Middle School Leader

Telra Institute is a charter school in Charlotte, NC focused on advanced learning. We are assembling a high-performing team to work in a novel educational model with a culture that prizes education and esteems educators. Candidates will find a supportive environment and opportunities to excel professionally, intellectually, and financially.

We are looking for a middle-school leader who can help in the formation of Telra Institute's new middle school. Ideal candidates have will have a passion for education the ability to inspire students, and the drive to innovate as an educational entrepreneur. Telra is committed to building a world-class program and we want leaders eager to take on the challenge of building it. Title, compensation, and responsibilities will be commensurate with the experience you bring to Telra, with ample opportunity to grow with us.

Who are we looking for?

• Motivators who bring joy, love, and laughter to staff and students.
• Reflective practitioners who lead with culture and drive with data to personalize learning for all students.
• Responsive leaders of students and adults.
• Problem solvers who see solutions to problems.
• Data geeks who analyze data and loop back to next steps.
• Communicators who value the triad of student, school, and family and go above and beyond to work in partnership.
• Lifelong learners eager to take on the challenge of building a young school and comfortable working in a fast-paced culture.
• Operators who use creativity, discipline, and rigor to achieve results of themselves and others

What does Telra offer?

• Opportunity to work with an empowered, focused, and nimble leadership and instructional leadership team with a novel “no limits” vision for public education.
• Community of students and parents who are “bought in” to a culture of learning and show a strong appreciation for education.
• A strong school culture of improvement with a high-frequency cycle of observation-feedback-coaching plus data-driven instruction.
• Professional development on gifted education, differentiation through Personal Learning Pathways, collaborative teaching, and Telra’s unique curriculum and assessment model.

Essential Responsibilities

• Instructional management
  • Participate in development and evaluation of educational programs.
  • Encourage and support development of innovative instructional programs, helping teachers pilot such efforts when appropriate.
  • Develop the strategy for and promote the use of technology in learning
  • Create and promote a positive, caring climate for learning to support all students and staff at Telra Institute.
  • Deal sensitively and fairly with persons from diverse cultural backgrounds.
  • Develop and implement standards and processes for instructional grouping, grading, and promotion
  • Help plan daily school activities by developing class schedules, annual calendars, teacher assignments
  • Drive the development of extracurricular programs in conjunction with staff and external partners
• People leadership
• Recruit, manage, and evaluate the instructional staff
• Inspire, coach, and develop instructional staff to build an effective team of professionals jointly responsible for the attainment of school goals
• Conduct classroom observations and provide informal constructive feedback to teachers
• Identify individual professional goals and create professional development plans for instructional staff
• Design and conduct evaluations
• Develop a professional development program, select and manage external providers
• Provide leadership and modeling for teachers in instructional practice, including intervention and differentiation, lesson planning, and data analysis
• Policies and Compliance
  • Develop academic, personnel, discipline and other policies and practices as needed for effective school operation
  • In collaboration with the school’s Exceptional Children / Special Education team, identify the need for specialist academic support and develop a plan to address through staff or via external service providers
• Student management
  • Ensure that students are adequately supervised during noninstructional periods.
  • Help to develop a student discipline management system that results in positive student behavior.
  • Ensure that school rules are uniformly observed, and that student discipline is appropriate and equitable.
  • Represent Telra leadership in conferences on student and school issues with parents, students, and teachers.
• School management and culture
  • Be the day-to-day instructional leader of the middle school setting the vision for where the school needs to go academically
  • Develop and manage the academic budget
  • Articulate the school’s mission to community stakeholders and solicit community support in realizing mission.
  • Demonstrate awareness of school-community needs and initiate activities to meet those needs.
  • Use appropriate and effective techniques to encourage community and parent involvement
  • Build collaborative relationships with parents as partners in the education of their children
  • Support fundraising efforts
  • Attend various school and community events and serve as a spokesperson to students, parents, and the community
• Complete other duties as assigned

Education and Qualifications

• Required
• Bachelor’s degree
• Prior teaching experience and/or school administrative credential
• Preferred
• Experience working with gifted/advanced students
• Experience with a classical, knowledge-rich curriculum

Characteristics and capabilities of an ideal applicant

• Attitude
• Demonstrate knowledge about and passion for advanced learners and their education (in gifted programs or other rigorous courses of study)
• Be humble and open to innovate in educational delivery with a commitment to continuous improvement
• Commit to a culture of teamwork, transparency, high expectations
• Have an attitude that is positive, thoughtful, passionate, articulate, motivating, and empowering with students and team members
• Be a highly collaborative, results-oriented, adaptable, and problem-solving self-starter
• Professionalism
• Bring experience working in an entrepreneurial, dynamic school or related demanding environment
• Demonstrate comfort with a wide range of responsibilities, multi-tasking, and energizing a team to execute
• Display excellent written and verbal communication skills with students, staff, and other stakeholders
• Be responsive and able to set and achieve audacious goals
• Have high standards of professionalism for self and others
• Technical literacy
• Be computer savvy, with proficiency in the Microsoft suite
• Be comfortable using technology for data analysis, instruction, and collaboration