Child Care Director

ACORN ACADEMY /

GOOD SHEPHERD CENTER
JOB DESCRIPTION

POSITION TITLE: Childcare Director

POSITION REPORTS TO: Director of Children’s Services

POSITION SUPERVISES: Teachers

Teacher Aides

POSITION SUMMARY: Administration and management of daily operations, services, finances, development and personal for the Center. The Childcare Director shall maintain a positive attitude and demonstrate commitment and support to Acorn Academy Schools by being fully cooperative and collaborative. They must demonstrate commitment to a high level of continuing professional competence and an ability to promote teamwork. The Childcare Director is ultimately responsible for the entire school but should delegate responsibilities to their assistant directors to ensure their schedule is flexible enough to exercise the freedom needed or required to address all unplanned responsibilities that arise. The essential functions listed in this job description are intended to describe the general nature and level of work performed by individuals assigned to this position. They are not intended to be an exhaustive list of duties, responsibilities and standards required of The Director. The Director should be flexible and perform other tasks as needed, and as may be assigned by the Executive Director.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS: Bachelor's degree or equivalent in Early Childhood Education, Child

Development, social welfare, public administration, human resources, day care administration, or one of the social sciences, and a minimum of three years pre-school management experience is required, three years of experience in the field of developmental disabilities preferred.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

1. Program Facilitator- Oversees the Early Childhood Education Program, including infant, toddler, two, preschool, Kindergarten and School Age classroom activities with a focus on continuous program improvement. Oversee process and create procedures to guide student admissions and retention. Develop criteria to guide student transition into elementary school. Manage the budget for the Pre-School program. Develop an appropriate report form and provide monthly reports at the weekly Administrative Meetings to provide the program status with respect to: a. Enrollment and attendance data; b. Any transitions: c. Assessments, surveys, and other efforts geared toward program quality; d. Professional development update and plans; e. Resource needs of program and plan for their purchase or acquisition; f. Teacher performance and any program or personnel concerns; g. General program concerns.

2. DCFS Licensing- Ensures program is in compliance with the licensing requirements of the Illinois

Department of Child and Family Services, including mandated child abuse reporting. The Director

should be very familiar with the IL Center Licensing Standards and at the minimum maintain those standards at all times.

3. Quality Programming- Ensure all participants follow health and safety procedures in the classroom and playground, collaborate with the Administrative Team to implement and revise all related policies and procedures, and immediately report any health or safety concerns to administration and undertake appropriate efforts to address those concerns. Implement the NAEYC Accreditation and

Excelerate standards for Continuous Quality Improvement with the goal of developing a model Early

Childhood Education Program. Responsible for analyzing any ECE related data from the TS Gold,

Ages & Stages, and Jackrabbit databases in order to report outcomes to the administrative team for review and for planning purposes. Distributes evaluation information to teachers and staff members, as needed.

4. Classroom Observations- Classrooms should be visited on a regular basis and a classroom observation form completed. Once complete the teaching staff should be given the written feedback and given an opportunity to respond in writing. While this duty may be delegated to the Education

Coordinator, Directors must verify this is being conducted. Directors must complete a monthly

Classroom Check-up to be turned in at the 3rd weekly administrative meeting each month. This may not be delegated to other staff.

5. Staff Management- Create plans, policies and procedures that are inclusive of all staff, show support for staff, build mutual trust, and foster support and collaboration between staff. Create annual school calendar, class schedules and staff schedules to provide adequate coverage for staff child ratio, meals, outdoor play, bathroom breaks and staff breaks. Supervises, guides, evaluates and provides guidance to teachers to ensure they have all the resources they need to succeed in their positions, as well as to ensure teacher accountability.

6. Classroom Management- Responsible for overseeing the development and implementation of lesson plans that will help children develop their cognitive, physical, socio-emotional and language skills for all classroom activities, including the Creative Curriculum. Train and coach teachers/teacher assistants and interns in areas related to the academic curriculum, social/emotional development of children and classroom management/discipline. Create a fully developed multi- cultural curriculum. Provide guidance and oversight to teachers on the development of student goals and weekly lesson plans. Ensure the input of all assessment data into the TS Gold online database in a timely manner.

7. Assessment- Manage all ECE assessments, including Ages & Stages and Brigance as necessary.

Assist teachers to utilize testing information on students in lesson planning, development of student goals and classroom management. Arranges referrals or observations by other early childhood professionals when indicated with the parent’s permission.

8. Recruitment- Develop and maintain a good reputation in the community for the Center which assures the recruitment of new children for the Center over time. This includes developing a good working relationship with the area school district, park programs and local hospital who then would serve as a referral source for new children.

9. Staff (Personnel) Records- Maintains a personal file and medical file on every staff member or volunteer. Verifies staff files are complete and maintains DCFS, QRS and NAEYC requirements (20 hours of in-service annually, up to date physical, transcripts, etc.).

10. Staff In-service and Training- Implement a Professional Development and Educational plan for all staff. Trains early childhood staff on topics relevant to daily childcare activities, curriculum and teamwork. Facilitates monthly staff meeting. The Director shall attend all required meetings and trainings. The Director will also strive to achieve personal/professional development by attending trainings and seeking appropriate resources to further obtain knowledge in the area of child development and program management.

11. Staff Evaluations- Conduct Teacher Evaluations in a timely manner (after their initial orientation, at

90 days and then annually)

12. Hiring and Termination- Coordinate hiring for school personnel including review of resumes, development of interview schedules and reference checks. The responsibility to inform staff of unsatisfactory performance in a timely and open manner and also where appropriate to provide employees an opportunity to correct unsatisfactory performance. Where an employee has been unable to correct the unsatisfactory performance, employee should be given notice of termination.

13. Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting/Mandated Reporter- All Acorn Academy School Staff are mandated reporters. Mandated reporters are required to report whenever, physical, sexual or other types of abuse has been observed or is suspected, or when there is evidence of neglect, knowledge of an incident, or an imminent risk of serious harm. The Director is responsible for informing all staff of their mandated reporter status and training them in the proper procedures. Staff concerned about a child’s safety should seek the Director for support when calling DCFS.

14. Family and Community Collaboration- Helps to establish and maintain a warm, welcoming, nurturing, safe and functional environment to enhance and promote learning as well as encourage parents to foster positive communications with primary caregivers. Collaborates with key staff to serve the needs of the families. Responsible for the development and implementation of Parent

Involvement, also referred to as the Three for Me program. Ensures parents complete program surveys twice a year. Oversees ECE program evaluation efforts and analyzes the data into concise reports for the Program Improvement Plan Meeting. Help and participate in other Acorn Academy

School special events.

15. Staff Surveys- The Director shall conduct 2 staff surveys per year.

16. Program Improvement Plan- Data collected from the Family and Staff Surveys shall be recorded and analyzed to create a Program Improvement Plan. Areas found to need work should be presented at the Staff and Parent Improvement meeting in order to create a Program Improvement.

17. Medication- The Director is responsible for ensuring proper medication administration training has been taken by all staff administering medication. The Director should also verify proper procedures are being followed.

____________________________________ _______________________

Center Director Date

____________________________________ _______________________

Executive Director Date

Job Type: Full-time

Pay: $45,760.00 - $48,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• Childcare
• Flexible schedule
• Health insurance
• Paid time off

Schedule:

• 8 hour shift

Work Location: In person

Salary : $45,760 - $48,000