Student & Family Engagement Coordinator - Queens, NY

Center for Supportive Schools is a fast-paced, collegial, and team-oriented organization wholly committed to helping schools become places where students want to be. Our work directly addresses student disengagement, a root cause of diminished academic performance, students dropping out of school, and other high-risk student behaviors. We partner with schools in three areas: developing all students into leaders; empowering teachers to collaborate with each other and with students; and engaging entire school communities to improve how learning happens.

CSS is driven by the vision that one day, all students will thrive in schools that graduate them prepared for the rigors of college and lives filled with meaningful work, active citizenship, and personal fulfillment. Founded in 1979, we are a national organization currently impacting 45,000 students annually and committed to supporting every K-12 school in the country. Most of our partners are economically disadvantaged communities where the consequences of student disengagement can be most devastating. For more information, please visit www.supportiveschools.org.

Community Schools offer a holistic approach toward improving academic performance driven by strong, collaborative partnerships among principals, parents, teachers, and CBOs. In Community Schools, parents are real and active partners in their children’s education. Each student is connected to a mentor, club, or social service. The school climate is joyful and positive. Community members spend time at the school, participating in activities ranging from swimming and yoga to financial and parenting workshops.

Extended afterschool or weekend classes are commonplace. An integral part of this approach is the blending of school- and community-based services into the school day, such as health, mental health, counseling, and academic enrichment. The De Blasio administration believes that Community Schools are instrumental in helping schools catch up or leap ahead, and in putting all of our students on the path to four-year colleges and long-term careers.

The Community Schools in New York City will use key strategies to help students achieve success:

·      Meaningful family involvement in decision making around student needs

·      Meaningful interactions with community-based services and programs

·      Maximization of academic programming, college and career preparation, and extended weekend and afterschool programming

·      Robust data monitoring and attendance taking practices

You are passionate about working with schools to build their capacity to offer effective programs to positively impact our youth and their families. You have knowledge of and experience working in New York City with public schools and/or student support services. You bring a wealth of skills and experiences while also identifying yourself as a lifelong learner who is regularly seeking opportunities to grow your skills. You crave opportunities to be reflective about your practice and look forward to receiving feedback to support your continued growth.

You are a thoughtful planner and communicator and strive for excellence in all that you do. You are highly adaptable and ready to do work in ways that work best for the schools you serve. You find energy in working directly with schools and collaborating with colleagues in service of implementing and advancing best practices. You are comfortable with and skilled at working in diverse school settings, with students, family members, teachers, principals, and other school staff. You thrive in an environment where collaborating with colleagues is valued and also thrive working independently. You are highly emotionally intelligent.

You excel at managing administrative aspects of programs with an exceptional level of detail. You implement different strategies for collecting data from schools and are not afraid to be persistent, while always maintaining a customer service mindset. You have a systems-oriented approach and are always looking for ways to continually improve your practices, the practices of your team, and the practices of the organization to better serve clients’ needs.

You care deeply about creating a more just society and believe that improving schools is fundamental to that effort. You are committed to diversity, inclusion, and equity. More than anything else, you want to make a difference.

As the full-time Student & Family Engagement Coordinator, you will be responsible for the day-to-day management of the community school’s student and family engagement strategy, which includes building and maintaining relationships with administration, faculty, staff, and students during the traditional school week. You will create, strengthen, and maintain the bridge between the school and the community in the efforts of promoting student success. You will facilitate and provide leadership for the collaborative process and the development of a continuum of services for student success in academics, attendance, and social-emotional development. You will support families in need with the available resources and supports made available by local and national government agencies, non-profits, community organizations and stakeholders to ensure familial stability for students and their families.

Initially, the Student & Family Engagement Coordinator will support establishing and implementing a community school strategy under the direction of the Community Schools Director. Over time, you may support any or all of CSS’s solutions that may be implemented at the school. You will ensure that the student and family engagement strategy is implemented at exceptional levels of quality with full support, buy-in, and regular communication with stakeholders across the school community.

·      Analyze weekly attendance data to identify trends and determine needs of chronically absent students

·      Assist in the application of interventions, and track and monitor impact of interventions on weekly basis, as part of weekly Student Success meetings.

·      Create targeted intervention groups (specifically for students in temporary housing and students with disabilities

·      Meet with several groups of 5 to 10 students during assigned times to support students’ attendance and academic performance

·      Create a mentoring schedule based on student and teacher class schedule; oversee that mentoring groups are meeting regularly; liaise with mentors to determine whether additional interventions are needed

·      Assist in the implementation and maintenance of processes that encourage referrals to programs and services offered at the school

·      Create campaign to advertise and promote strong attendance, which may include: ordering incentives and advertising monthly attendance reward celebrations; making attendance data available to students in a relevant and compelling way; and fostering student accountability and leadership through an attendance ambassador program

Family Engagement 

·      Conduct family outreach to advertise school events, increase communication between the school and families, and develop mechanisms to illicit input from families

·      Liaise regularly with Parent Teacher Association (PTA) and lead workshops for PTA parents to build capacity 

·      Organize and advertise family workshops and events 

·      Support the logistics and planning of monthly Community School Team (CST) and Parent Teacher Association (PTA) meetings

·      Support afterschool programming by recording and tracking afterschool program participation

·      Liaising with community partners to maintain accurate program offerings and schedule are updated on school website and other platforms

·      Analyze data trends for afterschool attendance and create a rewards system for attending afterschool enrichment 

·      Support the development of student leadership opportunities throughout the school, such as student internship program, student government, attendance ambassadors, etc.

·      As needed

Education: You’ve likely earned a bachelor’s degree. You have extensive knowledge of and experience working in the New York City public schools or within other urban school districts.

You have bilingual skills (English and Spanish) and have demonstrated exceptional abilities to problem solve, plan, and prioritize. You have a “roll-up-your-sleeves” entrepreneurial, startup attitude. You have knowledge of and experience working in education reform and student support services and the proven ability to work in a fast-paced environment managing multiple projects. You have worked or had clinical or leadership experiences in a high school setting through school-based internships, summer programs, or after-school programming. You possess a high level of interpersonal and cross-cultural skills, including the ability to build relationships internally and externally and to manage effective teams.

In addition, you have likely had the following experiences and have demonstrated the following attributes:

·      Excellent listening, writing, and speaking skills

·      Ability to work weekday evenings

·      Highly effective time-management, goal-setting, problem-solving, and decision-making skills

·      Ability to gather, analyze, synthesize, and communicate information from various sources

·      Strong public speaking and group facilitation skills

·      Knowledgeable in issues related to K-12 schools and adult education

·      Knowledgeable in student support services

·      Ability to obtain and utilize student and school data to drive decisions

·      Demonstrated ability to work independently and collaboratively

·      Flexibility, resourcefulness, and willingness to work different student populations throughout the work week (high school students, middle school students, parents and families)

·      Ability to use discretion and judgment in handling confidential and sensitive information

·      Knowledge of and an enthusiastic commitment to the organization’s mission, solutions, and offerings

·      Connections with community-based organizations and experience facilitating partnerships with these organizations

·      Ability to work effectively with school-aged youth, educators, families, and communities from a wide range of cultural, social, and economic backgrounds

·      Experience working in school-based settings, with knowledge about tenets of community organizing, student support services, and youth development theories

·      Ability to work collaboratively, with strong relationship-building skills

·      DOE fingerprinting and background clearances

·      Program implementation experience preferred

·      Knowledgeable in technology

·      Remarkable references

The Student & Family Engagement Coordinator will be based at Flushing High School in Queens, NY. Occasional travel to New Jersey and different locations within New York City for trainings and other staff events will be necessary.

The anticipated starting date for this position is Summer/Fall 2020. The salary is competitive and based upon experience. CSS offers a comprehensive and competitive benefits plan, including health, dental, and vision.

Interested applicants are requested to apply immediately by emailing a cover letter and CV/résumé to resumes@supportiveschools.org. Please include (1) the title of the position in the subject line of your email and (2) where you found the position posting in your cover letter. If possible, please email all documents in PDF format. People of color are strongly encouraged to apply. NYC Department of Education fingerprinting and background clearances will be required.