High School Academic Director; Principal Pool

Uplift

Education:

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

• Date Posted: 12/9/2025
• Closing Date: 01/07/2026

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 High 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 director sets the instructional and academic vision for the school, aligned with Uplift's IB vision for excellence, establishes and maintains a supportive, respectful learning environment, and guides the school leadership team to develop the talent on campus to achieve strong academic and cultural outcomes.

The director partners and works 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 a strategic vision for the 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 a 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, observations, 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 to plan effective course corrections.

• Establish school norms for all people managers around people management and development.
• Recruit, hire, mentor, and retain high‑quality, 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 on 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/conferences with parents, scholars and teachers.
• Facilitate and/or conduct high‑priority meetings with parents, scholars and teachers concerning emergencies 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…