Principal

**PRINCIPAL - Grow Public Schools**

**Salaried, Exempt**

**Reports to: Chief Academic Officer**, Grow Public Schools (CMO)

**Organizational Overview**

At Grow Public Schools, our mission is fueled by a need for educational equity and a belief in the transformative power of education and wellness. We believe education and wellness are regarded as the fundamental pillars and their harmonious integration pave the way for brilliant and vibrant futures. Founded by the Grimm Family Education Foundation in August 2011, the mission of Grow Public Schools is to close the achievement gap for students in the rural areas of Kern County by creating an environment of student excellence and well-being. Grow Public Schools is committed to building a brighter future for generations to come in Kern County, California.

Our model includes:
- **Hands-on Learning**: At the heart of each campus is an Edible Schoolyard, an initiative that integrates gardening and cooking into the educational experience of scholars. Students learn to plant, cultivate, harvest, and prepare food, gaining valuable skills and knowledge about healthy eating and sustainability.
- **Health and Wellness**:We promote physical, mental, and emotional well-being among students. Each campus has an Instructional Leadership Team and a Culture Leadership Team including academic coaches, counselors, and social workers to support student well-being. Additionally, all students receive three cooked-from-scratch meals from our Cafe each day.
- **Personalized Learning**: At Grow Public Schools, each child is known by name and instruction is tailored to each student’s need. Our small class sizes, a 2-educator per classroom model, and Learning Lab, allow staff to adjust instruction to each scholar’s unique needs. Our campuses are full inclusion models, promoting equal access and integration of students with disabilities into regular classrooms.

**Summary Description**

At Grow, the Principal is the beating heart of the school campus. The Principal serves as the instructional and learning leader and is responsible for the strong academic program, ensuring a healthy and positive school-wide culture, building community with family and staff, and efficient and effective operations of a charter school. The Principal will ensure successful academic, social-emotional, and health & wellness outcomes for all students. In collaboration with the Chief Academic Officer (CAO) and fellow GPS Principals, the Principal shall be responsible for:
**Academic Leadership**

As the academic leader of the school site, the Principal is responsible for:

- Leading the implementation at the school site of an integrated and rigorous standards-aligned curriculum. The principal will optimize the integrated curriculum model aligned to the Grow Public Schools, integrating blended learning opportunities and maximizing the learning opportunities through the Edible Schoolyard, learning kitchen, learning lab and classroom.
- Implementing the instructional program, assessing curriculum and pedagogy, ensuring effective standards-aligned lesson plans and observe classes (teaching and learning) on a frequent and structured basis to encourage the use of a variety of instructional strategies and materials consistent with research on the best practices for student learning and development.
- Deliver consistently high levels of achievement and learning for all students through rigorous and engaging programs and classroom instruction.
- Systematic use of assessment data to guide instruction; and, maximizing impact of the blended learning model.

**Healthy and Positive School-Wide Culture**
- Establish a strong school community culture by maintaining positive, cooperative and mutually supportive relationships with faculty, staff, parents, students, and all other school stakeholders.
- Implement the Grow Public Schools restorative behavioral approach schoolwide to ensure consistent norms of respectful behavior, effective learning environments in the classroom, motivating students through strong relationships with their teachers, positive reinforcement, and effective implementation of the SEL curriculum
- Creating a student support system that addresses students’ academic and social-emotional needs holistically and involves parents, teachers, and all relevant staff.
- Acting as Grow Academy’s point person to the local community, effectively communicating the school’s mission and vision and soliciting input from parents and families about school performance, areas for improvement, and their needs - including through LCAP outreach, and close collaboration with the Parents of Grow Academy (POGA), and English Learner Advisory Committee (ELAC).
- Engaging and building strong professional relationships with parents, characterized by involving parents, wherever possible in the life of the school.

**Efficient and Effective School Operations**
- Develop and implement consistent and frequent professional learni