26-27 Director of School Operations

The Director of School Operations leads all non-instructional systems on a KIPP New Orleans campus so that School Leaders and teachers can focus on student learning and partnership with the Regional Director of School Operations School Leader(s) and regional teams the Director designs runs and continuously improves operations across the full campus including budgeting and procurement facilities and safety transportation and food service attendance and enrollment HR and compliance records family and staff communications athletics logistics and master calendar and space allocation. Success is evidenced by protected instructional time and smooth daily operations on-time and on-budget project delivery full compliance on required processes and audits equitable access to campus resources across all programs and student groups and measurable progress toward attendance and enrollment targets backed by strong family and staff satisfaction.

School Ops Leadership

• In partnership with the Managing Director of Schools School Leaders and the regional team develops and drives the school-wide operations vision ensuring it fully supports and operationalizes the schools academic and cultural vision. Success is measured by alignment between operations systems and instructional and cultural priorities.

• Plays a leadership role in the schools strategic and annual planning and budgeting process ensuring that operations priorities are represented resource allocation supports school-wide goals and plans are implemented on schedule.

• Leads cross-functional planning and project management ensuring operational initiatives are clearly scoped deadlines are met and goals are achieved across departments.

• Sets and monitors school operations goals creating a regular cadence of progress checks and accountability structures to ensure milestones are reached.

• Hires onboards coaches and performance-manages front office and operations team members (and key vendors) so that service levels and SLAs are met or exceeded.

• Sets clear goals and development plans; gives timely feedback and conducts evaluations per policy so that staff performance improves and retention strengthens.

• Oversees daily workflow and coverage plans so that essential services remain uninterrupted even during staff absences or peak demand.

• Handles corrective action and terminations in line with policy to maintain a high-performing values-aligned team.

• Ensures strong team communication and health maintaining consistent structures for collaboration feedback and problem-solving within the operations team.

• Serves as the primary point of contact with the regional team ensuring timely response to requests proactive communication of school needs and consistent collaboration to build scalable region-wide systems policies and procedures.

• Serves as the point person (or assigns a point person) for hosting visitors ensuring that school tours reflect the schools culture and excellence while supporting external relationship-building.

Site Operations Management

• Builds trust-based partnerships with School Leader(s) and facilitates alignment when priorities diverge so that the campus runs as one coherent student-centered operation.

• Maintains a School Operations Playbook (decision rights/RACI cost allocations bell schedules space use SLAs escalation paths) and proposes data-informed updates so that resources are allocated equitably and conflicts resolve quickly.

• Runs a weekly ops prioritization with School Leader(s) and manages intake and calendars so that leader time is protected and competing demands are sequenced intelligently.

• Owns the master campus calendar and space allocation adjudicating conflicts in real time so that programs testing and events proceed without disruption.

• Standardizes campus-wide communications (routine and crisis) with translation and accessibility so that families and staff receive consistent timely information.

• Continuously audits campus systems for equity across all programs student groups and school communities served by the campus; removes barriers so that all students and staff have fair access to spaces services and supports.

• Manages competing operational priorities setting clear financial targets and implementing systems for resolving discrepancies to ensure equitable and strategic resource allocation.

Systems Scheduling and Facilities

• Owns the vision for school-wide scheduling and calendar management including space reservation systems to ensure efficient use of facilities and alignment with instructional priorities.

• Proactively navigates school-wide scheduling challenges minimizing conflicts and maximizing instructional and extracurricular opportunities.

• Sets the vision for safety and security at school events and manages implementation to ensure a safe welcoming and orderly environment for students families and staff.

• Leads the execution of end-of-year trips ensuring safe well-organized and meaningful experiences for students.

• Accountable for the completion of facilities agreements vendor contracts and liability insurance for external partners.

Budget Management

• Works closely with the Regional Director of Schools and School Leaders to develop the schools annual budget ensuring alignment with strategic priorities and financial sustainability.

• Actively manages the schools budget throughout the year monitoring expenditures identifying variances and making adjustments as needed to ensure financial health.

• Submits monthly budget forecasts to track spending against projections and inform decision-making.

• Serves as the first school-based point of contact for Finance partnering with the regional Finance team to ensure compliance with organizational policies legal requirements and reporting standards.

• Responds to regional requests and submits all financial documentation (purchase orders invoices reimbursements forecasts etc.) in a timely manner meeting Finance Team deadlines to ensure accurate reporting on-time payments and full compliance with regional and state requirements.

• Assists in the preparation of financial reports and audit documentation ensuring accuracy timeliness and full compliance with regulations.

• Manages the schools Student Activity Fund (SAF) to ensure student-related funds are properly tracked allocated and reported.

• Manages the school purchasing process by establishing and maintaining clear systems approving school purchases within delegated thresholds and ensuring cost-effective use of funds.

• Oversees procurement processes to ensure the school has all necessary supplies and resources balancing efficiency with fiscal responsibility.

• Processes purchase orders invoices reimbursements and purchase card charges accurately and on time ensuring vendors and staff are supported promptly.

• Verifies and submits invoices and financial documentation to maintain accurate audit-ready records.

Payroll and Asset Management

• Reviews bi-weekly payroll for accuracy ensuring staff are paid correctly and on time.

• Maintains accurate inventory records of the schools assets reconciling purchases and disposals to safeguard school property and comply with financial reporting standards.

• Oversees procurement of office supplies equipment and materials within budget constraints to ensure smooth daily operations.

Facilities Management

• Oversees all major facilities functions including maintenance vendor and staff management aesthetics shared space agreements and campus safety ensuring the campus environment consistently supports student learning and reflects the schools mission.

• Oversees custodial performance to maintain a consistently clean safe and welcoming environment for students families staff and visitors measured through regular inspections and stakeholder feedback.

• Document custodial concerns and elevate patterns of concern to the regional facilities team for corrective action.

• Supervises the upkeep and alterations of office areas and equipment including layout arrangement and housekeeping to ensure workspaces are efficient safe and aligned with organizational standards.

• Partners with the regional facilities team to plan and execute capital improvements and long-term projects ensuring school needs are represented and timelines are met.

• Accountable for the communication of facility use by external partners to the regional facilities team with sufficient advance notice. 

• Accountable for the communication of any facility use outside of regular operating hours with sufficient advance notice to ensure building systems can be programmed and scheduled accordingly.

Transportation

• Oversees all aspects of school transportation systems including managing vendor relationships and transportation emergencies.

• Partners with transportation vendors to ensure bus routes effectively and equitably serve the schools student population measured by on-time performance ridership coverage and family satisfaction.

• Owns ultimate responsibility for ensuring that every student is transported safely to and from school each day proactively addressing risks and maintaining compliance with all safety regulations.

• Implements and continuously improves arrival and dismissal procedures to ensure students enter and leave campus in a safe orderly and timely manner while minimizing disruptions to instruction and family routines.

• Develops creative solutions for transportation gaps proactively identifying and implementing alternatives when vendor or route challenges arise to minimize disruptions for students and families.

• Elevates transportation concerns to the regional team.

Food Service

• Oversees all aspects of school food service including meal quality vendor and staff management compliance meal tracking and meal delivery ensuring that every student receives safe nutritious meals daily.

Attendance Leadership

• As the ultimate owner of the schools attendance goals lead the schools overall ADA and chronic absenteeism operational systems and initiatives in alignment with regional guidelines and the School Leaders vision.

• Manage the Operations Team to ensure 100% daily attendance accuracy.

• Manage the Operations Team to complete 100% of high-quality absent student calls by the stated deadline with detailed notes for every student.

• Leverage impact and influence with other Leadership Team members at the direction of the School Leader to ensure that all parts of the school attendance plan are moving forward and make adjustments as needed.

• Work in close collaboration with the School Leader to meet schools attendance goals. 

• Plan prepare and facilitate weekly chronic absenteeism intervention meetings and maintain intervention workbooks at the direction of the School Leader.

Student Recruitment and Enrollment

• Develops and manages the schools internal student recruitment strategy to meet enrollment targets.

• Leverages the entire school team to achieve recruitment outcomes by coordinating outreach efforts and aligning staff roles with enrollment priorities.

• Accountable for ensuring school tours are well-coordinated and planned for with regional team and School Leader/Leadership Team.

• Accountable for ensuring school representatives effectively engage in high leverage recruitment events including tabling at PreK Centers. 

• Analyzes enrollment data to identify trends challenges and opportunities using insights to adjust recruitment strategies and ensure enrollment goals are met.

• Prepares and presents regular reports on recruitment and enrollment outcomes to school leadership highlighting progress toward goals and key action steps.

• Participates in school leadership meetings to provide updates and insights on recruitment enrollment and attendance.

Risk Management Security and Safety

• Ensures the school is fully prepared for emergencies by conducting all required drills maintaining updated emergency plans and training staff to respond effectively and confidently in crisis situations.

• Coordinates with school nurses and emergency response personnel to ensure timely and effective medical or safety responses when incidents occur.

• Leads crisis management systems including documentation of incidents after-action reviews and communication with school and regional leadership.

• Manages Security Officers to outcomes ensuring they maintain a safe orderly and welcoming environment for students families and staff.

• Works closely with the school operations team student support and compliance team and other key stakeholders to ensure all risk management security and compliance practices are aligned with school goals and organizational policies.

Human Resources and Compliance

• Partners with the regional People Team on the new hire process including interviews offer letters and onboarding ensuring all staff are fully cleared and prepared to begin work.

• Ensures school staff have complete accurate and current personnel files including certifications background checks and compliance with all HR FERPA and other legal requirements.

• Reviews and approves staff time-off requests and communicates leave needs and critical dates to the Human Resources team assisting in the facilitation of employee leaves to minimize operational disruptions.

• Partners with the regional Human Resources team to streamline communication and processes for new hires leaves of absence and separations ensuring compliance and smooth staff transitions.

Records and Confidentiality

• Maintains and organizes personnel student and compliance-related records with a high degree of confidentiality and accuracy ensuring alignment with all relevant laws policies and regulations.

• Coordinates with the school nurse and Student Support Team to ensure accurate health records compliance with student medical requirements and alignment with school safety protocols.

• Maintains secure confidential records (e.g. personnel student health compliance) in alignment with FERPA HIPAA and organizational policies ensuring clarity on which records are held at the school level.

School Communications

• Fosters strong relationships with the neighborhood community to build goodwill and support for the school.

• Manages transparent communication channels with regional leads ensuring that school leadership and staff receive timely accurate updates on policies procedures and initiatives.

• Oversees school social media and branding presence ensuring messaging aligns with school values and strengthens engagement with families alumni and the community.

• Ensures transparent family-facing communication providing accurate timely updates that strengthen trust and engagement with the school community.

• Leads school-based communications and brand management ensuring materials messaging and public-facing communications reflect the schools mission and values.

• Supervises and coordinates overall administrative activities for the school assisting with scheduling appointments meetings and events for staff and families.

Athletics

• Supports athletic operational logistics including transportation facilities scheduling purchasing contracts and event management in partnership with the Athletic Director.

• Owns operational responsibilities within athletics including event logistics budget alignment facilities use and compliance with school and regional policies.

• Partners with the Athletic Director to ensure athletic programming is safe well-resourced and aligned with the broader school mission.

• Develops and manages the athletic program budget ensuring resources are used effectively and expenditures align with program priorities.

• Ensures athletic facilities are safe clean and well-maintained addressing maintenance needs promptly to support both performance and safety.

Essential Functions Related to Student Safety and School Operations

In support of KIPP New Orleans Schools commitment to providing a safe orderly welcoming and well-run learning environment school-based operations employees are expected to perform the following essential functions with or without reasonable accommodation:

• Maintain active awareness of student staff family and visitor safety in assigned work locations including front offices hallways arrival and dismissal areas cafeterias buses/loading areas common spaces and other school settings.

• Support safe and efficient daily school operations including arrival dismissal transitions front office procedures visitor management family support attendance-related outreach meals events transportation facilities needs and other operational systems as assigned.

• Be physically present visible and engaged in assigned work locations during the scheduled workday to fulfill responsibilities that require in-person interaction with students families staff vendors visitors and school leadership.

• Respond promptly and appropriately to urgent operational needs and school emergencies including but not limited to evacuations lockdowns shelter-in-place medical or safety incidents reunification procedures transportation disruptions facilities issues and other crisis protocols.

• Follow established safety security emergency preparedness visitor management confidentiality and student supervision procedures consistent with KNOS policies school expectations and required training.

• Support student and staff safety by reinforcing schoolwide behavioral expectations maintaining situational awareness using de-escalation strategies when appropriate and escalating concerns to school leadership or emergency personnel in a timely manner.

• Communicate clearly and promptly with school leadership regional teams families vendors emergency personnel and other stakeholders during routine operations urgent issues and safety-related incidents.

• Participate in required training related to school operations student safety emergency preparedness crisis response confidentiality mandated reporting and role-specific compliance requirements.

Qualifications :

Qualifications

The following are required for the role:

• Education & Credentials: Bachelors Degree

• Experience: 7 years total operations experience; 2 years leading school/site ops teams; Direct experience in K-12 or youth-serving nonprofit with facilities compliance or business operations ownership; Proven budget management and vendor/contracts oversight.

• Knowledge: Deep understanding of K-12 compliance basics: FERPA IDEA-related operational requirements student attendance/enrollment rules safety/emergency procedures; Facilities transportation nutrition health/clinic and procurement workflows; Budgeting purchasing and audit-readiness.

• Technical Skills & Tools: Proficient SIS familiarity (e.g. PowerSchool/Infinite Campus) Google Workspace or Microsoft 365; Project/issue tracking (Asana Trello Jira) and ticketing/help desk practices; Intermediate Excel/Sheets (pivot tables lookups) basic dashboard literacy.

The following are strongly preferred for the role:

• Masters (MBA MPA/MPP Ed Admin); Experience scaling ops across multiple campuses; RFP/contract negotiation; Fluency in a second language (e.g. Spanish); crisis management certification.

Work Environment and Physical Demands

The physical demands and environmental conditions described below are representative but not exhaustive of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of the role. All of these physical requirements should be able to be performed with clarity coherence and connectedness of the KNOS vision and reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform these essential functions.

• While performing the duties of this job the individual is regularly required to communicate information and ideas effectively so others will understand. 

• Must be able to exchange accurate information in these situations including noisy environments such as cafeterias and playgrounds to more moderate situations such as classrooms or large group professional settings.

• Specific vision abilities required by this job include the ability to observe details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).

• This role routinely uses standard office equipment such as laptop computers and various digital devices and one needs to be able to read analyze and interpret data (emails memos letters etc.) and maintain visual attention and mental concentration for significant periods of time.

• Able to sit and work at a desk/computer for extended periods of time.

• School-based operations employees must be able to move throughout the school campus including front office spaces classrooms hallways stairwells playgrounds cafeterias gyms outdoor areas parking lots arrival/dismissal areas and other student activity or operational spaces.

• The role may require standing walking bending reaching climbing stairs carrying materials responding quickly to operational or safety needs and remaining alert and engaged during routine supervision family-facing support events arrival/dismissal and emergency situations. Physical demands may vary by role and assignment and reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of the role.

• Ability to safely lift and move up to 50lbs independently

• Duties may require traveling to other school facilities using employees personal transportation.

• This is a full-time 100% on-site position; Regular work hours Monday through Friday will be established with your supervisor. Occasional evening and weekend work may be required as job duties demand.

Work Authorization

• Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the United States for any employer.

Commitments

• Maintain a friendly respectful professional and courteous attitude with all people including all KNOS employees Board members community and philanthropic partners funders and vendors.

• Model superior customer service behavior by maintaining positive relationships with all KNOS stakeholders.

• Contribute as a positive and effective team member; work effectively with other team members to accomplish KNOS goals. 

• Be prompt and available for flexible scheduling; be honest and fair in all professional dealings.

Additional Information :

Additional information

• Compensation is competitive and commensurate with experience and we routinely engage in compensation analysis for all roles across the organization to ensure that we remain competitive in the market

• 403(b) retirement plan KNOS matches 100% of employee contribution up to the first 5% of salary and any bonuses. Vested immediately in 403(b)

• KNOS employees are eligible for health and wellbeing benefits starting the first day of the month following their Date of Hire

• Comprehensive customizable health coverage including disability life insurance hospital indemnity FSAs for health and dependent care and free dental and vision for employees

• KNOS employees are provided 30 paid holidays and additional paid time off

• Opportunities for on-going professional development

Disclaimer:

Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties responsibilities and activities may change at any time with or without notice.

This job description shall not constitute or be construed as a promise of employment or as a contract between KNOS and any of its employees.

KIPP New Orleans Schools is an Equal Opportunity Employer:

At KIPP New Orleans Schools we are committed to providing an environment of mutual respect where equal employment opportunities are available to all applicants and employees without regard to race color religion or belief national social or ethnic origin sex (including pregnancy) age disability sexual orientation gender identity and/or expression marital status veteran service genetic information family or parental status or any other status in accordance with applicable federal state and local laws. KNOS expressly prohibits any form of unlawful employee harassment based on any of the characteristics listed here. Improper interference with the ability of KNOS employees to perform their expected job duties is absolutely not tolerated.

KNOS complies with applicable state and local laws governing non-discrimination in employment in every location in which the KNOS has facilities. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment including but not limited to hiring placement promotion termination layoff recall transfer leaves of absence compensation and training.

Contact Us:

Please contact our regional Talent Team at with any questions.

Remote Work :

No

Employment Type :

Full-time