A community school is both a place and a set of partnerships between the school and other community resources. Its integrated focus on academics, health and social services, youth and community development along with community engagement leads to improved student learning, stronger families and healthier communities. Community Schools are centers of the community, open to everyone – during the day, evenings and weekends. Using public schools as a hub, community schools bring together a wide variety of partners to offer a range of services and opportunities to children, youth, families and communities. In order to coordinate the wide array of supports, services and programs and to ensure there is adequate funding to operate these programs each full service school has a Full Service School Director.
GPA is seeking a community school manager to work with our full service director to focus on research, marketing, communications and development of our community school model. The manager will work with the HUB schools governance team to work to advance community schools across Boston.
Reporting to the Principal and Director of Extended Services, the Community Schools Manager will lead, plan, direct and implement overall strategies for all marketing and communications on behalf of the Gardner in order to raise GPA’s visibility, advance its brand, and articulate clear messaging to internal and external constituencies. The Manager is a passionate internal evaluator who wants to use his/her background in data management and analytics to achieve data quality, assess impact, and drive data-based learning and continuous improvement. The primary objective of the Community School Manager is to create and communicate a compelling story about Gardner Pilot Academy based on research and outcomes in order to advance the community schools movement across Boston.
- Quickly acclimate to Gardner Pilot Academy and the community schools movement both nationally and in Boston; thoroughly know the history, culture, traditions and constituencies of the school; understand the educational philosophy
- Develop marketing and communications strategies and plans that advance Gardner Pilot Academy and drive increased engagement with prospective and current constituencies.
- Design strategies and implement concrete plans to capitalize on increased visibility and clear branding of the school to drive increased contributed revenue.
- Plan for and deploy digital activities: website, online campaigns, email marketing, social media and digital content production.
- Create and execute a plan that regularly places the school in local media. Manage all messaging in the media.
- Analyzes data at multiple levels (e.g., classroom, center, site, year) and in response to various research questions
- Interprets and synthesize findings from research in reports, data tables, and presentations for various internal and external audiences
The Community School Manager will have the following types of experience and qualifications:
- Three to five years of increased leadership experience in marketing, communications, development and/or research
- Research experience documenting outcomes
- Outstanding speaking, writing, and editing skills.
- Deep knowledge of the principles of marketing and communications and fluency in using social media effectively.
- Demonstrated success in managing multiple projects with shifting priorities and competing deadlines.
PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS
The successful candidate should be:
- A mission-driven individual with a belief in and commitment to the full service community school mission and values;
- A good listener and strategist; comfortable receiving input from many sources, and able to analyze and formulate disparate information into a sound, well-organized plan;
- A team builder – confident and competent, with strong skills in management and leadership; one who understands the subtleties of motivating and directing a diverse group of personalities with different work styles;
- A hard worker with a high energy level; a “doer” with a willingness to work hands-on in developing and executing a variety of development and advancement activities;
- Emotionally mature with a very good sense of humor and the flexibility and sensitivity to work with diverse personalities and situations.