Regional School Leader (SY25-26)

Reports To: Deputy Chief of Schools

Overview:

Under the supervision of the Regional School Superintendent the Regional School Leader will

perform duties and responsibilities related to instructional leadership and operations within their assigned schools. They will be strategically deployed to schools based on needs with a focus on single administrator buildings and will work collaboratively with the Regional School Superintendents (RSS) district personnel and building administrators to ensure that the district priorities and student outcomes remain at the forefront. The Regional School Leader will also support first and second-year school leaders and their teams by working closely with the RSS and mentor principal to provide those leaders with resources observation of their adult meeting spaces and coaching feedback in order to support continuous improvement. The Regional School Leader will provide updates to the RSS and the Office of Leadership Development on the progress of the school leaders they support. The Regional School Leader will be readily available to support school leader leaves or departures during the school year leading a school during that time of leave or transition. Additionally the Regional School Leader engages in professional development to calibrate their coaching skills. When they are not in schools Regional School Leaders will under the direction of the Deputy Chief of Schools or their designee support the work of regional liaison teams and have assigned projects and programs that are in service to the three priority areas: Equitable Literacy Attendance and School Climate/Culture.

WHY LEAD IN BPS:

We are committed to our students and have a track record of success.

As the birthplace of public education in this nation the Boston Public Schools is committed to partnering with families and communities to transform the lives of all children through exemplary teaching and leadership. We cultivate staff who create safe welcoming and affirming environments celebrate diversity and confront racism and inequities. Together we work to develop the knowledge skill and character to excel in college career and life for all learners. There are many positive indicators for the growth of opportunity for our students in Boston; student performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) also known as the national report card makes BPS the first urban district to meet their marks in both English and Math for both tested addition our graduation rates have increased steadily reaching their highest ever point in 2018 at 75% district-wide.

We serve a richly diverse community of students and families. Boston Public Schools is quickly becoming one of the most diverse school districts in the country. As a leader in BPS you will be immersed in our rich community cultures and have the opportunity to close the opportunity gaps that persist in our city and nation. Our 46169 students reflect Bostons vibrant blend of cultures representing 140 countries and speaking 80 languages. 72% of our students identify as Black Latinx or Asian and 48% have a first language other than English. Our learners hold a wide variety of learning styles and have varying levels of unique needs with 22% of students who have IEPs. Overall 71% of our students qualify as Economically Disadvantaged. What this means is as a district we take pride in centering our work in providing equitable access to opportunity for all students and families through the use of Culturally and Linguistically Sustaining Practices (CLSP) and tools such as Culturally Relevant Instruction Observation Protocols (CRIOP). By leading in our district you are a key lever in embracing our urgent and mission-driven commitment to serving and empowering all of our kids and coaching others to do their best work to close academic gaps.

We support our leaders to learn grow and succeed.

Within the district our schools are broken into smaller regions that allow our leaders to receiveindividualized leadership and operational support job-embedded professional learning andrelevant support from specific departments. Additionally all leaders take part in ProfessionalLearning Communities of their choice and attend All Leader PD both of which are focused on

different aspects of building and honing anti-racist practices grounded in Culturally andLinguistically Responsive Practices. Newer leaders are supported through a two-year inductionprogram that includes professional learning sessions cohort support sessions and mentoringfrom seasoned and successful leaders in the district.

We have a highly-supported world-class teacher and staff community.

As a leader in Boston Public Schools you will be surrounded by a team that consistently assists you in supporting students and families. Our schools have multiple school-based staff supporting students throughout their school day. These teams are an integral part of the community and are supported through central office training and support. We are proud to cultivate a talented and dedicated teacher force . We support and develop our teachers through multiple pathways starting with new teacher development and continuing throughout teachers careers.

Who we are looking for:

A great leader in every building is essential to ensuring that students get the education they deserve. Here in Boston our leaders are passionate about equity furthering student achievement providing safe spaces to learn and grow and have a laser focus on closing opportunity gaps. They reflect the racial cultural and linguistic diversity of our students and they have a strong commitment to their greater school communities and the City of Boston. We seek leaders that are culturally instructionally and operationally proficient and are able to utilize and develop these competencies to best serve all students and staff in their buildings.

SKILLS COMPETENCIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

A Boston Public Schools School leader must exhibit the following competencies mindsets andSkills.

Visionary Leader:

Our school leaders work with their team to develop and implement a clearly defined vision that honors and acknowledges the assets fund of knowledge and cultural wealth of students and families. The leaders vision maintains a clear focus on achieving sustainable success for every student providing access to equitable opportunities and building a sustainable inclusive and culturally responsive school culture and environment.

1. Vision: Build and act on a vision that is informed continually refined and strengthened through student and family input student data best practice research and community input.
2. Reflection & Feedback: Reflect on their leadership behaviors and practice seekfeedback and demonstrate a willingness to hear and apply it and continuously improve.
3. Communications: Establish consistent reliable and clear communications and engagement opportunities with multiple stakeholders to reinforce the why behind the vision and reflect how new initiatives and any shifts are connected to it. The school leader adapts their own messages and actions to speak to and resonate with each audience addressing their unique questions or needs.
4. Prioritize Equity: Set clear priorities that advance racial equity think critically and seek input in decision-making through deliberate processes that elevate the voices of the most marginalized and of those who will be most impacted by the decision.
5. Decision Making: Stay calm and level-headed under pressure; take well-thought out often non-traditional decisive action to achieve desired results for students that are tangible and measurable.
6. Operations: Able to set and work against a strict budget adhere to legal regulations and union workplace guidelines manage staff and establish systems and a schedule that best serve students and enable staff to work effectively.

Instructional Leader:

Our school leaders take initiative to create change and implement new initiatives grounded in equity to accomplish sustainable results. They have the knowledge and experience to build support and empower their staff to create healthy and sustaining learning environments and consistently deliver excellent and equitable instruction.

1. Adoption: Support and advocate for the adoption and implementation of high quality culturally responsive and standards aligned instructional materials. Ensure the use of tools and processes that vet instructional materials and PD for bias.
2. Professional Development: Support the development of professional learning that is timely and relevant and equips teachers to effectively provide culturally responsive and linguistically sustaining instruction. Help prepare teachers to lead and facilitate sessions that include cognitively demanding tasks and assessments of learning.
3. Practice: Monitor and ensure high quality culturally responsive instructional practices among teachers and staff to advance learning for every student. Ensure instruction is contextualized in students lives promotes academic discourse develops students critical consciousness and enables students to demonstrate learning in a variety of ways.
4. Cultural Competency: Model and coach educators to provide culturally sustaining instruction that incorporates research-based best practice. Provide opportunities for educators to model for and coach each other.
5. Data: Consistently examine and use disaggregated data to support calls for change in practice or instructional approach paying close attention to inequities and gaps for historically marginalized students.
6. Growth Pathways: Provide pathways and opportunities for educators to grow as instructional leaders by providing opportunities for educators to lead in all of the above.

Leader in Equity:

Our school leaders believe deeply in the potential for every student to succeed and work tirelessly each day to create an anti-racist school environment that is built around high expectations an inclusive and welcoming culture and an expectation of excellence for all.

1. Disrupt Inequities: Take clear swift action to disrupt inherent inequities within the school community and relentlessly pursue what is right for students even in the face of opposition from those in power.
2. Passion for Students: Require all educators in the school to maintain and model a similar asset-based perspective of students and families and commitment to student learning growth and opportunity. Our school leaders maintain and continue to model this confidence in every student even when the students demonstrate that they struggle to believe in themselves.
3. Culture: Embrace all student cultures and native languages and engage and lead others in creating opportunities for the full community to celebrate and learn from them through linguistic and culture-sustaining experiences
4. Awareness: Ensures regular opportunities for educators to build awareness of their own cultural identities lenses and biases through text-based dialogue and activities that enable educators to identify confront and disrupt biases and racism.
5. Confronting Racism: Actively confronts racism stereotypes and biases and empowers the school community - educators students families and partners - to do the same.
6. Family Partnerships: Able to build authentic relationships with students families and communities to enable learning partnerships. Support educators in establishing genuine partnership with families intentionally learn from families and encourage family involvement in classrooms and school. Ensure proactive and positive outreach to families and partners so that they may engage meaningfully with school in traditional and nontraditional ways.

Team Builder:

The school leader will purposefully recruit select and support an experienced culturally competent and diverse team who can work together to ensure the success of all students in the building.

1. Staffing: Ensure practices that yield and retain staff that have an asset-based mindset and fervent belief in the students and families served by the school. Place staff in roles that play to their strengths and enable them to have the greatest impact on students.
2. Growth: Facilitate the growth of individuals through ongoing actionable feedback and evaluation; creates and empowers educators to seek out stretch opportunities; and coaches and mentors teachers to achieve the school mission and grow as leaders.
3. Collaboration: Provide space for staff to engage in collaborative work to meet their immediate needs and build their longer-term capacity through Common Planning Time coaching mentoring and the development of teacher-led PLCs and other opportunities for growth and collaboration.
4. Feedback: Provide and support others to provide real-time personalized actionable feedback and opportunities so staff can celebrate their wins and identify areas where they need to improve. Hold staff members accountable to changes in their practice to best serve students.
5. Distributed Leadership: Practice model and encourage distributed and shared leadership. Provides coaching and clear pathways for others to grow into leadership roles.

Culture & Community Builder:

Our school leaders create and maintain a safe supportive and sustaining school community and an environment for learning in which all students and their families feel welcome.

1. Collaborative Culture: Demonstrates an ethic of care. Create and sustain a school culture of we vs. I with partnership and collaboration for all of the adults across the building including teachers administrators central office staff paraprofessionals custodial staff families and partners.
2. Engagement: Value and harness the strengths of families through a demonstrated commitment to frequent meaningful and authentic partnership and engagement opportunities.
3. Safe Space: Create a psychologically safe space for all students families and staff where they feel consistently heard seen valued and respected.
4. Partnerships: Proactively seek out and leverage local partners leaders and community organizations to complement teacher expertise inform school improvement and provide additional resources and learning opportunities for students and teachers. Ensure partnerships are culturally competent and target supports for students who are carrying the greatest burden of inequities.
5. SEL: Models the principles of culturally responsive social and emotional learning through daily interactions with staff and students; coaches staff to do the same to provide students with the social and emotional support they need.
6. Diversity: Creates and supports the development of inclusive efforts to celebrate student culture and diversity.

Qualifications - Required:

• Masters in Education or Similar Fields
• Possession of a valid Massachusetts School Principal License or proof of successful
• completion of MA-PAL
• Technical/Vocational positions: Possession of valid Vocational/Technical preliminary or
• professional license
• Current authorization to work in the United Statescandidates must have such
• authorization by his or her first day of employment

Qualifications - Preferred:

• Previous experience as a School Leader
• Teaching and leadership experience in an urban public school setting
• Bilingual
• Boston resident

Terms:

Compensation Base Pay for Leaders is determined by school enrollment as follows:

0 - 300 students $147122

301 - 600 students $148523

601 - 899 students $149924

900 students $151325

Following acceptance of the job offer for the role the school leader will receive a detailed

contract outlining the terms and conditions of employment which will include a final salary.

Work Year

Leaders shall work a twelve (12) month calendar from July 1 to June 30. Leaders shall be entitled to receive paid time off for all nationally recognized or local holidays reflected on the Boston Public Schools calendar. The work year shall include 183 school days (student and staff facing days) as outlined in the BPS school calendar in addition forty (40) days that shall be worked outside of student and staff facing days. The schedule for these days shall be agreed upon by the School Superintendent and the School Leader.

This is a limited-term appointment for two (2) years. The Employee shall be responsible for securing a principalship position within the District before the expiration of their term. Upon expiration of this two-year term this appointment will automatically terminate and shall not be renewed or extended for any subsequent term.

The Boston Public Schools in accordance with its nondiscrimination policies does not discriminate in its programs facilities or employment or educational opportunities on the basis of race color age criminal record (inquiries only) disability homelessness sex/gender gender identity religion national origin ancestry sexual orientation genetics or military status and does not tolerate any form of retaliation or bias-based intimidation threat or harassment that demeans individuals dignity or interferes with their ability to learn or work.