Education Specialist

Summary

This position is located in Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. If you have any questions regarding the area or the duties of this position, please contact Geoffrey Avery at geoffrey_avery@nps.gov or 906-387-2607.

Open to the first 50 applicants or until 05/20/2024 whichever comes first. All applications submitted by 11:59 (EST) on the closing day will receive consideration.

Duties

This is a Career-Seasonal position and subject to release and recall procedures. A permanent career-seasonal position includes all the benefits of permanent employment but does not provide employment on a full year-round basis. As such, selectee will be in a non-pay/non-duty status for at least 2 weeks to 6 months per year based on project requirements or weather conditions. Selectee are guaranteed to work at least 6 months per year but not more than 50 weeks per year, with the work schedule to be determined upon appointment. The typical season for Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore is March thru November but can be variable during these months due to project requirements or weather conditions.

Major Duties: This position will supervise seasonals and interns. Program Lead and Day-To-Day Management - Teaches and oversees the day-to-day operations of the park's education program. Coordinates the development, implementation, and evaluation of interdisciplinary curriculum-based education programs for school groups to meet the Michigan State Standards and support place-based education in a nearshore Great Lakes environment. The programs contain pre-site, field visit, and post-site components. Collaborates with professional educators to ensure that materials meet the needs of the park and the schools. Evaluates and selects the appropriate instructional methodology for all preK-12th grade programs.

Schedules, plans, and leads professional development or teacher workshops that trains on curriculum and prepares educators to bring their classes to the park, and to help teachers prepare and present programs about park and Great Lakes resources to their students.

The incumbent maintains partnerships with different agencies and groups such as U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Michigan State University - Extension to support interagency curriculum-based programming. The incumbent also oversees youth-based community engagement and outreach programs either on or off site. Maintains and inventories and makes recommendations for purchases of program supplies and equipment.

Physical Demands: Work responsibilities require occasional heavy lifting, strenuous periods of walking, hiking and snowshoeing on rough, uneven trails throughout the park for distances of two miles or more, long periods of standing or sitting and working in sometimes harsh weather conditions of snow, cold, wind, rain, heat and humidity. Working in close contact with large groups of children can increase the risk of communicable diseases. Work requires the operation of a motor vehicle, including driving in snowy and icy conditions. The job can be stressful due to multiple priorities, weather, and safety issues of working with groups of minors.

Work Environment: Work is performed in an adequately lighted and climate-controlled office as well as in the field. Office work will require the ability to sit for extended periods of time working at a computer. Field work involves regular and recurring outdoor exposure to moderate risks and discomforts associated with the visiting remote park sites including deep snow, temperatures that can drop below zero, and temperatures that can exceed 90 degrees during the summer months. Winter programming is the main focus of the park's education program. The park receives 200 inches of snow a year, much of it comes as lake-effect blowing snow causing white-out and blizzardlike conditions. Driving to park sites, schools and partner sites in winter means driving up to two hours each way on snow-packed and icy roads.

Area Information: Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore is located in Michigan's Upper Peninsula on the south shore of Lake Superior between the communities of Munising (population 2,500). The duty station for this position is Munising. Amenities in Munising include basic shopping, medical facilities, and K-12 schools. Basic shopping and medical facilities are available in Munising. Summers are generally warm and pleasant. The winter season may extend from October to May and is often characterized by cold temperatures and seasonal snowfall in excess of 140 inches. The area is rich in outdoor sporting activities including hunting, fishing, hiking, boating, biking, camping, and skiing.

Requirements

Conditions of Employment

• U.S. Citizenship required.
• Appointment subject to background investigation and favorable adjudication.
• Meet Selective Service Registration Act requirement for males.
• Complete the initial online assessment and USAHire Assessment, if required.
• Selectee will be required to participate in the Direct Deposit Electronics Funds Transfer Program.
• Any individual who is currently holding, or has held within the previous 52 weeks, a General Schedule position under non-temporary appointment in the competitive or excepted service, must meet time-in-grade requirements (must have served 52 weeks at the next lower grade or equivalent in the Federal service); with few exceptions as outlined in 5 CFR 300.603(b). Time-In-Grade requirements also apply to former Federal civilian employees applying for reinstatement who have had a break in service of less than one year, as well as current employees applying for Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 (VEOA) appointments. Time-in-grade does not apply to new excepted service appointments. Time-in-grade requirements must be met by the closing date of this announcement.
• You may be required to operate a government (or private) motor vehicle as part of your official duties.
• You will be required to wear a uniform and comply with the National Park Service uniform standards. A uniform allowance will be provided.
• You may be required to work evenings, weekends, holidays, and occasional overtime.
• If you are a new permanent employee in the Federal government, you will be required to complete a one-year probationary period.
• You may be required to travel overnight away from home. You must obtain a government charge card for travel purposes.
• You may be required to complete training and obtain/maintain a government charge card with travel and/or purchase authority.
  
  
  

Qualifications

All qualifications must be met by the closing date of this announcement-05/20/2024-unless otherwise stated in this vacancy announcement.

Credit will be given for all appropriate qualifying experience. For current Federal employees, if hours worked per week are not included on your resume, you must submit a non-award SF-50 as part of your application to be used to validate your work schedule and determine the amount of specialized experience that you will be granted. An award SF-50 will not be acceptable documentation for which to consider your amount of qualifying experience. For all other applicants who are not current federal employees, your resume must state either "full-time" (or "40 hours a week") or "part-time" with the number of hours worked per week to ensure proper crediting of specialized experience.

For periods of time that reflect military service, the DD-214 or Statement of Service is sufficient to meet the full and/or part-time hours requirement as the service dates will be reflected.

Basic Requirements for Educational and Training Series 1701.All applicants must meet at least one of the following Office of Personnel Classification and Qualification Standard, individual occupational requirement (IOR), basic requirement of the General Education and Training Series, 1701.

EDUCATION: Have successfully completed a full 4-year course of study in an accredited college or university leading to a bachelor's or higher degree that included or was supplemented by major study in education. NOTE: 24 semester hours will be considered as equivalent to a major field of study. NOTE: You must submit transcripts. -OR-

COMBINATION OF EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE: Including courses in education, plus appropriate experience or additional course work that provided knowledge comparable to that normally acquired through the successful completion of the 4-year course of study described in A above.

NOTE: You must submit transcripts.- AND -In addition to IOR basic education requirement, to qualify for this position at the GS-9 grade level, you must possess at least one of the following minimum qualifications by close of the announcement:

EXPERIENCE: At least one full year of specialized experience comparable in scope and responsibility to the GS-7 grade level in the Federal service (obtained in either the public or private sectors). Specialized experience for this position includes duties such as: serving as an advisor in the areas of natural resource management and environmental compliance relating to the protection and preservation of natural resources within a park or field office setting; oversight of the development, internal review and public involvement in the preparation of environmental compliance documentation; and providing technical expertise in all areas related to environmental protection and compliance issues for multiple locations. NOTE: Your resume must include hours per week worked. If you do not, you will be found not qualified if you are using specialized experience to meet the qualifications. -OR-

EDUCATION: Successful completion of at least two years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to a master's degree or equivalent graduate degree in education. You must submit transcripts. NOTE: You must include transcripts. -OR-

Successful completion of a combination of education and experience as described above. Only graduate level education in excess of the amount required for the next lower grade level may be combined with experience. For example, an applicant with 6 months of appropriate experience equivalent to GS-7 (50 percent of the experience requirement for GS-9) and 27 semester hours of appropriate graduate education (50 percent of the education requirement for GS-9, in excess of that required for GS-7) would be qualified for a GS-9 position (assuming that there is no evidence that the attended college or university requires more than 18 semester hours as equivalent to a year of graduate study). You must submit transcripts. You must include transcripts.

Volunteer Experience: Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religious; spiritual; community, student, social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience.

Education

To qualify based on education, you must submit a legible copy of transcripts from an accredited institution with your name, school name, credit hours, course level, major(s), and grade-point average or class ranking. Transcripts do not need to be official, but if you are selected for this position and you used your education to qualify, you must provide official transcripts before you begin work.

If you are using education completed in foreign colleges or universities to meet qualification requirements, you must show that your education credentials have been evaluated by a private organization that specializes in interpretation of foreign education programs and such education has been deemed equivalent to that gained in an accredited U.S. education program; or full credit has been given for the courses at a U.S. accredited college or university.

Additional information

A selectee receiving a first appointment to the Federal Government (Civil Service) is entitled only to the lowest step of the grade for which selected. The display of a salary range on this vacancy shall not be construed as granting an entitlement to a higher rate of pay.

A Relocation Incentive May Be Authorized for a Federal employee when the employee must move, as directed by the National Park Service (NPS) either through a management directed reassignment or selection for employment, to a different location at least 50 miles away from the one where his/her position of record held at time of selection is currently located, due to a need of the NPS. A relocation incentive is not the same as a Permanent Change of Station (PCS) move and, as such, may be granted in conjunction with one another.

This announcement may be used to fill additional positions if identical vacancies occur within 90 days of the issue date of the referral certificate.

Promotion to the full performance level is neither guaranteed nor implied and will be based solely on your ability to satisfactorily perform the work of the position, existing work at the higher grade level, and recommendation by the position's supervisor.

Reasonable Accommodation (RA) Requests: If you believe you have a disability (i.e., physical or mental), covered by the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as amended, that would interfere with completing the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments, you will be granted the opportunity to request a RA in your online application. Requests for RA for the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments and appropriate supporting documentation for RA must be received prior to starting the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments. Decisions on requests for RA are made on a case-by-case basis. If you meet the minimum qualifications of the position, after notification of the adjudication of your request, you will receive an email invitation to complete the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments, based on your adjudication decision. You must complete all assessments within 48 hours of receiving the URL to access the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments, if you received the link after the close of the announcement. To determine if you need a RA, please review the Procedures for Requesting a Reasonable Accommodation for Online Assessments here: https://help.usastaffing.gov/Apply/index.php?title=Reasonable_Accommodations_for_USA_Hire

Documentation for the Land Management Workforce Flexibility Act (LMWFA) eligibility, submission of ALL SF-50s and performance information for each period of temporary/term employment that qualifies for LMWFA. Performance documentation can be obtained by contacting the supervisors for the positions you served in during your 24 months. If they did not complete performance appraisals ask them to provide a statement of performance for each period of service. The statement must specify the dates for each employment period and your level of performance (dates should match the dates on the SF-50s).

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Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

N8391 Sand Point Road

Munising, MI 49862

US