About KIPP Texas Public Schools Overview

For more than 15 years, KIPP Austin, KIPP Dallas-Fort Worth, KIPP Houston, and KIPP San Antonio have put thousands of KIPPsters on the path to and through college. Last year, KIPP Texas collectively educated over 25,000 students in more than 50 schools, covering a geographic area of over 400 miles. The regions have a long history of informal collaboration, with teachers and staff members sharing ideas, curricula, professional development, facilities, finances, end-of-year field trips, and more. As of the 2018-2019 school year, all KIPP schools in Texas join forces as KIPP Texas Public Schools, a state-wide network of schools dedicated to supporting students to and through college!

About KIPP Texas: Austin
KIPP Texas: Austin is a network of free, public, open enrollment schools for low‐income and historically underserved students in Austin, Texas. Since 2002, KIPP Austin has empowered underserved students to strengthen the academic skills, intellectual habits, and character traits necessary to thrive in, and graduate from, four‐year colleges and universities, giving them the freedom to shape their futures and positively affect their communities. There are currently 10 schools in the KIPP Austin network: four elementary schools, four middle schools, and two high schools. When fully enrolled, KIPP Austin Public Schools (KAPS) will serve over 5,000 students – more than doubling the number of college-ready low-income, minority students in Austin. KIPP Austin Public Schools is part of the national network of charter schools, KIPP, the Knowledge is Power Program (www.kipp.org).

Head of Schools Opportunity

The Head of Schools is responsible for the overall quality of KAPS school programming and maintains a laser-focus on continually increasing the number of KAPS students who thrive in and graduate from the college of their choice. They pursue this work through excellent management and development of 3-5 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 Austin academic leadership team, which is responsible for driving the overall direction and strategy for all KIPP Austin 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.

Key Responsibilities

I. Managerial Leadership and Team Development

• Manages 3-5 school principals
• Builds a strong, cohesive team culture that reflects core KIPP Texas: Austin’s 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 and Academic Support

• Works with principals to implement academic strategies and all aspects of the talent strategies, and supports principals to implement their school priorities in alignment with KIPP Texas: Austin’s 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 Austin Leadership

• Participates in KIPP Austin academic leadership team that oversees the strategy for all KIPP Texas: Austin programming
• Works with KIPP Austin academic leadership to develop a vision and comprehensive long-term plan for the design of the schools
• Recommends to the KIPP Austin Regional Superintendent system-wide goals, and 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 Austin 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 KAPS
• 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 required by the role
• Outstanding written, speaking, and organizational skills including excellence in backward planning long-term goals, accountability, and progress monitoring systems
• Ability to interact with a broad range of stakeholders with different interests and needs
• A deep commitment to improving the lives of students from low-income communities

Compensation and Benefits

Salary is based on years of experience, degree of education, and level of expertise. A competitive benefits package is also offered.

About KIPP
KIPP is a non-profit network of 200 college-preparatory, public charter schools educating elementary, middle, and high school students. We believe that all students will learn and achieve at high levels if given the opportunity. Our mission is to help students develop the knowledge, skills, and character strengths they need to seize those opportunities. Great education transforms lives.

To Apply

Please submit a resume and thoughtful cover letter online at https://sforce.co/2H55wQy. For additional questions about this position or to speak with someone about your interest, please contact Ron Rapatalo at rrapatalo@edgilityconsulting.com.​

KIPP provides equal employment opportunity for all applicants and employees. As an equal opportunity employer, we hire without consideration to race, religion, creed, color, national origin, age, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, veteran status or disability.