Founding Center Director

Position Overview:

The Founding Center Director serves as the educational, operational, and spiritual leader of the flagship St. Lawrence Campus of the St. Carlo Acutis Catholic Early Learning Network. Reporting directly to the Executive Director, the Director is responsible for ensuring that every aspect of the Center reflects the mission, Catholic identity, educational philosophy, strategic priorities, and operational standards established by the Executive Director and Board of Directors while faithfully advancing the mission of the Diocese of Bridgeport.

As the founding leader of the Network's flagship campus, the Director will establish the culture, systems, traditions, and professional standards that will shape future St. Carlo Acutis Early Learning Centers throughout the Diocese. The Director will recruit and develop an exceptional founding faculty, inspire a joyful Catholic culture rooted in faith and excellence, and ensure that every child is known, loved, challenged, and formed as a child of God.

The Founding Center Director partners closely with the Executive Director to implement the strategic vision established by the Executive Director and Board of Directors while exercising sound educational leadership, operational stewardship, and unwavering commitment to Catholic identity.

This leader is expected to build a model campus that demonstrates excellence in child development, family partnership, faculty formation, operational quality, and evangelization.

• Ensure Catholic identity is authentically integrated throughout every aspect of the Center.
• Lead daily prayer and faith formation for faculty, children, and families.
• Oversee faithful implementation of Catechesis of the Good Shepherd.
• Model joyful Christian discipleship through humility, servant leadership, integrity, and authentic witness.
• Partner with parents as the primary educators of their children.
• Build a culture marked by reverence, beauty, gratitude, kindness, excellence, and joy.
• Collaborate with parish leadership to strengthen the relationship between the Center, parish, and Diocese.
• Support family faith formation and encourage lifelong discipleship.

• Recruit, hire, onboard, mentor, evaluate, and retain outstanding founding faculty and staff.
• Build a collaborative culture characterized by trust, accountability, professionalism, and continuous improvement.
• Provide meaningful instructional coaching and leadership development.
• Supervise curriculum implementation and instructional quality.
• Monitor child development and school readiness.
• Support growth in early literacy, language, mathematics, executive functioning, and social-emotional development.
• Maintain beautiful, engaging, developmentally appropriate classroom environments.
• Identify and develop future teacher leaders.
• Ensure compliance with diocesan Safe Environment expectations and educational standards.

• Lead implementation of all operational systems necessary for a successful founding campus.
• Ensure compliance with Connecticut licensing requirements.
• Maintain the highest standards of health, safety, supervision, and child protection.
• Oversee enrollment, admissions, scheduling, attendance, and recordkeeping.
• Manage the approved operating budget responsibly while exercising prudent stewardship of financial, personnel, and facility resources.
• Monitor staffing levels and approve purchases within delegated authority.
• Maintain emergency preparedness and campus safety.
• Implement strategic priorities and operational initiatives established by the Executive Director and approved by the Board of Directors.
• Provide timely operational, enrollment, financial, and program information to the Executive Director to support organizational leadership and Board governance.
• Build operational systems that promote consistency, excellence, and long-term sustainability.

• Welcome prospective families with warmth and hospitality.
• Conduct tours and enrollment conversations.
• Maintain clear, timely communication with parents.
• Address concerns with professionalism, empathy, and integrity.
• Build a strong parent community rooted in…