CHILDREN’S DAY SCHOOL San Francisco, California MIDDLE SCHOOL DIRECTOR Start Date: July 2021 cds-sf.org Mission At Children’s Day School, what you learn and who you become are equally important. CDS is a welcoming community in the big city, a farm and garden among urban streets, an advocate for responsibility to others as well as individual achievement, an independent school with down-to- earth values, always asking how we can do this better. We strive for balance so students become both academically successful and grounded. They leave CDS confident, with the humility to listen and the resolve to speak up for what they see as right. Beliefs Learning is Active, Differences Lift Us, Community Matters Values Be Just and Courageous, Share Kindness and Joy, Stay Grounded OVERVIEW Children’s Day School (CDS) is a co-educational preschool through eighth-grade school serving over 481 students in the Mission Dolores neighborhood of San Francisco. Spanning two campuses, and home to a diverse community of students, faculty, and families, CDS is a vibrant learning community grounded in its newly adopted Mission, Beliefs, and Values. At CDS, teachers believe that when children are encouraged to fully engage with complex topics in myriad ways, they are learning the tools to become lifelong learners and passionate citizens of the world. Through a constructivist education, students at CDS grow into engaged community members through a unique combination of service, experiential learning, and social justice education. Assuming the role in July 2021, CDS is seeking an innovative, dynamic, and civic-minded Middle School Director to provide strategic leadership to build upon the strength of the current program for grades 5-8 and continue to learn together. The ideal candidate will be a forward-thinking, experienced middle school administrator aligned with the CDS Beliefs and Values looking to make an impact on the community. Reporting to the Head of School, this senior administrative position is responsible for providing outstanding leadership for the students, faculty, and families connected to the middle school. THE SCHOOL Children’s Day School is an independent coeducational school for students in preschool through eighth grade. Founded in 1983 as a preschool, CDS was incorporated in 1996 as a non-profit independent school with a vision grounded in principles of social justice and socio-economic diversity. CARNEYSANDOE.COM 2 Fast Facts Total students: 481 Middle school students: 179 Students of color: 49.9% Admin and support staff: 30 Total faculty: 66 Faculty of color: 50% Faculty with advanced degrees: 53% School-wide student/teacher ratio: 1:8 Today, CDS educates 481 students on two campuses. The school provides an intimate and effective learning environment with low student-to-teacher ratios—1:8 in preschool, 1:12 in kindergarten, and a schoolwide ratio of 1:8. CDS is characterized by an inclusive environment and is proud of its commitment to diversity and to welcoming families from across the San Francisco Bay Area, including from 15 different zip codes. Over a quarter (26%) of students are on sliding scale tuition. Students of color account for 49.9% of the population, 7.5% are from LGBTQ-headed households, and 5% are from single-parent households. The 66-member faculty is similarly diverse, with 50% people of color. Teaching and learning are grounded in the school’s 11 Learning Beliefs. Academics at CDS draw on the principles of constructivism—an educational philosophy that emphasizes active learning, interdisciplinary thinking, emotional intelligence, and civic-mindedness. Hands-on, project-based learning enables students to develop critical thinking and creative problem-solving skills across a curriculum that includes math, language arts, social studies, science, Spanish, art, music, and physical education. The school is accredited by the California Association of Independent Schools (CAIS) and is a member of the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS), as well as many national bodies promoting diversity, curriculum excellence, and professional development. COMMUNITY CDS has a thriving and lively community. Visitors and longtime school members agree that this is one of the defining characteristics of the school. From the moment you step foot onto campus, the school’s family-like atmosphere welcomes faculty and staff and offers opportunities to join together to create a special community. CARNEYSANDOE.COM 3 All-school and student traditions play a major role in CDS’ strong community. The school has a variety of activities in which students, parents, and families come together to participate in a learning community. Examples include Friday Morning Assembly, led by one class each week as students present a project or classroom topic; County Fair, where the community gathers to celebrate the farm and garden program and enjoy barbecue, games, and live music; Martin Luther King Jr. and Harvey Milk observances; and the Passing the Torch Ceremony, where each class imparts wisdom and advice to the class below. A strong CDS Parent Teacher Trustee Association (PTTA), parent education program, and other initiatives round out the already robust opportunities the school offers to build community. DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION School life at CDS embodies diversity and inclusiveness. Through various means, including sliding scale tuition, the school consciously works to ensure an atmosphere where all members of the community feel welcome and accepted, and where the students are always at the center of the conversation. CDS understands that creating such an environment is an ongoing process, so it creates opportunities for connection, reflection, and dialogue in order to foster a culture of inclusion. Most recently, the school published its Antiracism Statement which heralds a call to action and gives rise to a series of antiracist action plans. The Committee on Inclusion and Diversity (COID) was created by the Board in 2007 in order to ensure a diverse CDS community and provide strategic direction. Recent or ongoing initiatives include creating the CDS Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Toolkit; partnering with families through Gender Support Plans; and hosting Adult Education Nights for parents. Further, teachers on COID facilitate professional development for faculty and staff, lead affinity groups for students, and integrate work on social justice into the curriculum. CARNEYSANDOE.COM 4 A commitment to fostering social justice pervades the community. A key priority is for students to develop a sense of agency and to understand that they can make a difference in the world and have a duty to try. Teachers consciously construct a curriculum that provides an anti-bias education and work to build within students an understanding of who they are within the context of a wider world, empowering them to be active participants in society. CDS has continually worked to be a leader in developing students’ political awareness and social engagement. At each grade level, teachers engage students in intentional, age-appropriate discussions of relevant social issues, often drawn from current events. These explorations are woven into academic units of study, service learning projects, and community-wide initiatives. By the time students leave middle school, they have developed social perspectives as well as the agency to thrive—and lead—as members of the adult world. MIDDLE SCHOOL ACADEMICS CDS’ middle school recognizes each child’s unique approach to learning and prepares students for high school through a rich and varied program of interdisciplinary work. The core of academics in the middle school revolves around math, science, humanities, and Spanish. Each day, students spend time in each of these core areas. Learning in these classes is typically project based, hands-on, student-centered, and intellectually challenging. Whether students are writing a history paper, participating in a reader’s workshop, completing a lab, or practicing note-taking, middle schoolers learn to apply their skills to dynamic and in-depth projects: using GarageBand to perform rap lyrics exploring Andrew Jackson’s presidency, building a Rube Goldberg machine in the rooftop garden, creating maps of the solar system, and composing stories in Spanish. CARNEYSANDOE.COM 5 The core curricular areas are supplemented with a rich study of art, drama, and music throughout the year. Middle schoolers also rotate through two additional specialist classes each year, spending one semester in Innovation Lab and one semester in Food and Agricultural Sciences (FAS), an organic progression of the Lower School Farm and Garden curriculum. In the Innovation Lab, or iLab, students tackle design and engineering challenges using a variety of equipment. In FAS, students work in collaboration with plant- and micro-biologists, scientists, universities, and food experts to investigate the science behind where food comes from and learn how their choices about food affect their health, the environment, and their communities. “Project Times,” scheduled periodically through the school year, enable students to further focus on a particular area of the curriculum or to explore topics that are not covered in other parts of the middle school curriculum. Recent project time experiences have included trail running, going on an art walk, hiking, and creating student-used voter pamphlets in English and Spanish. The advisory program fosters mutual respect and caring in an age group often known for bullying