Principal

PRINCIPAL - ELEMENTARY SCHOOL Westport Elementary School Westport Community Schools Westport , Massachusetts Job Description A. Leadership: Facilitate staff and student success, communicate effectively, and utilize consensus decision making strategies. 1. Exercise vision and provide leadership that appropriately involves staff, parents, students, and the community in the identification and accomplishment of the school’s mission. 2. Recognize the individual needs of all staff and students, including those who are at risk because of diverse cultures, backgrounds, or learning styles. 3. Apply effective human relations skills. 4. Encourage and develop the leadership of others. 5. Analyze relevant information, make decisions, delegate responsibility, and provide appropriate support. 6. Identify and creatively coordinate the use of available human, material, and financial resources to achieve the school’s mission and goals. 7. Explore, assess, develop, and implement educational concepts that enhance teaching and learning. 8. Bond the school community through shared values and beliefs. 9. Initiate and manage constructive change. 10. Advance the profession through participation as a member of local, state, and national professional groups. 11. Articulate beliefs persuasively; effectively defend decisions, explain innovations; and behave in ways that are congruent with these beliefs and decisions. 12. Write clearly and concisely so that the message is understood by the intended audience. 13. Utilize basic facts and data, and recognize values when communicating priorities. 14. Demonstrate skills in nonverbal communication, including impact of personal image, to communicate a positive image of the school. 15. Use current technologies to communicate the school’s philosophy, mission, needs, and accomplishments. 16. Make effective use of the mass media. 17. Use active listening skills. 18. Express disagreement without being disagreeable. 19. Promote student and staff use of higher-level thinking skills. 20. Exemplify the behavior expected of others. 21. Keep communication flowing to and from the school. 22 Communicate effectively with the various constituencies within the school community. 23. Apply the principles of group dynamics and facilitation skills. 24. Involve staff, parents, students and the community in setting goals. 25. Resolve difficult situations by use of conflict-resolution methods. 26. Collaborate with staff, parents, and students to identify procedures the school will follow. 27. Apply the process of consensus building both as a leader and as a member of a group. B. Curriculum and Instruction: Provide for effective instruction. 1. Apply the community’s values and goals. 2. Encourage faculty input and involvement in continual review and monitoring of the curriculum to ensure that the appropriate scope, sequence, and content are followed. 3. Demonstrate knowledge of curriculum materials and their relationship to program goals and objectives. 4. Seek appropriate resources of time, money, personnel, and materials to support the identified curriculum 5. Assure that a multicultural, nonsexist, and developmentally appropriate program is provided for each child. 6. Encourage students and staff to participate in co-curricular activities that enhance and complement what is learned in the classroom. 7. Apply the principles of child growth and development particularly as these principles relate to the children’s linguistic, physical, social, emotional, and cognitive needs. 8. Regularly assess the teaching methods and strategies being used and ensure that they are appropriate, varied, and effective. 9. Apply principles of teaching and learning for both children and adults. 10. Articulate effective classroom management and planning processes. C. Supervision and Evaluation: Maintain high expectation for staff and student achievement and effectiveness. 1. Set high expectations for students, staff, parents, and self. 2. Help teachers understand and apply teaching styles that complement the varied learning styles of students. 3. Implement principles of behavior management. 4. Encourage students and staff alike to set high personal goals and offers encouragement and support in the achievement of those goals. 5. Involve others in designing staff development programs that match the goals of the school with the needs of the participants. 6. Encourage staff participation in professional development activities. 7. Identify and employ appropriate support services. 8. Engage in continuing personal and professional development. 9. Use a variety of techniques and strategies to assess: •Student Performance •Individual staff and personal performance •Progress toward the achievement of curriculum goals •The effectiveness of the overall instructional program. 10. Seek and encourage input from a variety of sources to improve the school’s program. 11. Foster constructive suggestions from students, staff, parents, and the community for improving the school’s program. 12. Apply effective observation and conferencing skills. 13. Inspire teachers at all levels of skill and experience to acquire new competencies and experiences. 14. Utilize both formative and summative evaluation procedures. 15. Demonstrate a level of human relations skills which assures that the evaluation process will be helpful rather than destructive. 16. Develop professional growth plans to improve teaching and administrative performance. 17. Use due process procedures and legal assistance in dealing with disciplinary and dismissal cases. D. Management of Financial, Physical and Political Resources: Demonstrate proficiency in managing the school’s organization and fiscal resources and in dealing with the multitude of political pressures and considerations that have an impact on the operations of the schools. 1. Use collaborative strategic planning to help identify and accomplish the school’s mission, goals, and objectives. 2. Develop and implement administrative procedures consistent with local policies, state and federal rules and regulations, and contractual agreements. 3. Recruit, appoint, assign, and organize staff in such a way as to assure the greatest potential for the accomplishment of the school’s mission. 4. Capitalize on the findings of research in making program decisions. 5. Assure that the students are offered programs that are relevant to their unique needs. 6. Facilitate the identification, training, and monitoring of the staff to insure effective support in accomplishing the school’s mission. 7. Attract volunteers and provide them effective training and meaningful assignments. 8. Provide a safe, orderly climate for learning. 9. Facilitate the coordination of community service agencies so that appropriate resources are directed to at-risk children. 10. Develop and implement equitable and effective schedules. 11. Employ the principles of effective time management. 12. Identify staff strengths so as to appropriately delegate tasks. 13. Facilitate a process for the review of curriculum-related issues raised by individuals or groups outside the school. 14. Develop practices that assure appropriate and confidential collection and use of school and student data. 15. Use the latest technology for effective school management. 16. Keep abreast of developments in education law, including the implications of liability. 17. Manage the operation and maintenance of the physical plant. 18. Apply understanding of the school district budget and its specific implications for the school. 19. Involve staff and representative members of the community in the development of school budget priorities, based upon the mission and goals of the school. 20. Plan, prepare, and justify the school budget in accordance with school district budgeting procedures. 21. Employ and monitor acceptable accounting procedures in the maintenance of all fiscal records. 22. Use cost control procedures and institutes cost-effective practices in the management of all school funds. 23. Exercise creativity in finding new resources for supporting the school’s programs. 24. Develop plans and strategies for helping to attract appropriate financial support for public education. 25. Involve influential members of the community in the development and support of the school’s program. 26. Involve both school and non-school elements of the community in the development and support of the school’s programs. 27. Apply effective strategies for dealing with the political issues and forces that impinge on the school’s operation. 28. Apply effective strategies for dealing with the dynamics and politics of school district decision making. 29. Participate in local, state, and federal legislative activities. E. Societal/Multicultural Issues: Create learning environments in which each student can acquire basic academic skills while becoming increasingly more confident in his or her ability to learn and to cope with the societal and physical demands of the classroom. 1. Implement a comprehensive individualized instructional system that adapts instruction to the needs of each student. 2. Maintain a structural support and management system that enables teachers of mainstreamed students to handle a range of abilities in different activities. 3. Maintain a built-in support system to facilitate the implementation of the instructional program through the involvement of school administrative and instructional support personnel, health professionals, and families. 4. Utilize a “full-time” rather than a “part-time” approach to providing for “special education” needs of regular and exceptional students. 5. Focus on helping students develop responsibility for their own learning. Other duties as requested. Salary Range: 100k-125k