Principal

About The SEED Network:

SEED is the nation's first and only network of public, college-preparatory boarding schools providing a 24-hour, 5-day per week learning environment. In classrooms, dorm meetings, dining halls, evening study halls, and exposure opportunities, our students become strong, determined, and self-aware. With the gift of time, we build a community of support that empowers students to own their educational journeys and succeed in college and beyond.  

As the first public, college-preparatory boarding schools in the U.S., SEED’s mission and approach to education are unique. SEED schools are tuition-free and, by design, serve traditionally underserved students. Our schools and graduates are supported by The SEED Foundation. The SEED Foundation provides programmatic and operating support to SEED schools in Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Miami, and Los Angeles. The SEED Foundation’s College Transition & Success (CTS) team provides intensive, individualized support to each SEED graduate from their junior year of high school through their college graduation. The success of the SEED model has been showcased in media outlets and publications such as 60 Minutes, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and in the documentary film, Waiting for “Superman”. President Obama has hailed SEED as “a true success story.” For more information, please visit www.seedfoundation.com. 

About SEED School of Los Angeles County: 

The mission of SEED Schools is to provide students with a rigorous, college preparatory, boarding school model that prepares them for success in college and careers.

The SEED School of Los Angeles County (SEED LA) opened in the Fall 2022 as California’s first urban public college preparatory boarding school, the fourth SEED school in the nation. Building a ninth-grade cohort each year, by the 2025-2026 school year, SEED LA will empower roughly 400 students in Grades 9-12 to achieve their full potential through our 24-hour learning environment. Our partnership with LA Metro provides a unique opportunity for students to advance their skills in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) while engaging in hands-on learning in the transportation field. 

Our innovative model integrates a rigorous academic program with a nurturing boarding program that develops the whole child. This boarding school model provides a comprehensive solution to the challenges facing urban youth and serves as a prototype for expansion nationwide. All SEED students live on campus between Sunday evenings and Friday afternoons. Our model has proven successful: over 90 percent of SEED graduates have been accepted to four-year colleges and universities throughout the country and over 60 percent remain enrolled in college or have already earned college degrees.

More information can be found on the school’s website: www.seedschoolla.org

Position Overview: 

The SEED School of Los Angeles County is seeking a Principal of Academics. In this role, the Principal of Academics will develop and ensure a positive and inclusive learning community that prepares students to apply and succeed in college. This role will work collaboratively with other school personnel and other senior leadership team members to help advance SEED LA’s mission of supporting scholars to and through college completion.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

    Visionary Leadership

• Model and execute the SEED Program Model with fidelity that prepares students for college completion and beyond. 
• Co-create the instructional priorities, goals, strategies, and school-wide vision that leads to breakthrough student outcomes.
• Contribute meaningfully to the organization’s strategic plan and provide input on the development of the school-wide vision and take an active role in investing and mobilizing teachers to achieve the collective goals of the organization.

Instructional Leadership

• Build one’s own knowledge and others’ instructional knowledge of standards, content, and instructional methods.
• Develop teachers’ deep understanding of academic standards within their content areas and the implications of standards on what a student should know and be able to do. Connect teachers with relevant resources to improve their content knowledge that leads to student mastery.
• Design academic systems that align curriculum, instructional materials, and assessments that allows for lesson internalization by all-academic team members.
• Build the capacity of teachers in the facilitation of high leverage instructional methods and how to match particular strategies to gaps in student mastery.
• Lead data-driven instruction through the adoption and use of a comprehensive data analysis protocol that determines what the data is saying about areas of student mastery and growth, and identify specific instructional actions, adjustments, and interventions.
• Grow teachers’ capacity around project-based learning design and delivery.
• Teach teachers how to assess for both student mastery and growth towards college readiness and insist that assessments (formative, summative, diagnostic, benchmark, etc.)  are used to inform teacher instruction.

People Leadership and Talent Development

• Provide supervision and high-quality instructional coaching with frequent and scheduled teacher observations, actionable and bite-sized feedback, and accountability for adjustment in practice.
• Design and lead engaging, actionable, adult-learning professional development while holding staff accountable for implementation of the workshop practices.
• Screen, interview and hire staff in the academic program in collaboration with the Senior Leadership Team.

Cultivate a Culture of Deliberate Excellence

• Foster a culture of high expectations with an unwavering focus on student achievement, college readiness, and operational efficiency while recognizing that adult culture shapes student culture.
• Maintain a safe and positive school environment where students can thrive in a live and learn community. 
• Develop building objectives and procedures to facilitate the delivery of programs, student discipline, scheduling, and recordkeeping.
• Collaborate with other SEED LA administrators in securing resources, assessing, and recommending programs and policies that support optimal student outcomes.
• Ensure that SEED LA collaborates with families and caregivers to build strong relationships that deepen the boarding school experience.
• Other duties as assigned.

Requirements

The Ideal Candidates Will Have/Be:

• A commitment to SEED LA’s mission and belief that with the right resources, any child can attend college and achieve their dreams.
• A commitment to SEED’s core values of: COMPASSION, GRATITUDE, GROWTH, INTEGRITY, PERSEVERANCE, RESPECT, RESPONSIBILITY.
• Possess an entrepreneurial spirit to be able to build a school focused on student achievement in a start-up organization.
• Superior written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to build relationships and connect with students and adults while maintaining strong emotional intelligence.
• Demonstrate a growth mindset and a commitment to do work within a team to accomplish the goals of the team. 
• Embrace critical feedback and coaching that supports a life long learning disposition. 
• Experience working with diverse student populations in an urban setting.

Minimum Qualifications: 

• 3 years of management and supervisory experience leading a diverse staff in an urban setting, particularly as a Principal, Assistant Principal, or other leadership roles and 5 years of teaching in a middle or high school, with a proven track record of improving student achievement.
• Master’s or higher degree from an accredited college or university and equivalent work experience.
• Hold or be eligible for a valid CA Administrative credential/Certificate of Eligibility (or an equivalent out-of-state credential which is transferable to California), or in the processing of obtaining one.
• Instructional expertise in effective Common Core aligned pedagogy, universal design for learning, collaborative team teaching, and data driven instruction. 
• Proven track record in developing teachers to meet performance and student achievement goals

Benefits

Benefits

• Low-cost healthcare premium (for employee and family) through either Anthem HMO or PPO or Kaiser HMO
• Dental and Vision care coverage
• Life Insurance (100% employer paid)
• 403(b) plan with up to 6% match by SEED LA
• Generous paid time off program includes 40 days to include holidays, sick leave, and vacation
• Substantial professional development support school-based, network-wide, and nationally