Early Childhood - Director

Isidore Newman School seeks its next Director of Green Trees, the leader of the School's early childhood division serving 166 children and employing 42 educators in Uptown New Orleans.

Green Trees is a co-equal division within Newman. The Director sits on the Senior Leadership Team alongside the heads of the Lower, Middle, and Upper Schools, holds a full voice in institutional decisions, and leads a division with its own philosophy, its own leadership team, and its own budget. For an early childhood leader accustomed to advocating for a seat at the table, that seat is already set.
The division is strong. After decades of operating Greenie House, a childcare program for Newman faculty and staff, Green Trees opened in 2015 and has built a distinctive practice grounded in the image of the child as capable, competent, and curious. The program needs a leader who can honor what has been built, sharpen it, and carry it forward.

• Acting as the educational leader of Green Trees, responsible for its day-to-day operation.
• Serving as an active and effective member of the Senior Leadership Team, contributing authentically on school-wide and institutional matters.
• Hiring, supporting, and supervising Green Trees faculty; assessing performance; and, with the Associate Head of School and Head of School, addressing personnel issues and division staffing.
• Supervising and developing the CPST, the division's leadership team.
• Ensuring curriculum is developmentally appropriate and aligned with the Green Trees philosophy.
• Ensuring all state licensing requirements are met.
• Leading the ongoing self-examination of the program, in consultation with the CPST.
• Participating in admission events and in decisions regarding enrollment and retention.
• Ensuring that Newman's core values of honesty, kindness, respect, and responsibility are upheld daily by adults and children, and addressing matters of student well-being - social-emotional, behavioral, or pedagogical - promptly and effectively.
• Communicating in effective, timely, and meaningful ways with faculty, staff, and families.
• Maintaining a safe and secure environment for working, learning, and teaching, and sustaining a culture that values diversity and inclusion.

• At least five years of combined teaching and leadership experience in early childhood or lower elementary settings.
• A strong understanding of child development and a genuine love of working with young children.
• Demonstrated success leading adults collaboratively.
• A strong understanding of instructional leadership.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills.
• Exceptional organizational skills and attention to detail.
• Familiarity with Reggio-inspired or similarly constructivist, inquiry-driven practice.

• A graduate degree, or equivalent professional preparation and study in early childhood education.
• Experience with state licensing or regulatory compliance in an early childhood setting. Louisiana-specific experience is not required; a willingness to learn the state's requirements is.
• Experience with strategic planning, faculty hiring, teacher evaluation, scheduling, curriculum development, budgets, and the management of complex processes.

• A generous spirit, a positive attitude, and a sense of humor.
• A collaborative and collegial leadership style that encourages faculty to take risks and pursue their passions.
• Confidence balanced by humility - the ability to hold one's own with a strong faculty and parent body with high expectations.
• A willingness to be a visible presence in all areas of school life.
• Keen interest in continuous improvement, intellectual curiosity, and an analytical approach to problem-solving.
• Creativity and openness to innovation, coupled with the capacity to understand an existing culture and a rich institutional history.
• Readiness to serve as a role model of the School's Five Guiding Frameworks.
• Authentic enthusiasm for New Orleans and for Newman's place in it.