JUNIOR HIGH/MIDDLE SCHOOL DIRECTOR (Division Head)

Start Date: July, 2025

Exempt/Salary Range $120,000-150,000

School & Position Overview: 

With 260 students total--and 45 in the Junior High program --sought after graduates, over sixty 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 an outstanding educator and leader to head the Junior High program and join our vibrant school community.

A senior administrative position, the Junior High Director works closely and collaboratively with a dynamic, high functioning seven-person faculty team, Farm and Kitchen Manager, Assistant Administrator, Consulting Psychologist, and High School Placement Consultant. They also work closely with the Head of School, two other division directors, and a number of other administrators. Our shared goal is clear: to continue to cultivate a world class Montessori adolescent program and community for middle school aged children (12-15 years old) from which students emerge deeply passionate about learning, self-aware, socially and emotionally intelligent, and well prepared to transition successfully as independent young adults into high school and beyond.

This is an especially thrilling time to join Marin Montessori, a highly regarded Bay Area not-for-profit school with 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. 

MMS 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, over $1mm of MMS’s $9mm annual budget is awarded in tuition assistance every year to approximately thirty percent of our students.  As a Green-Ribbon awarded school committed to making a positive impact on our environment, in 2020 we were proud to welcome former Vice President Al Gore as our keynote speaker. At our annual fundraiser in support of tuition assistance, he spoke on climate change and youth activism. The following year, chef and food activist Alice Waters supported MMS as our keynote fundraising speaker. 

Marin Montessori is a community of passionate educators, flourishing students, and engaged and enthusiastic families. 

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.

Key Responsibilities

• Ensuring that faculty have the tools and skills required to deliver the highest quality learning experience for students
• Supporting continued cross-curricular programming opportunities, weaving robust academic learning with land based experiences and projects on our acre farm, gardens, and apiary
• Taking an active interest in parent perceptions, questions and concerns. Proactively addressing these with the goals of positive parent relationships and faculty’s trust and agency
• Supporting Admissions in attracting, admitting, and retaining mission-appropriate families and students 
• Managing operations at the Junior High, including but not limited to scheduling, Creative Expression and Physical Education specialists, trip leadership, and class offerings
• Serving as a pedagogical ambassador: In writing and speech communicating effectively the value and rationale of a Montessori adolescent education in the 21st century
• Ensuring students are well prepared for high school and supporting students, families, teachers, and our High School Placement Consultant in the high school admissions process
• Working closely with the Head of School and fellow division directors in planning and executing strategic initiatives

The successful candidate will be:

High Functioning:

• Skillful in managing the multi-faceted, fluid needs of the day-to-day operations of the program, along with other administrative and long-term strategic visioning, planning and implementation needs
• Highly organized, detail oriented, punctual, and with a demonstrated track record of independently managing and meeting deadlines
• Fully reliable: does what they say, and says what they do
• Superlative writer, discussion facilitator, and public speaker

High Integrity

• Inspires self and others to continually strive for excellence, possessing the vision, empathy, and humor needed to make the hard work energizing and unifying
• Maturely self-possessed and self-aware: doing what is right for the school and students is key source of satisfaction (rather than adoration from or popularity with students, faculty, or families)
• Direct communicator: eschews gossip, triangulating, and “venting,” and models direct, compassionate, forward-looking communication and problem solving
• “Radical Ownership” attitude: takes full responsibility and actively and resiliently strives to affect positive change, regardless of the level of challenge; resonates with the motto, “Don’t blame the world; find a solution.”
• Rock solid inner-ethical compass and core; habitually honest

High Warmth:

• Infectious enthusiasm for education, and for the foibles, fun and potentials of young adolescents
• Compassionate and patient with parental anxieties without over-indulging entitled parental behaviors
• Exceptionally positive interpersonal and communication skills, including mature conflict resolution capacities, a generally optimistic attitude, and a strong capacity to create warm connections with others
• Emotionally intelligent, with the ability to convey a non-anxious presence and access both vulnerability and strong, decisive leadership to connect and inspire
• Transparent with motivations and thinking. Confident, not arrogant. Humble, not meek. Inclusive and kind to all

High Process-Oriented

• Skillful in collaborating with colleagues through inclusive, thoughtful, and consistent processes, while also knowing when their decisiveness is called for—even should the decisions be unpopular
• Systems thinker: can identify root causes of challenges and smart strategies for creating systemic improvements and solutions
• Powerfully “growth mindset” oriented in all they do

Required Qualifications:

• Rich experience teaching and working closely with adolescents and their families
• Experience observing, coaching, and evaluating teachers toward continued growth
• Experience successfully leading teams
• Experience developing and managing program-level budgets
• Even-keeled, mature, responsive temperament to model steadiness for the highly energetic adolescent community, busy faculty, and engaged parents
• Passion for and experience with interdisciplinary, experiential, place-based educational models
• Ability to prioritize and manage multiple tasks within a variety of demands
• Discretion and candor, and unquestionable ability to maintain confidentiality and act ethically and professionally
• Supervisory experience
• Growth mindset: a love of brainstorming ideas, collaborating, learning through feedback, always striving for excellence and growth
• Must be able to lift and carry 25 pounds

Apply on our website: https://marinmontessori.applicantpro.com/jobs/

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 experiential education and adolescents, and an interest in and commitment to the further study of Montessori adolescent pedagogy.

Education Requirement: Bachelor’s degree

Preferred Qualifications: Master’s degree. Certificate of Completion of the AMI/NAMTA Orientation to Adolescent Studies

Apply on our website: https://marinmontessori.applicantpro.com/jobs/

About Marin Montessori School

Marin Montessori School's Mission: "Education for Life" The mission of Marin Montessori School, in adherence to the principles of the Association Montessori Internationale (AMI) as envisioned by Dr. Maria Montessori, is to nurture the development of each child in our diverse community to his or her fullest potential – an independent, responsible, compassionate, learned individual who thinks critically and realizes clearly his or her role in the world. Thus, our mission is to provide education for life.

Connections working at Marin Montessori School