Director of School Operations

Location:         

Georgian Hills Achievement Elementary School

Memphis, Tennessee

About the ASD:

The Achievement School District (ASD) represents an unprecedented effort to improve public education opportunities for Tennessee’s most underserved students. Created with bi-partisan legislation as part of Tennessee’s successful application for Race to the Top funding, the ASD is a statewide organization dedicated to transforming schools currently in the bottom 5% of academic performance to the top 25% within 5 years.  Currently, 68 out of the 85 schools in the bottom 5% are in Memphis, Tennessee.

The ASD acts as both an authorizer of charter schools and an independent school operator – recruiting and supporting high-performing charter school organizations as well as managing schools in our partner communities of Memphis, Nashville, and Chattanooga.

The ASD currently directly operates six schools (“Achievement Schools”) in the Frayser neighborhood of Memphis, in similar fashion to a charter school management organization (i.e. “CMO”).  For more information on the ASD’s mission, please visit www.achievementschooldistrict.org.

Summary of the Director of School Operations position:

The ASD is currently seeking to place a Director of School Operations (“DoSO”) at Georgian Hills Achievement Elementary School.  Reporting both directly to the principal and with a dotted-line to the Senior Director of School Operations, the DoSO plays an integral role on the school’s leadership team, as well as the CMO’s operations support team.

Fundamentally, DoSOs must manage school services in a way that creates an environment for students, teachers, and the rest of the leadership team to focus exclusively on student achievement and growth. An effective DoSO is responsible for the management of the non-instructional aspects of school operation, which include, but are not limited to, finance, procurement, technology, food service, facilities, and student information.  Working as a part of the school’s leadership team, the DoSO has a critical role in building and defining the school culture, strategizing on student recruitment, engaging and motivating staff and other high-level decisions. Additionally, DoSOs are responsible for managing front office staff, school building engineers, cafeteria staff, and all other vendor relationships related to school operations.

DoSOs work closely with the CMO support team, which builds DoSO capacity by providing support, training, and coaching throughout the year (mainly through the Senior Director of School Operations), as well as members of the charter authorizing staff as a part of the larger Achievement School District portfolio. 

The DoSO position offers an exceptional opportunity to develop professionally, to contribute meaningfully to a unique organization, and to develop operations-specific expertise in a wide variety of functional areas.  High performing DoSOs will be strong candidates for future Chief of Operations or Senior Director of School operations roles (either in the ASD or other CMOs).

Responsibilities include but are not limited to:

Budgeting & finance:

• Actively support** the principal in developing a school budget that is accurate, feasible, timely, and aligned with student priorities;
• Recommend necessary budget adjustments, and track planned versus actual expenditures; and
• Oversee adherence to all fiscal policies as governed by district policy, or state and federal law.

** Principals retain final decisions related to the budget, but the DoSO will create, manage and own the budget throughout the year.

Procurement & contracts:

• Ensure school staff has access to materials and supplies they need to effectively instruct students;
• Own school level contract and procurement relationships; service scheduling, implementation, and quality management; communicate regularly with ASD central support team;
• Supervise all auxiliary school services and third party personnel including safety/security, transportation, custodial services, and nutrition service; and
• Conduct purchase request process for all materials, supplies, and equipment.

School site operations:

• Directly manage front office staff and all other non-teacher employees;
• Coordinate information technology services with internal and external providers, including communications systems, support, training, and equipment;
• Ensure compliance on all local, state, and federal health & safety laws and workplace regulations;
• Arrange logistics for special events such as parent nights, field trips, testing, and assemblies; act as the point-person for all on-site visitors; and
• Liaise with Employee Services to ensure that payroll, benefits, and teacher certification are administered effectively to school staff.

Student information & reporting:

• Ensure that student records are properly maintained and updated;
• Coordinate data for state, federal, and grant compliance reporting with ASD central support team;
• Help with logistics and administration of student testing days, and ensure reports are delivered on time; and
• Provide regular data updates and analytics to the Principal and ASD central support team.

Student enrollment & registration:

• Develop a comprehensive enrollment plan (including but not limited to creating marketing materials, planning recruiting events and spearheading community outreach), while ensuring compliance measures for zoned enrollment are met;
• Oversee re-enrollment process for returning students in the Spring of 2014;
• Oversee and plan registration day in July 2014; and
• Ensure school year begins with 100% budgeted enrollment.

Facilities, Food Service, and Transportation:

• Communicate need for renovation, maintenance, and upkeep to the ASD central support team;
• Track and conduct inventory of all school assets and property, and maintain quality of equipment;
• Collaborate with ASD central support team in school space evaluations and capacity planning;
• Manage day-to-day service and personnel issues with vendors and custodial staff; and
• Highlight potential roadblocks to the ASD support team on issues with shared vendors

Education, skills, and qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree from a competitive college or university (MBA preferred but not necessary);
• 3+ years of work experience with a strong background in operational or project management roles
• Experience managing individuals or teams in fast-paced, high-capacity work environments
• Ability to work with financial statements and budgets
• Self-starter who is comfortable with ambiguity and multi-tasking
• Embodies the ASD guiding principle of “Nimble and Responsive” to the core
• Ability to set goals and develop work-plans, for both self and direct reports
• Demonstrated resourcefulness and ability to prioritize and focus on what matters most
• Relentlessly results-driven – will do whatever it takes to help students succeed

Compensation:

The ASD offers a highly competitive salary and benefits package commensurate with experience.  Base salary ranges from $62-72K; an additional merit-based bonus can be earned due to excelling performance.

How to apply:

The right candidate for the open DoSO position at Georgian Hills Achievement Elementary School is expected to start as soon as possible, but no later than December 1, 2013.

Please submit a resume, cover letter and refrence information online here.  In your cover letter, please describe your interest in the position, and how your background experience prepares you to meet the qualifications of the job.  Resumes and applications will be processed immediately upon receipt.  Please direct any additional questions to Elizabeth Genco at egenco@tnasd.org.