Primary School Academic Director; Principal Pool

Uplift

Education:

Primary School Academic Director (Principal) Pool (26-27)

Date Posted: 12/9/2025

Closing Date: 01/07/2026

Position Type:
Administration - Deans, Directors, etc/ Director - Academic

Location:

Central Management Office Dallas

Mission Statement: Uplift's mission is to create and sustain public schools of excellence that empower each student to reach their highest potential in college and the global marketplace and that inspire in students a life-long love of learning, achievement, and service in order to positively change their world.

The Primary School  Academic Director is the leader of the school and, in conjunction with the Operations Director, is responsible for all aspects of running the school. The Primary School  Academic Director sets the instructional and academic vision for the school, aligned with Uplift's IB vision for excellence. They will establish and maintain a supportive, respectful learning environment and guide the school leadership team to develop the talent on campus to achieve strong academic and cultural outcomes.

The Primary School Director will partner and work effectively with the campus leadership team as well as other leaders across the network to realize Uplift's mission for the communities it serves.

• Develop and execute on a strategic vision for school that aligns with network priorities
• Establish and maintain a shared vision of success for staff members and scholars
• Outline clear goals for the school and create targets and aligned strategies to continually improve scholar outcomes through teacher and staff effectiveness
• Establish and maintain a culture of continuous improvement
• Serve as visible campus leader in the community with families, community partners, and board members

• Establish and implement systems and protocols to regularly and effectively assess school wide instructional practice
• Coach and develop Deans, teacher leaders and a portfolio of teachers, as applicable
• Observe staff members regularly and provide targeted feedback
• Monitor progress of teams (grade level/content area) through debriefs, observation, and academic data review at frequent checkpoints
• Create, deliver and manage professional development offerings for staff members aligned to campus priorities
• Facilitate data meetings and action planning with leadership and other key teams
• Analyze and synthesize school, teacher, and scholar data regularly in order to plan effective course corrections

• Establish school norms for all people managers at the school around people management and development
• Recruit, hire, mentor and retain high-quality and high-performing staff members
• Define expectations and goals for staff performance across all areas of their job to ensure school operations and goals are fulfilled
• Provide day to day feedback and coaching (performance/technical and developmental) to staff
• Serve as a thought partner and guide for planning professional development for direct reports aligned to developmental goals
• Observe employee performance, record observations, and conduct rigorous performance evaluations based in continuous improvement and accountability for results
• Supervise all employee discipline situations and make decisions about termination or suspension

• Ensure the student handbook and Code of Conduct is published and applied in compliance with Uplift guidelines, and that all related procedures regarding student discipline, investigations and documentation standards are correctly executed
• Ensure rules are implemented consistently and that scholar discipline is appropriate and equitable in accordance with the handbook and Code of Conduct, with an emphasis on the use of restorative practices
• Support the Dean with preparing for and facilitating meetings/conference with parents, scholars and teachers
• Facilitate and/or conduct high priority meetings with parents, scholars and teachers with emergency or repeated violations of the Code of Conduct, including making recommendations for scholar expulsion
• Create or facilitate the creation of systems to ensure strong plans are in place for scholar services and management (support services, discipline management, etc.)
• Encourage and foster strong relationships with families to encourage community involvement in the school

The Academic Director is responsible for acting professionally and ethically at all times, while relentlessly pursuing continual improvement.

• Model and demonstrate the highest standard of professional conduct, ethical principles and integrity in decision making, actions and behaviors
• Seek and engage in learning opportunities to develop holistically as leader (technical skill development, adaptive leadership development, cultural development)
• Attend and participate in network leadership meetings, academies, conferences, as applicable
• Implement practices…