| Start date: July 1, 2021 School & Position Overview: With 265 students, sought after graduates, over fifty years educating Bay Area children and teens, and located on two bustling, beautiful campuses in Corte Madera and San Rafael, Marin Montessori School is seeking its next Junior High Director to join our vibrant school community. A senior administrative position, the Junior High Director works closely and collaboratively with the faculty, Head of School, and administrative team. Our shared goal is to continue to cultivate a highly effective and inspired adolescent learning community, one that embodies excellent Montessori outcomes: independence, emotional intelligence, rich curiosity, intellectual aptitude, and an instinct toward and capacity for collaboration and compassion. Marin Montessori School recently completed a $3.5mm capital campaign and the expansion of our Corte Madera campus, creating a stunning waterfront and nature-rich elementary wing. Committed to inclusion, $1mm of MMS’s $9mm annual budget is awarded in tuition assistance every year. As a Green-Ribbon awarded school committed to making a positive impact on our environment, MMS was proud to welcome former Vice President Al Gore as the keynote speaker in 2019-2020; he spoke on climate change and youth activism at the school’s annual fundraiser in support of tuition assistance. This coming spring, chef and food activist Alice Waters will serve as the keynote speaker. This is an especially thrilling time to join Marin Montessori School, a school with recognized accreditations from both AMI (Association Montessori International) and CAIS (California Association of Independent Schools). With recent articles in the Wall Street Journal and Harvard Business Review touting the benefits of a Montessori education, along with the knowledge that students from our Junior High program are thriving and matriculating to outstanding high schools, Bay Area families are increasingly interested in making MMS their long-term school. Marin Montessori is a community of passionate educators, flourishing students, and engaged and enthusiastic families. The MMS Junior High: Situated on a bucolic, semi-rural location in San Rafael, and including an acre of farmland, animals, and apiaries, the Junior High serves between 45 and 55 adolescent students every year, from grades 7-9. Highly interdisciplinary, project-based, and place-based, the Junior High offers compelling academics (math, science, humanities), and leadership and creative opportunities such that the students remain tremendously engaged in their studies, happy to come to school, and curious and self-aware. Alumni matriculate well-prepared to a variety of excellent high schools. MMS graduates are known to be inquisitive, engaged learners who are highly self-possessed, kind, confident, and socially and emotionally intelligent. Position Summary: The Junior High Director ensures outstanding teaching and learning in each class offering—characterized by interdisciplinary, experiential, social-emotional, and project and place-based learning. The Director leads the cultivation of an inclusive and safe community culture and generates and sustains trust in and enthusiasm for MMS with current and prospective families. Montessori Background: MMS is committed to authentic Montessori education. If the ideal candidate is not Montessori trained, they will need a depth of passion for and experience with interdisciplinary, experiential education and adolescents, as well as an interest in and commitment to the further study of Montessori adolescent pedagogy. Regardless, all candidates will need a successful track record of significant, meaningful administration and leadership experience. Key Responsibilities: - Ensure faculty have the tools and skills required to deliver the highest quality learning experience for students
- Support continued cross-curricular programming opportunities, weaving robust academic learning with land-based experiences and projects on our acre farm, gardens, and apiary
- Take an active interest in parent perceptions, questions, and concerns. Proactively address these with the goals of positive parent relationships and faculty’s trust and agency
- Support Admissions in attracting, admitting, and retaining mission-appropriate families and students
- Manage operations at the Junior High, including but not limited to Learning Support Services, schedule, Creative Expression, and Physical Education specialists, and class offerings
- Serve as a pedagogical ambassador: In writing and speech communicate effectively the value and rationale of a Montessori adolescent education in the 21st century
- Ensure students are well prepared for high school and support students, families, teachers, and the High School Placement Consultant in the high school admissions process
- Work closely with the Head of School in planning and executing strategic initiatives
- Supervise Assistant Administrator
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