Position:                Theater Instructor - 1-year interim role

Reports to:            John Knecht, Performing Arts Chair

Date Written:         May  2025

Status:                  Exempt (Salaried)

Pay Scale:            $65,000-$109,000 base salary determined by years of experience

Housing:               This role comes with campus housing and associated responsibilities

Contact: hiring@cate.org

School Overview

Cate School is committed to attracting and retaining a highly talented and diverse community.  We seek applications from candidates who are eager to live among and teach young people from all over the world. A small co-educational boarding school on the Central Coast of California, Cate School offers a career opportunity for educators whose priorities and purposes mirror the four pillars of our mission statement--commitment, scholarship, companionship, and service.  

Cate School is committed to a policy of Equal Opportunity Employment and nondiscrimination in the treatment of employees or applicants for employment without consideration of race, color, ethnicity, religion, age, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, disability, veteran status, genetic information, gender, or gender identity. Research suggests that qualified women, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) may self-select out of opportunities if they don't meet 100% of the job requirements. We encourage individuals who believe they have the skills necessary to thrive to apply for this role.

Cate’s hiring process seeks to minimize bias by focusing on candidates' core competencies for each role. Candidates are encouraged to target application materials (cover letters, interview responses) on experiences that illuminate their experience demonstrating and/or aptitude for acquiring these core competencies.  

The Role

Job Description for Theater Instructor

Cate School is currently seeking highly qualified theater instructor candidates. The position will include close collaboration with performing arts colleagues while teaching and leading theater performance classes levels 1, 2, and 3, which may be co-enrolled. The position also includes a section of ninth-grade Foundation Arts, which meets 2-3 times per week. Co-curricular theatrical productions include the Fall Play, which meets during sports block daily and the Spring Musica,l which meets daily during the spring sports block and three evening nights from 6:15-7:45 pm from January through April. The Theater Instructor also supports performing arts at Cate broadly, including helping organize and direct occasional smaller performances as part of both the curricular and cocurricular life of the school. 

In addition to classroom instruction, teachers participate in department meetings and faculty meetings, as well as all-school events such as move-in weekend, family weekends, and commencement. Teachers motivate the greatest growth possible for all students by planning and running engaging classes, by assigning meaningful homework, and by offering office hours both during the academic day and during the evening.

In order to foster deep and multifaceted relationships with students, all Cate faculty members are involved in programming outside of the classroom, such as coaching or serving as a dorm parent and advisor. This residential role will include dorm parent responsibilities (or similar), participation in seated meals and convocations, and distributed and occasional responsibilities for supervising weekend events with students. Coaching responsibilities for this role are covered by the Fall and Spring Theater productions. As a 1-year interim role, this role does not include advisory. 

All Cate Employees live up to the following Essential Expectations: 

1. Overtly support and act according to the school’s mission and values.
2. Foster a safe, predictable, and supportive environment for employees and students.
3. Interact with colleagues in a respectful and collegial manner that fosters a healthy culture for living, learning, and working together.
4. Demonstrate commitment and courage in the service of building our school culture where diversity is affirmed and supported. 
5. Demonstrate appropriate planning and preparation to meet the complex and evolving needs of your role. 
6. Uphold professional standards of predictable presence, reliable responses, and relational trust.
7. Appropriately steward strategic and special projects associated with the role or team. 
8. Honor the confidentiality of School, student, and family information.
9. Comply with policies and procedures as articulated in the School's Employee Handbook.
10. Authentically engage in self-reflection in service to professional growth and adapting to the evolving needs of the school.

In the role of Theater Instructor, these essential expectations manifest as:

Collaborate

• work closely with course team teachers to deliver consistent, high-quality instruction and collaborate frequently on assessment measures 
• contribute to school-wide curricular priorities and initiatives
• participate in course team, department, school, and parent meetings
• communicate necessary information regularly to students, colleagues, and parents regarding student progress and student needs

Teach

• prepare and facilitate learning experiences that help students master content and develop skills as thespians and artists (Arts Department Inquiry Model)
• practice inclusive teaching by creating lessons and instructional moves that accommodate a wide range of students’ learning needs (Inclusive Teaching Model)
• guide and monitor student learning and growth through formative assessment and appropriate feedback
• assign and grade class work, homework, tests, essays, and other assignments in a timely, fair, and consistent manner
• maintain accurate and complete records of students' progress and development via the school’s learning management systems (Schoology and Veracross) 

Continue to Learn

• maintain a commitment to continuous professional growth through reflective practice, evaluative feedback, professional development opportunities, and evolving school needs
• stay up-to-date with current literature, including  texts by LGBTQ playwrights and playwrights of color as we continue to diversify our curriculum 
• Stay up-to-date in developments in education, teaching resources, and methods, and incorporate new pedagogical and curricular design practices

Demonstrate Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) 

• foster a sense of belonging for each student
• help advance the department’s objectives with regard to anti-racist teaching pedagogies, curriculum, and DEI-based student learning objectives 
• recognize, interrupt, and address incidents of bias among students and colleagues if they arise 
• Engage in continuous learning about our own identities, privilege, bias, and contribute to an anti-racist learning environment

The Candidate

Successful candidates will demonstrate their ability to meet these expectations through the following core competencies: 

• Proficiency in and/or aptitude toward inquiry-based pedagogy. 
• Proficiency in inclusive teaching pedagogy, including cultural competency, and the ability to communicate with, understand, and foster a sense of belonging for students of various cultural backgrounds, values, world views, and behaviors. 
• Ability and commitment to build multifaceted relationships with students, to maintain appropriate boundaries, and to leverage these relationships to support student development across all aspects of student learning and development. 
• Ability and commitment to collaborate with colleagues both within the department and as a part of the faculty as a whole. 
• Ability to develop, review, and refine curriculum to maximize student learning and sustain alignment, both horizontally and vertically within the department. 

Interested candidates should send a cover letter, CV, and two letters of reference to John Knecht, john_knecht@cate.org,  and hiring@cate.org.

In terms of education and experience, applicants for this position will have:

• minimally a BS or BA in Theater (or related field of study)
• experience teaching high school Theater courses and directing high school performances, including musicals. 
• demonstrated facility with or ability to learn LMS (Schoology, Veracross, etc.)
• demonstrated commitment to / love for working with teenagers as a role model, mentor, advisor
• demonstrated commitment to professionalism, collaboration, and growth

About Cate School

For over a century, Cate School has been blending together the tradition of the East Coast with the innovation of the West Coast in the service of a dynamic, diverse, and close-knit community. A four-year college preparatory school with a low student-to-faculty ratio, small class sizes, and inviting residential spaces, Cate’s inquiry-based program is designed to challenge, inspire, and support boarding and day students whose interests, abilities, characters, and aspirations make them individually and collectively exceptional. Join a professional community that is celebrated for its transformational pedagogy that fosters curiosity. Here, our faculty thrives within a dynamic culture driven by an unwavering dedication to the greatest growth possible, a spirit of innovation and progress, and a core of care and support for each member of this community.

Connections working at Cate School