Austin, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Houston, and San Antonio. Together with families and communities, our mission is to 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.

Founded in Houston in 1994, and operating as KIPP Texas since 2018, our commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and antiracism in our classrooms, in our offices, and in the communities we serve is unwavering. We are looking to hire a diverse team of dynamic, collaborative, and dedicated individuals with an unyielding belief that every child will succeed. Join our Team and Family and champion equity, chase excellence, persist with purpose, bring joy, and help us rise together.

KIPP Texas is part of the national KIPP network of 255 college-preparatory public charter schools in 20 states and the District of Columbia. Nationwide, KIPP students complete four-year college at a rate of 36 percent, comparable to the national average for all students and approximately three times higher than the average of students from low-income communities.

You can see all our job opportunities at https://kipptexas.org/join-our-team/.

Job Description

The Opportunity
 
The Head of Schools is responsible for the overall quality of school programming and maintains a laser-focus on continually increasing the number of students who thrive in and graduate from the college of their choice. They pursue this work through excellent management and development of 4-6  principals and collaboration cross-organizationally with other development, operations, technology, talent, curriculum, and finance leaders. The HOS reports to the Superintendent and serves as an integral member of the KIPP Texas Austin, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Houston, or San Antonio academic leadership team, which is responsible for driving the overall direction and strategy for all KIPP Texas Austin, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Houston, or San Antonio programming. This is an ideal opportunity for a dynamic and visionary organizational leader with significant people management experience to play a critical role in expanding and shaping a premier K-12 charter management organization committed to supporting students to graduate college and succeed in school and life.

RESPONSIBILITIES:
I. Managerial Leadership and Team Development

• Manages 3-5 school principals
• Builds a strong, cohesive team culture that reflects KIPP Texas core values
• Serves as a thought partner to direct reports as they lead their respective teams; coaches and supports direct reports to address their key roles and responsibilities
• Works in collaboration with the Regional Superintendent and Talent Team to hire school principals and assistant principals and execute the organization’s talent strategy in schools including providing best-practice coaching and development, annual goal setting, and succession planning
• Plans and implements professional development for school principals and assistant principals
• Supervises principals in the creation and implementation of effective professional development opportunities for their staff
• Completes bi-annual performance evaluations of direct reports
• Supports the development of assistant principals and successor leaders across all schools

II. Educational Leadership & Academic Support

• Work with principals to implement the academic strategies, all aspects of the talent strategies, and support principals to implement their school priorities in alignment with KIPP Texas vision, mission, and strategic plan
• Collaborates with co-Heads of Schools and centralized Academic Team members to implement academic priorities
• Works with principals to develop and implement long-term plans for curriculum, assessment, and school improvement
• Ensures that the principals have a clear plan for improvement of instruction and school culture
• Engages principals in weekly academic program analysis and progress monitoring
• Manages long-term and annual school planning
• Supports the development of strong school operational systems and processes with a focus on data collection, scheduling, and Special Education programs and services

 
III. KIPP Texas: Leadership

• Participates in their assigned region academic leadership team that oversees the strategy for all KIPP Texas: Austin, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Houston, or San Antonio
• Works with KIPP Texas: Austin, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Houston, or San Antonio academic leadership to develop a vision and comprehensive long-term plan for the design of the schools
• Recommends to the KIPP Texas: Austin, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Houston, or San Antonio Regional Superintendent system-wide goals, monitors and reports back to the Regional Superintendent on the progress toward achieving the goals
• Works with the central office to ensure that all of the operations, technology, talent, and financial needs of the schools are met
• Liaises with external stakeholders, community agencies, donors,  and other third-party constituencies

Qualifications

KIPP Texas: Head of Schools candidates will have the following:

• 3-5 years of experience as a principal in a high performing school serving a similar student population to KIPP Texas: Austin, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Houston, or San Antonio
• An understanding of the specific, unique characteristics of public charter schools, Texas-specific knowledge a plus
• A proven track record of success managing high-performing school leaders to achieve ambitious goals; previous experience supporting the full array of responsibilities and  challenges faced by school principals preferred but not required
• Outstanding leadership and management skills, particularly as it relates to building teams, working through others, promoting collaboration, managing conflict, goal setting, and holding people accountable
• An entrepreneurial spirit and demonstrated success in building a program, department or organization
• The flexibility needed to accommodate the breadth and depth of responsibilities and priorities
• Outstanding written, speaking, and organizational skills including excellence in backwards planning long-term goals, accountability and progress monitoring systems
• Ability to interact with a broad range of stakeholders with different interests and needs
• Deep commitment to improving the lives of students from low-income communities

Additional Information

Compensation and Benefits:

As a full time KIPP Texas employee you are eligible to participate in all KIPP Texas’ benefit plans. KIPP Texas offers a robust variety of benefits choices, including medical, dental, and vision options, as well as life insurance, fertility, and disability plans starting as low as $25/month.