The Executive Director has overall management responsibility for the Milwaukee program and is charged with leading a community of New Leaders principals to drive dramatic student achievement gains, serving as the primary Development Officer for the Milwaukee program and creating and executing strong operational processes to ensure we reach our organizational goals. The Executive Director will also work closely in partnership with the Superintendent and leadership of Milwaukee Public Schools to impact local and state policy and practice to promote the success of all schools in Milwaukee.
To that end, the Executive Director manages both internal and external constituents by building a coalition that can work together to focus on school leadership and high levels of student achievement. The Milwaukee team provides support to our New Leaders Assistant Principals and Principals and manages fundraising, program delivery, and other city responsibilities. The Executive Director is supported by the Chief Officer for Cities and Policy, a Regional Director, National staff members, a community of peer Executive Directors, the New Leaders Executive Team and the broader New Leaders community.
Whether serving as visionary and strategist, chief instructional officer, fundraiser, or coalition-builder, the primary goal of the Executive Director is to do no less than impact a school system and a city/region in partnership with Milwaukee Public Schools. To accomplish this goal, the Executive Director is responsible for:
• Creating and executing the overall short and long term strategy to ensure success at reaching local goals, focused on building an educational system that promotes high levels of academic achievement for all students.
• Developing and implementing an initiative to lead systemic reform of the principalship based on MPS’ long-term goals with the ultimate goal of creating conditions necessary for student and school success.
• Ensuring long-term sustainability of the Milwaukee program by developing and executing short and long-term strategies to secure funding for the program. This will include but is not limited to identifying, soliciting, and cultivating corporate, foundation and individual prospects as well as public funding opportunities.
• Effectively and efficiently building and leading a team that includes some of the best school leadership experts in the area as well as talented team members in other areas to fulfill the program’s mission.
• Building a broad coalition that brings together key constituents (MPS leadership and other education advocates, government, business, philanthropic and community leaders) throughout the area to work together to transform policies, structures, and practices in the service of increasing student achievement.
• Serving as a strategist and consultant directly to education leaders within Milwaukee Public Schools, and supporting MPS leaders in developing policies and practices which directly impact the success of schools and school leaders.
To reach this vision over time, the Executive Director will focus on the near term priorities of increasing student achievement in every New Leaders school through the following operational responsibilities:
• Developing and consistently improving the quality of the partnership with the local school system, in order to ensure that New Leaders have efficient access to principal positions; and meeting any other district and charter partnership goals related to the success of New Leaders Assistant Principals and Principals.
• Identifying district policies that if successfully implemented will transform the principalship and dramatically impact student achievement.
• Working with MPS to refine and align district policies regarding principal management, support and evaluation.
• Raising all funds necessary to execute the New Leaders for New Schools program in Milwaukee including serving as the lead with staff support to develop and implement fundraising strategies to secure support from a diversified portfolio of funders.
• Ensuring that the local program budget reflects local priorities, with a relentless focus on best utilization of financial resources for maximum impact in schools.
• Building a staff culture that reflects a relentless focus on student achievement, operational efficiency and excellence, and ensures that the staff models a culture of belief, honor, respect, honesty, human dignity, and care that we want to see displayed toward students and parents in schools.
• Leading New Leaders to achieve dramatic academic gains in all New Leaders schools, including:
- Devising strategies that ensure superior principal and whole school performance support;
- Building, leading and managing a team of experts to reach optimal performance across all aspects of school excellence;
- Working with staff members to identify key developmental and resource/partnership needs for New Leaders Assistant Principals and Principals and ensuring that these needs are met through effective action across all team members in the service of increasing student achievement; and
- Developing and implementing strategies to build a sense of community among, and maximize the collective efforts of, New Leaders and others in education reform to drive dramatic achievement gains.
• Serving as the primary local public spokesperson for New Leaders for New Schools.
• Building a high-functioning Advisory Board and network of local business, philanthropic, education, and policy leaders to provide support to reach all local program goals.
• Ensuring that New Leaders Residents are certified as school leaders by the state of Wisconsin; negotiate, draft, and finalize all formal agreements with partner universities and the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.
Assisting in the annual evaluation of the New Leaders for New Schools program; review data to track progress toward goals and make local program improvements.
Additional Qualifications:
• Over 10 years of executive-level management experience and a record of achievement in leading teams of people.
• Strong entrepreneurial skills and the ability to establish and build a wide range of key relationships across the education, business, and government sectors.
• Exceptional communication skills (oral and written).
• Experience in K-12 or higher education and strong familiarity with the challenges faced by principals in urban public school districts.
• Passionate commitment to improving public education and the value of leadership in our nation’s public schools.
• District leadership experience a plus.
How to Apply:
Please visit our career website
http://tbe.taleo.net/NA3/ats/careers/jobSearch.jsp?org=nlns&cws=1
Additional information about New Leaders for New Schools can be found at our website: www.nlns.org
Important Application Notes:
If you are planning to apply for more than one position, please specifically address each position you are applying for in your cover letter.
If after submitting materials you decide to apply for an additional position, please re-write your cover letter to reflect this and resubmit. If you do not indicate your interest in a position, you will not be considered for it.
Although we encourage you to apply for any positions you are both interested in and consider yourself qualified for, we ask you to be careful when attaching yourself to more than one requisition.
Your cover letter should include:
• An explanation of your interest in the New Leaders for New Schools mission
• An explanation of your interest in the position for which you are applying
• An explanation of anything unusual in your resume (more than one year employment lapse or a major shift in your career interest)
New Leaders for New Schools is an equal opportunity employer. New Leaders for New Schools evaluates applicants for employment on the basis of qualifications, merit and work-related criteria without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, sexual orientation, mental or physical disabilities, pregnancy, childbirth, medical condition, marital status or any other characteristic protected by law.
