Overton-Knox Campus Leader :

This is a unique position in the district, and the opportunity to make a generational impact on the city of Salisbury, NC. Your role will have two distinct parts that must be managed simultaneously:

• Principal of Overton Elementary School, a school in transition for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 school years
• Facilitator of a community-driven design process to establish the vision and school model for the new Overton-Knox campus starting in the Fall of 2026, when Overton will begin to serve students in grades PreK through 2 and the new Knox (name TBD) will serve students in grades 3-8. This design process will work to center the voices of stakeholders closest to the work, particularly the students who will attend school at the new Knox and their families, in reimagining school, starting from the school’s goals, and extending to the specific types of innovative programming the school should offer.

The structure of this role for 2026-27 and beyond will be determined as part of the community-driven design process, based on developing the leadership structure that will most effectively support the new vision for the Overton-Knox campus. For example, the Overton-Knox Campus Leader may become the PK-2 Overton principal, the 3-8 Knox principal, or continue as the leader of the PK-8 Overton-Knox campus.

Overview of the Overton-Knox Redesign Project:

Knox Middle School was established in 1958, within the Salisbury City Schools, and was the sole public middle school in the Rowan County seat of Salisbury until its closing and demolition in 2023. It was regarded as one of the best public schools in the state of North Carolina in its early years, but had struggled in recent years, with a deteriorating facility, low academic outcomes and a high volume of disruptive behaviors that served as an obstacle to learning. Knox developed a reputation in the county for being unable to provide the education community members wanted, causing more community members to choose to send their students to middle schools outside of the district. While many efforts were made over the years to improve Knox, from offering accelerated programs for students to trying a co-principal model to offering additional stipends to attract committed educators, and some of these showed potential including Knox being one of the few schools in the state to show academic growth during the COVID-19 pandemic, Knox’s negative reputation– particularly amongst those who did not have personal experience of the school– continued. At the same time, caregivers, former staff, and alumni report that Knox maintained the sense of community and strong teacher-student relationships it had historically fostered, serving as a family and a place where they felt deep belonging.

Discussion of the future of Knox was ongoing in the community for over two decades, and distrust of the district surfaced from the community as they didn’t see action. Finally in the spring of 2023, the school was demolished and, starting in the 2023-24 school year, Knox students were dispersed to four other middle schools in the Rowan-Salisbury School System. Currently there is no middle school operating in the city limits of Salisbury, but the district is committed to building a new Knox and healing existing wounds in the community by ensuring community voices are centered in the new design. The Rowan-Salisbury School system partnered with Transcend, a nonprofit that supports communities across the country to reimagine school, from February through May 2024. We engaged in deep community research to learn about Knox Middle School’s history, the most recent state of its student experiences, and the community’s aspirations for its future. We held focus groups and interviews with students (current 7th and 8th graders who attended Knox last year, Salisbury High 9th graders who graduated from Knox and who’d attended middle school out of district, and 5th graders who’d be slated to attend Knox), caregivers of those groups of students, former Knox staff members and leaders, all members of the School Board, and a wide range of community members. We also administered the Leaps for 21st Century Learning Survey with all students who attended Knox in the 2023-24 school year and engaged members of the cabinet about their assessment of the district’s Conditions for Innovation around the Overton-Knox project. We synthesized community insights based on that research and used them to create an initial Case for Change to serve as a communication tool to establish a common vision for what comes next. The next crucial step is to hire a transformational school leader who can pick up the reins of this project and shepherd its next phase.

The Work

The priorities for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 school years in this role will include:

• Set and execute on a clear vision for Overton’s two final years serving K-5, in ways that prioritize the best possible experience and outcomes for existing students and align to the emerging vision for the new Overton-Knox campus. Given the range of other priorities for the Overton-Knox Campus Leader, Overton may operate with a more distributed leadership model than some other RSSS schools, with some typical principal job functions performed by other building leaders under the supervision and management of the Overton-Knox Campus Leader, who will still ultimately be responsible for the education provided to Overton students.
• Complete a School Design Blueprint, by facilitating a Community Design Team– a broad range of stakeholders including alumni, future students, past Knox and current Overton staff members, family members of future students, and community partners– to use design thinking to reimagine school and ensure that a comprehensive vision is outlined for the PreK through 8th grade model for the Overton-Knox campus
• Build conviction in the community about the vision for the new Overton-Knox campus and school models, creating systems and relationships that utilize the community’s diversity, ideological differences, and expertise to realize the vision for Overton-Knox.
• Coordinate the piloting process to test elements of the design at Overton in 2025-26 and improve them based on feedback from stakeholders
• Ensure all materials and resources (i.e. budget, curriculum, schedules) are ready for bringing the School Design Blueprint to life in the 2026-27 school year, through building and coordinating with Transcend, working groups made up of Community Design Team members, and others.
• Partner with the RSSS Superintendent and her Cabinet– including co-generative dialogue between students, families and staff that informs and shapes the emerging vision– to develop a highly effective school leadership structure across the two schools of the Overton-Knox campus and recruit a highly effective staff for both schools
•  Prepare to onboard the staff of both schools on the Overton-Knox campus, including developing a scope and sequence for professional development, and systems for coaching, support, and management, to support staff to bring the School Design Blueprint vision to life
•  Partner with RSSS district leaders to ensure consistent, proactive communication with local families to ensure that they are aware of each step in the process,
•  Partner with RSSS leaders to navigate and coordinate the construction project for the new Knox, ensuring that the programming designed maximizes the space being built

Accomplishing these goals will mean splitting your time between the day-to-day leadership of Overton Elementary and redesign work.

The Person

•  Aligned with, passionate about, and invested in the Case For Change that has been developed based on community research and facilitating a community-driven design process
•  An experienced leader, with at least 5 years of experience leading, managing, and coaching a team of adults with clear evidence of being able to drive results through the supervision of others
•  Entrepreneurial
•  Comfortable with rapid growth and evolution within an innovative educational model
•  Skilled in starting and growing a new program
•  A visionary who can construct, implement, and successfully reach a desired outcome, in true partnership with community
•  Committed to staying at the Overton-Knox campus for at least 4 years

A leader who demonstrates:

•  Self-awareness, demonstrating an accurate idea of one's own strengths and weaknesses
•  An ability to treat all members of the school's community with respect and to inspire others
•  Strong organizational, self-management, and problem-solving skills, with the ability to handle many responsibilities simultaneously
•  Enthusiasm, energy, and optimism, even in the face of challenges
•  Adeptness in managing change, coupled with innovative thinking to surmount obstacles
•  A belief in the value of building relationships and balancing empowering staff and students while ensuring accountability
•  Composed demeanor during crises, underpinned by optimism and resilience
•  Confident and effective communication, adjusting styles to suit diverse audiences
•  Empathetic listening skills and high emotional intelligence
•  Strategic thinking, critically assessing information, data, and processes to facilitate organizational improvement 

• A model of the qualities we expect from all staff of the Overton-Knox campus:
•  Intellectual curiosity and openness
•  Passion for teaching and learning
•  A love for, appreciation of, and deep commitment to young people
•  A love and appreciation for growing and building a powerful and collaborative school team
•  Strong collaboration, interpersonal, and communication skills, including an ability to work effectively with people from diverse backgrounds and with diverse perspectives and to maintain strong professional relationships
•  A hunger for feedback and self-improvement
•  A high level of ownership over the overall outcomes of the scholars they lead

We're Committed To Giving You

•  NC principal salary scale plus $30k additional annual stipend in acknowledgement of the two distinct roles this person will play (principal leader of community-driven design process