Children’s Center Director

Description

Easterseals Blake Foundation started as the Cerebral Palsy Foundation of Southern Arizona. Since then, we have expanded our services to better serve our community members. We are now one of Arizona's top providers of comprehensive behavioral health services, child welfare, and services for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. We serve more than 40,000 individuals and families across 10 counties and support more than 3,700 children in Foster Care throughout Southern Arizona. Are you ready to make profound, positive differences in people's lives every day?

We offer our full-time employees the following benefits:

• Medical, Dental and Vision
• Flexible Spending Account and Dependent Flexible Spending Account
• Health Savings Account
• Voluntary Life insurance
• Voluntary Short-term Disability insurance
• Critical Illness insurance
• Accident insurance
• Employer paid life insurance, long-term disability insurance, and Employee Assistance Program

Program Summary: Palomita Children's Center enrolls children of all abilities between the ages of one until kindergarten eligible. We are an Early Head Start/Head Start site utilizing individualized, emergent curriculum that is framed around the Arizona Early Learning Standards and the Infant/Toddler Developmental Guidelines. NAEYC Accredited, Quality First 5 Star, AZ State Licensed Child Care Center.

General Position Description: Provides leadership to the Early Learning Center team.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Ensures that all aspects of the program comply with requirements and/or standards of the Office of Child Care Licensure, Early Head Start/Head Start National Performance Standards, National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) accreditation, and Quality First.
• Prepares policy & procedure statements and manuals. Ensures that adequate quality assurance systems are in place and utilized.
• Monitors that all reporting requirements and deadlines for related programs are met, including the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), First Things First (FTF), Early Head Start/Head Start (EHS/HS), NAEYC, Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) licensure, EBF, private donors, etc.
• Recruits children and maintains enrollment through effective marketing strategies. Reviews paperwork related to CACFP, Quality First, Department of Economic Security, Early Head Start & Head Start, and ADHS during the enrollment of children.
• Confers with any parent who expresses a complaint, concern, or ideas for improving the program. Assists teachers with formal parent-teacher conferences.
• Administers appropriate medications at parents' request and with proper medical documentation.
• Conducts monthly meetings for all staff and provides ongoing in-service training as required by the Office of Child Care Licensure. Holds monthly Parent Meetings open to all parents and families.
• Writes and manages reports for grant expenditures, enrollment, budget, and compliance.
• Maintains current personnel files and current children’s files in accordance with requirements of The Office of Child Care Licensure, Head Start, Early Head Start, and NAEYC.
• Provide a broad range of administrative and supervisory functions. Supervises assigned staff in accordance with EBF personnel practices including recruitment, training, performance evaluations, and day to day scheduling. Participates in the process of ongoing professional development. Maintains comprehensive communication among all contacts within the agency, members, and external agencies. Models professional standards and ethics in accordance with EBF Code of Conduct, Strategic Plan, Mission, and Vision.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in early childhood education, child development, or closely related field (including at least 9 credits of specialized college-level coursework in administration, leadership and management and at least 24 credits of specialized college-level coursework in early childhood) required.
• Bilingual (Spanish) preferred.

Regulatory

• Must be at least 21 years of age.
• Current, unrestricted AZ driver’s license with no more than two (2) minor moving violations or one (1) accident within the past three (3 years). Three (3) years of driving experience required.
• Must be able to pass a criminal background check.
• Ability to obtain and maintain an AZ DPS Level 1 fingerprint clearance card (employer provides).
• CPR and First Aid certification (Employer provides).
• Must obtain and pass a funder required physical exam and have a TB skin test before beginning employment (Employer provides).

Skills/Job Knowledge/Abilities: Able to establish and maintain a team atmosphere of communication and collaboration for all that reach out to the Center. Must be self-directed and be sensitive to cultural and linguistic diversity. Excellent customer service in stressful situations. Maintains a professional appearance, communications, and actions. Excellent interpersonal communication skills. Demonstrated ability to administer a program and budget of comparable scope and complexity. Demonstrated professional skills in the area of curriculum planning, in-service training, program goal setting, lesson planning, and assessment procedures for evaluating the progress of individual children. Knowledge of and experience with Ages and Stages Questionnaire, Teaching Strategies Gold, Head Start and Early Head Start requirements, NAEYC Accreditation, Office of Child Care Licensure Revised Requirements, ECERS, ITERS, and CLASS assessment tools, Arizona Early Learning Standards, Quality First, and CACFP. Demonstrated ability to develop new and imaginative programs within early childhood. Possess a high level of computer proficiency.

Working Conditions/Physical Requirements (with or without accommodation):

Normal classroom and office environment with multiple interruptions in person and through computer and phone. Will work in outside and inside environments, as needed. Interacts with employees and members of the public daily. Able to lift up to 50lbs to support child wellbeing. Visual acuity to read information from computer screens, forms, and to assess the wellbeing of children. Able to communicate verbally with enrolled families and emergency personnel as needed for daily operations. Hearing ability for communication in persona, phone, and/or other electronic methods. Manual dexterity for typing, writing, and to assist children and families. Able to stoop, squat, reach, pull, push, stretch, ascend and descend stairs, stand and sit for long periods of time. May be required to work additional hours or days depending on circumstances.

Easterseals Blake Foundation and Aviva are an Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative action employer that promotes a work environment of inclusion and diversity. We are committed to provide employment opportunities to all candidates based on their qualifications free of discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation or gender identity), age, disability, veteran status, genetic information, mental or physical disability, or any other characteristic protected by law.

If you have any questions, require assistance or reasonable accommodations while seeking employment, please contact the Human Resource Department at HR@blake.easterseals.com or call 520-327-1529.

Salary : $47,000 - $53,000