Dean

Grade Level: 9-12

Start Date: August 12, 2019

A NEW, INCLUSIVE VISION FOR COMMERCE: WHO WE ARE

In the fall of 2017, the High School of Commerce ("Commerce") entered into a year-long redesign process - bold, substantive and inclusive in nature - all to operationalize the community's articulated desire for a more personalized Commerce experience that fostered college and career success. This redesign process - fundamentally student-centered, with existing educators and students serving as the lead drivers of the work - engaged in an extensive, nationwide discovery of the emerging and established approaches to realizing impressive results for students. This discovery lead the redesign team to put together a plan to launch a redesigned High School of Commerce, starting with a 9th Grade Pathways Program for 2018-19 and growing in each successive year.

A VALUES-ALIGNED TEAM: WHO YOU ARE

Commerce is now seeking values-aligned individuals to serve as Deans committed to equitable instruction and strong cultural foundations for all learners. The essential responsibilities for these leadership roles will be guided by the following two values:

AGENCY: We believe that each and every Commerce student should be empowered to pursue their fullest academic and personal potential. We believe a students' agency to become their best academic and non-academic selves should be organized around rigorous personalized pathways - a four-year arc that prioritizes career interest exploration in a student's 9th/10th grade years and application/deepening of individual career interest in their 11th/12th grade years. With student-driven personalized pathways, a student will own the setting and the attaining of their short-, mid- and long-term academic, college, career and life goals.

RELATIONSHIP: We believe that each and every Commerce student thrives in a positive, welcoming learning environment that emphasizes intentional and proactive relationship-building. Supported through an explicit and universal culture of restorative justice - prioritizing growth and atonement over punishment and separation - a student will recognize the value of and play a leading role in developing interdependent relationships, with all members of the Commerce community working collaboratively in pursuit of this vision.

Therefore, all candidates interested in pathways team roles in the redesigned Commerce should be prepared to articulate how they have lived, or aspire to live, these values of agency and relationship in realizing the following:

Transformational Change with Your Students:

Providing access for students to new and tangible academic/non-academic heights, so that all of your students see themselves as empowered, goal-oriented learners.

Transformational Change with Your Mindset and Practices:

Demonstrating openness to growing your professional mindset and instructional practices in a deliberate and adaptable manner, so that you see yourself as an empowered, goal-oriented professional.

Transformational Change with Your Peers:

Exercising leadership and responsibility to peers in the pursuit of a common goal, with you seeing yourself as an empowered, goal-oriented collaborator.

CAPACITY-BUILDING, RESULTS-ORIENTED ROLES: WHAT YOU WILL DO

Deans at Commerce are practitioners who believe in the values of agency and relationship, and who are committed to the three types of transformational change noted above. Commerce is prepared - considering the centrality of these positions to the success of the school's redesign - to invest substantially in the capacity of leaders to receive the training, coaching, and resources/infrastructure necessary to thrive.

To that end, Deans will engage in extensive professional learning, both as part of the larger school, with strategic departments, and in small groups.

The experience of Deans at Commerce will be unlike any other leadership role in the following ways:

Explicit focus on ensuring equitable access to high-quality instruction for all learners and the deep cultural foundations to allow all students limitless growth

Work with intimate cohorts of teachers and students organized in community-centered "houses"

Extensive time and support for coaching, collaborating, and innovating instructional and cultural practices with teachers and peers

Extended time for ongoing collaboration within and across vertical and horizontal teams

Opportunities to develop meaningful relationships with staff and students through restorative justice practices, student- and staff-developed "X-Blocks" and celebratory events

Required Qualifications

Bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university

Master's degree from and accredited college or university preferred

Appropriate educator licensure (any area) at the appropriate level (9-12) from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

Desired Skills

Experience teaching or supporting Special Education preferred

Bilingual in English and Spanish preferred

Benefits

SEZP offers a competitive salary commensurate with qualifications and experience. Salaries for new Deans start at $50,500. Deans in SEZP qualify for benefits (personal/sick days, health insurance, etc.) offered to other leaders in the Springfield Public Schools.

Positions will be filled on a rolling basis; applicants are encouraged to apply immediately. Please contact sezp@springfieldempowerment.org with any questions.

Nondiscrimination Statement

The Springfield Public Schools does not discriminate in employment on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, genetic information, ancestry, age, disability or military service or marital status. The Springfield Public Schools does not discriminate in admission to, access or treatment in its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, sex, gender identity, religion, national origin, or sexual orientation, disability or homelessness.

Title IX Notice of Nondiscrimination

Springfield Public Schools does not discriminate on the basis of sex in admission, administration of its educational programs or activities or employment. Springfield Public Schools is required by Title IX and its implementing regulations at 34 C.F.R. Part 106 not to discrimination on the basis of sex in admission, administration of its educational programs or activities or employment. The Senior Administrator of Human Resources, Kathleen O'Sullivan, Springfield Public Schools, 1550 Main St. Springfield MA, 011103, 413-787-7100, ext. 55428, has been designated as the employee responsible for coordinating Springfield Public Schools efforts to comply with and carry out its responsibilities under Title IX. Inquiries concerning the application of Title IX and its implementing regulations at 34 C.F.R. Part 106 to Springfield Public Schools may be referred to Kathleen O'Sullivan or to U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, 400 Maryland Ave., SW Washington, DC 20202-1100, telephone 800-421-3481.



Primary Location: Commerce HS
Salary Range: Based on collective bargaining unit salary schedule
Shift Type: FT - Full Year

Job Contact Information:

Name: Kelley Gangi
Title: Chief of Instructional Improvement
Phone:
Email: sezp@springfieldempowerment.org