Art Teacher (Elementary), Horace Mann Laboratory School, Salem Public Schools, Salem MA SY2024-2025

About Salem Public Schools, where belonging leads to opportunity.

Salem is a small, diverse city with a proud maritime and immigrant history. Salem Public Schools is an urban public school district enrolling nearly 4,000 students across our 11 schools. Our vision is to ensure that all students will be locally engaged, globally connected, and fully prepared to thrive in a diverse and changing world. We hold dear our core values of belonging, equity, and opportunity in everything we do. Over the next three years (2023-2026), we are committed to the work outlined by the four core priorities in our strategic plan: 1) Elevate Learning; 2) Empower Educators; 3) Center Belonging; and 4) Strengthen Our Foundation. We seek individuals who are passionate about urban education and understand the urgency of improving student achievement for all students, regardless of ability, economic status, gender/gender identity, language, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, or other backgrounds. Applicants who have experience working in urban schools and settings and are bilingual are strongly encouraged to apply.

What You’ll Do:

The successful candidate will be a passionate, mission-driven, and collaborative educator who desires an opportunity to teach in a diverse and welcoming school environment. This teacher will instruct K-5 students in Visual Arts and will be expected to offer students instruction that is appropriately modified to address individual student needs. This teacher will be expected to foster in students a love of artistic expression and thought and will be a driving force to ensure that the Arts are alive throughout Horace Mann Laboratory. This teacher will work with the school administration and fellow members of the specialist team to positively manage student behavior and collaborate in a standards-based environment to provide exceptional education to your students. Above all, the successful teacher should be guided by an ethos of care and an unwavering belief in the ability of ALL students to reach their potential.

Role Responsibilities:

• Developing student understanding, ability, and appreciation of a variety of artistic mediums such as painting, sketching, designing, and sculpturing.
• Employ a variety of literature as a tool to engage students in their understanding of and exposure to traditional and contemporary art.
• Ability to inspire and motivate students to help them improve their skills, thinking, and appreciation of art in multiple mediums.
• Plan and execute appropriate instructional and learning strategies. These activities, materials, and assignments will be expected to reflect a deep understanding of the needs (academic and social/emotional) of students.
• Provide structure in the classroom by building and maintaining a positive classroom environment that is conducive to learning.
• Collaborate with academic core content teachers to infuse curriculum with the Arts
• Collaborate with fellow specialists to ensure that our students have a well-rounded learning experience and that community events are planned to showcase our students’ successes and immense talent.
• Additional duties may be assigned.

What You’ll Bring:

We are looking for candidates who have diverse backgrounds and experiences, are inspired by our mission, and are highly motivated to change children’s lives through education. You’ll be right at home here if you are a reflective practitioner who values collaboration with colleagues and pushes yourself, your work, and the people around you to the next level. We expect our SPS employees to:

• Hold a deep commitment to students and families and value diversity - The SPS community is vibrant, diverse in background, ethnicity, language, and perspective. You embrace and affirm the backgrounds of all members of the SPS community and view our diversity as a powerful resource that supports us each in learning and doing our best work.
• Hold high expectations for yourself, students, and colleagues – You see potential in all, especially our SPS students, and maintain high expectations for achievement, while providing the support necessary to meet that bar. You hold yourself to high expectations, modeling SPS values, and seeking opportunities to continuously improve.
• Build authentic, caring relationships with colleagues, students, and families – You build strong relationships across students, families, and colleagues that are collaborative in nature and contribute to the individual and collective success of SPS. You partner with families and colleagues to make decisions in the best interest of students and learning.
• Embrace feedback – You are a reflective practitioner who learns from failure, using mistakes and challenges as opportunities for growth. You model persistence and growth mindset and thrive in a culture of feedback.

Job Requirements:

• Bachelor's Degree (Required); Master’s Degree (Preferred)
• Required Massachusetts teaching certification/licensure in Art/Elementary level.
• Maintain professional competence through in-service education activities provided by the District, and/or in self-selected professional growth activities.
• Ability to meet the expectations of the Massachusetts Standards and Indicators of Effective Teaching Practice
• Proficiency with technology (blended learning, teacher/family communication suites, Google G-Suite Apps, computer design applications, etc.) desirable.
• Second language (Spanish and/or Portuguese) proficiency a plus
• Bilingual candidates and candidates of color strongly encouraged to apply
• Current authorization to work in the United States

Reports to: School Principal

Work Year: Teachers in Salem Public Schools work a 185 day school year (180 student contact days plus 5 professional development days. Please visit www.salemk12.org to view the 2023-24 district and/or school calendar. 

Salary: Teacher salaries in the Salem Public Schools are determined by the Salem Teachers Union collective bargaining agreement. Salary information can be found in Appendix A. You may also use the SPS teacher salary estimator tool on the SPS website.

Benefits: The City of Salem offers Group Insurance Commission (GIC) benefits to all full-time employees. Click here for more information about our health benefits.

Equal Opportunity Employer

Salem Public School District is committed to maintaining a work and learning environment free from discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, pregnancy, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital/civil union status, ancestry, place of birth, age, citizenship status, veteran status, political affiliation, housing status, genetic information or disability, as defined and required by state and federal laws. Additionally, we prohibit retaliation against individuals who oppose such discrimination and harassment or who participate in an equal opportunity investigation