Lead Preschool Teacher

The Primary School is expanding the boundaries of traditional education. Our holistic model weaves together education, health, and family support services to ensure underserved children have the system of care they need to lead meaningful and emotionally, mentally, and physically healthy lives. The Primary School was founded in 2015, and we received seed funding by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, a major national philanthropy.

Our approach has three defining characteristics:

• We start early. We start working with parents and enroll children into our program as early as birth to reach them at their most critical stage in development.
• We work with - not around - families. We know that parents and caregivers are the most important people in a child's life. We partner with them to enhance the education and health of their children.
• We integrate multiple systems to serve the whole child. Our unique model unites health care and education, building a multi-disciplinary team and holistic system of care around a child's full needs.

In 2016, we opened our flagship school in East Palo Alto, California, with our first class of four-year-olds. We have grown to serve over 300 children and their families via a 0-3 parent/child program, a preschool and elementary school, and a parent wellness program.

Our ultimate goal is to create a game-changing system of care for children that can be replicated across the country. To that end, we are building a model that can be effectively implemented in diverse communities and sustained on public funding. In 2020 we expanded our student and family population in East Palo Alto and opened our new site in the East Bay. It's an exciting time to join the team!

We opened our second site in the East Bay in 2020 with a founding class of three-year-old children and families. During the first year of operation in San Lorenzo, parents with toddlers engaged in programming focused on family well-being and preschool readiness. Parents then enrolled in the preschool in the fall of 2021. We will be enrolling our second cohort of four-year-olds to begin preschool in August 2022. Drawing on key learnings from our first site, core components of the model include partnering closely with parents throughout their child's development and supporting parent wellness; coordinating early screening and developmental support and offering a full-day school starting with three-year-olds; and working with existing health care providers in the community to coordinate care for children.

The Lead Teacher reports to the School Leader and is responsible for not only leading their own instruction, but also supporting Associate and Assistant teachers on their team in developing and executing comprehensive, integrated units across all parts of a student's day. Lead Teachers are tone setters for the school and are responsible for high quality instruction, culture building within and across classrooms, and strengthening home-school connections through deep engagement with families. Lead Teachers also serve as our models for how to deeply integrate academics, socio-emotional learning, and health into our classrooms on a daily basis.

Responsibilities

• Annual, weekly, and daily instructional planning tailored to the needs of each child
• Instructional delivery in large group, small group, and individualized formats
• Regular formative/summative assessment and analysis of quantitative and qualitative student data with the goal of tailoring responsive instruction and support
• Ongoing support and coaching of the Associate Teacher and Assistant Teacher that make up your Classroom Team
• Collaboration with other teachers to practice skills and jointly problem solve
• Regular meetings with and outreach to families, including daily documentation and notes
• Proactive collaboration and frequent engagement with The Primary School Parent Coaches and staff, and external health practitioners and partners
• Participation in reflection and regular coaching, both 1:1 with the School Leader and in group context with colleagues
• Active participation in the ongoing design and implementation of the The Primary School model through research, curriculum development, engagement with school and organizational leadership, and focused professional development
• Coordinate family engagement activities to encourage family participation in school related events

The critical features of this role are described above but are not all encompassing; as our school grows and evolves your responsibilities may shift accordingly.

QUALIFICATIONS

• You have a Bachelor's degree, Master's preferred
• You have a minimum of 3 years of experience as a classroom teacher and hold deep and diverse instructional competence. (50 days of 3+ hours per day within 2 years)
• You have a minimum of 12 units of ECE
• Your work demonstrates a practice of creating transformative classroom culture for all kids. You are committed to social justice and take proactive steps to build an equitable classroom practice
• You enthusiastically utilize data to understand what a student needs and to personalize instruction accordingly
• You have a parent- and family-centered mindset
• You recognize the multidimensional needs of children and families, because in your own way, you've been trying to weave education, health, and family support services together for your students
• You get that starting a new school and organization is no easy task and are not scared - in fact, you're energized - by the idea of putting in the long hours and deep commitment needed to bring The Primary School to life
• You are unafraid of diversity and engage confidently across differences.
• You are kind, humble, and collaborative

• You have an understanding of early childhood education and child development.
• You have experience weaving social-emotional learning concepts into every day, with the children and families.
• You are familiar with the concept of being regulated and dysregulated, and how it ties into the brain states.
• You have experience with child-centered emergent curriculum.
• You speak fluent Spanish or Chinese.
• You live in or have ties to the East Bay.

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this position. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the functions. While performing the duties of this position, the employee is regularly required to talk, hear, and communicate with both adults and children. The employee frequently is required to use hands or fingers, handle or feel objects, tools, or controls. The employee is frequently required to stand, walk, sit, and reach with hands and arms. The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 50 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this position include close vision, distance vision, and the ability to adjust focus. The noise level in the work environment is moderate to high.

Compensation is commensurate with qualifications and experience, plus excellent health benefits, 401k retirement plan with employer matching, flexible spending account (FSA), dependent care FSA, and generous paid time off, including a competitive paid parental leave benefit.

TPS values diversity; people of all backgrounds are encouraged to apply. In particular, we deeply value staff who share the identities and lived experiences of the historically underrepresented students and families we serve. TPS is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate in its employment decisions.

Please complete the following application and submit your most recent resume. These short-answer questions are designed to replace a cover letter, so take your time with them and copy in your answers from a separate document. If you feel that the questions do not accurately capture what you have to offer The Primary School, you are also welcome to attach a cover letter. Applications are being reviewed on a rolling basis so we encourage you to submit yours soon. We look forward to reading your application!