FOUNDING ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS

ABOUT C.R. NEAL ACADEMY

C.R. Neal Academy, A Rooted School, is a tuition-free public charter school launching in Columbia, South Carolina, serving grades 6–12. C.R. Neal Academy is the first charter school in the nation authorized by an HBCU: the Voorhees Charter Institute of Learning (VCIL), an affiliate of Voorhees University. The school is open to all students and operated by Rooted School Foundation (RSF), a career-connected high school network that helps students graduate with both a job offer and a college acceptance in hand.

Every Rooted campus is built on the same promise: rigorous academics, problem-based learning, and career and technical education (CTE) pathways at C.R. Neal Academy — in advanced manufacturing, healthcare, and IT — that connect students to real industry partners, credentials of value, and work-based learning starting in the middle grades. Our founding team is building this school from the ground up: systems, culture, partnerships, and a physical campus.

We are looking for a founding Assistant Director of Operations who wants to build something rare: a school where operational excellence is treated as inseparable from student outcomes, not a support function bolted on beside them.

Here, that is not a slogan. Every logistics problem this role solves is also a career-pathway problem: getting a cohort of students to an industry partner’s facility for a clinical rotation, building a master schedule around a credential-testing window instead of around convenience, keeping a work-based learning placement alive when a transportation vendor falls through. The Assistant Director of Operations is not adjacent to C.R. Neal Academy’s career-connected model — the operations are how the model actually reaches students.

THE ROLE

The Founding Assistant Director of Operations owns the day-to-day, non-instructional systems that let C.R. Neal Academy run smoothly and let faculty and school leaders focus fully on students. This is a hands-on, builder’s role: during the planning year, you will stand up systems from scratch, often with limited precedent to follow, and in the school’s founding year, you will begin to lead a small operations team as enrollment grows.

The Assistant Director of Operations reports directly to the Founding Executive Director and serves as a member of the school’s founding leadership team. You will also work closely with RSF’s Growth & Innovation team, who bring the network’s playbooks, systems templates, and cross-campus operational learning to this role — you’re building C.R. Neal Academy’s systems, but not from a blank page every time.

LOCATION, SCHEDULE & START DATE

This is a full-time, in-person role based in Columbia, SC, on-site Monday–Friday. Occasional evening or weekend hours will be required to support school events, board meetings, and operational needs, particularly during the run-up to opening.

Target start date: November 2, 2026

AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY — PLANNING YEAR (2026–2027)

C.R. Neal Academy opens in Fall 2027. For its first year, this role is entirely about building the systems the school will run on — there are no students, no attendance, no meals served, and no student records yet. Responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

Operations Systems

• Build the school’s core non-instructional systems from the ground up — the ones that will let the school run smoothly once students arrive.
• Prepare the campus for the Fall 2027 opening: facilities readiness, purchasing, and vendor selection (e.g., food service, transportation) — contracting and setup happen now; service delivery begins at opening.
• Manage logistics for planning-year workstreams: staff onboarding, board meetings, community events, and Voorhees/VCIL deliverables.

Front Office & Team Leadership

• This role has no direct reports during the planning year.
• Model and reinforce high standards of professionalism, service, and accountability as the face of the school’s operations to families and partners during recruitment.
• Partner with the Executive Director to align operations priorities with the school’s academic and culture vision, and participate actively in leadership team meetings.

Finance & Budget Support

• Support the Executive Director and fractional CFO in coordinating the annual operating budget and monthly forecasts.
• Track and reconcile expenses, maintaining detailed and accurate financial records.
• Manage day-to-day purchasing, procurement, and vendor payments in accordance with school and funder policies; review and route purchase requests within delegated authority.
• Support audit-readiness and compliance documentation.
• Flag opportunities for cost savings and efficient resource use.

Facilities & Safety

• Oversee facility readiness ahead of the Fall 2027 opening: maintenance, safety, and cleanliness standards for the campus.
• Manage custodial, maintenance, and security vendor selection and relationships.
• Conduct building walkthroughs and escalate facilities needs.
• Build the school’s emergency preparedness plan and drill calendar in compliance with state and local regulations, ready to execute once students are on campus.
• Partner with the Executive Director and RSF on larger repairs, renovations, and capital projects, without owning final decisions or budget for those projects.

Student Recruitment & Enrollment Operations

• Execute the day-to-day work of the school’s student recruitment and enrollment plan: tours, open houses, and community events.
• Manage communication and outreach to prospective families across channels (email, phone, flyers, social media).
• Own the student application, lottery, and enrollment process end-to-end for compliance with state and authorizer requirements.
• Maintain accurate, current application, enrollment, and waitlist data, and report progress toward enrollment targets to the Executive Director.
• Build the onboarding experience new students and families will move through at opening.

Procurement & Vendor Management

• Manage the procurement process for routine and moderate purchases, ensuring fair, transparent, and compliant practices.
• Build vendor relationships and a vendor database, including for food service, transportation, and facilities — set up now for founding-year service delivery.
• Partner with the Executive Director on RFPs, bid evaluation, and contract negotiation for major or first-time vendor relationships.

Data & Technology Systems

• Select, configure, and test the school’s core data systems: student information system, attendance tracker, and enrollment/CRM tools.
• Coordinate technology procurement and set-up with IT providers ahead of opening.

Compliance & HR Support

• Build the school’s compliance calendar: safety drills, inspections, HR records, and operational audits.
• Support onboarding, certification tracking, background checks/fingerprinting, and employee records management for the founding staff.
• Support staff timekeeping, attendance, and payroll preparation processes, escalating employment-law or personnel-risk questions to the Executive Director.

AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY — FOUNDING YEAR EXPANSION (FALL 2027 OPENING)

Once C.R. Neal Academy opens in Fall 2027, this role’s scope expands to include the day-to-day operations that only exist once students are on campus. The Office Coordinator role is not budgeted to begin until approximately March of the founding year — for roughly the first two-thirds of the school year, this role carries the responsibilities below with no direct reports.

Front Office & Team Leadership

• Serve as the school’s front-office point of contact through the first part of the founding year, before the Office Coordinator role is budgeted to begin (~March).
• Once the Office Coordinator is hired, begin supervising front-office and operations support staff, with coaching support from the Executive Director and RSF.

Food Service

• Manage the day-to-day relationship with the school’s food service vendor.
• Oversee daily meal counts and point-of-service data collection.
• Assist the Executive Director with preparing and submitting monthly meal reimbursement claims to SCDE’s Office of Safe and Healthy Schools (or the applicable state office).
• Assist the Executive Director with maintaining free/reduced-price meal applications and/or Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) documentation, protecting family confidentiality throughout.
• Assist the Executive Director with preparing for and coordinating DHEC food service inspections, and track required food-safety certifications for on-site staff.
• Coordinate special dietary accommodations, allergies, and IEP/504-related meal modifications with families, the school nurse, and student support staff.
• Monitor food service costs and reimbursement revenue against enrollment, flagging variances or budget concerns to the Executive Director.
• Ensure food service logistics (meal times, serving lines, classroom delivery if applicable) fit cleanly into the daily schedule without cutting into instructional time.
• Assist the Executive Director with vendor contract renewals; if the school ever needs to switch providers, support — rather than lead — the RFP process.

Student Services

• Coordinate transportation logistics and liaise with the transportation vendor.
• Assist the school nurse and Executive Director with student health record maintenance and immunization compliance tracking.
• Maintain day-to-day student records in accordance with FERPA and school policy, under the Executive Director’s policy oversight.

Attendance

• Ensure accurate and timely daily attendance entry and reporting.
• Monitor attendance data to identify trends, and assist the Executive Director in collecting and communicating truancy data to families and supporting truancy interventions.

Family & Community Engagement

• Coordinate family communications — newsletters, announcements, event invitations.
• Manage logistics for family engagement events, conferences, and orientations.
• Ensure family-facing systems (arrival, dismissal, attendance) are clear, strong, and consistent.

Data & Technology Systems (Ongoing)

• Ensure accurate, timely collection and reporting of operational and student data.
• Maintain school databases and platforms day-to-day.
• Coordinate technology repairs, replacements, and device distribution with IT providers.

Other Duties As Needed

• Provide support for shared responsibilities across the school day (e.g., dismissal, lunch, or other assigned duties).
• Carry out other tasks and workstreams as needed to support smooth school operations — this is a founding role, and the work will not always fit neatly into the categories above.

WHO YOU ARE

• You have at least 3 years of experience in operations management, project coordination, or a related leadership role — ideally in a school or another mission-driven, fast-paced environment. K-12 school operations experience is a strong plus.
• You have led at least one large, complex project or workstream personally, not just supported someone else’s.
• You are energized, not overwhelmed, by a startup environment: frequent change, ambiguity, and the need to build a system where none exists yet.
• You have strong personal organization and project management systems, and can manage multiple competing priorities without dropping the important ones.
• You are highly proficient in Google and Microsoft platforms.
• You have a customer-service orientation toward students, families, and teachers; you see operations as an act of hospitality, not a gatekeeping function.
• You demonstrate maturity and emotional constancy in sensitive situations, conflict, difficult conversations, and HR issues handled with discretion and fairness.
• You are excited to give and receive feedback frequently, and you can implement feedback quickly — this is core to how our team works.
• You are aligned with Rooted’s mission and values: radical transparency, radical open-mindedness (the belief that no matter how much you know, you could be wrong), and a commitment to an inclusive, equitable working and learning environment.
• Bachelor’s degree preferred, not required, depending on experience.

COMPENSATION & BENEFITS

This is a full-time, salaried position. We publish a real salary range — not just a ceiling — so you can decide whether this is worth your time before you invest it in our process. The expected salary range is $70,000–$80,000, based on experience. A comprehensive benefits package is included.

HOW TO APPLY

Apply online at https://crnealacademy.org/work-with-us#open-roles. Upload your resume and cover letter as separate PDF or DOCX files, each no larger than 5 MB, and answer the three questions below. Keep each response under 250 words. We read every one. Applications close October 15, 2026. For assistance or an accommodation, email info@rootedschoolcola.org.

1. Tell us about a system, process, or program you built from scratch and personally owned from start to finish. What existed before you, what did you put in place, and how did you know it was working? If part of it fell short, tell us that too.

2. We think of operations as an act of hospitality, not a gatekeeping function. Tell us about a time you made that real for someone: a student, a family, a colleague, or a customer who needed something the system was not set up to give them. What did you do, and what did it cost you?

3. One of our values is radical open-mindedness, the belief that no matter how much you know, you could be wrong. Tell us about a time you were wrong about something that mattered at work. How did you find out, and what did you do differently afterward?

C.R. Neal Academy is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to building a diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, national origin, disability, veteran status, or any other legally protected status.

Pay: $70,000.00 - $80,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• 401(k)
• 401(k) matching
• Dental insurance
• Health insurance
• Paid time off

Work Location: In person

Salary : $70,000 - $80,000