Open Position: Education Director - Position Filled

Youth empowerment and sustainability non-profit seeking passionate, idealistic, and results oriented Education Director. Must be willing to get hands dirty, cut through red tape, and fight for justice with youth from all backgrounds. A leader and a coach. Ability to direct education staff in youth programming and oversee creation and maintenance of authentic, empowering curriculum. Ability to develop and manage relationships with school administrators, community members, and youth a must. Ability to think critically and deliver results on professional and legal documentation and organization. Maintains a high level of compassion, balance and results. Science Teaching License and Masters in Ed preferred along with 3 years of leadership experience.

Send cover letter and resume to: jobs@spark-y.org

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Power Statement:

Leader of educators, friend of teachers and administrators. Maintainer of balance, spreader of love, asker and answerer of questions. Holder of the peace, the vision, and the grounded plan. Coach, facilitator, and challenger for excellence in program delivery. Overseer of youth empowerment mission delivery

Job Description:
Oversees and manages all education programs with Spark-Y: Youth Action Labs. The Education Director is the air traffic controller of the school programs branch of Spark-Y and must ensure optimal performance and success of its mission through school, community and program partnerships. The Education Director ensures education programs maintain an authentic and empowering student experience with hands-on sustainable systems being the central curriculum, supplemented by other sustainable and entrepreneurial activities. This is done by training and coaching educators as well as working to develop and curate curriculum while soliciting feedback from school partners. The Education Director also works very closely with the Executive Director and the executive team to strategize content creation, future growth, and the Spark-Y Academy. The Education Director manages administrative relationships and partnerships pertaining to education programs. They will also coordinate closely with the Lead Sustainability Educator and Community Outreach Coordinator to place interns. The Education Director oversees the collection and analysis of all key school information for reporting and impact measurement. They also spearhead the initiative to bring Spark-Y curriculum into the community through workshops. The Education Director knows the status of people and things at Spark-Y at all times - including progress of programs ongoing and upcoming; the needs of staff; relationships with teachers, students, schools and community partners; and the ongoing or adapting needs of stakeholders. Accordingly, the Education Director ensures that all parties have what they need when they need it.

Essential Job Functions:

Program and Partnership Leadership - 30%

• Create, communicate, and lead a shared community vision that cuts down barriers and creates opportunities and outcomes for youth.

• Understand goals, scope and sequence, strategic importance of education programs and community partnerships.

• Oversee program progress towards timely achievement of learning and systems goals.

• Confidently and knowledgeably discuss programming, education model, curriculum options, impact; and adapt delivery for context of stakeholder.

• Manage relationships with key stakeholders and decision makers (principals, community leaders, etc.) to ensure mutual understanding and program success.

• Ensure hands-on education experiences are unique and authentic learning opportunities ○ Manage grant funding requirements pertinent to specific programs

• Coordinate and ensure strong delivery of community workshops

Staff Management - 20%

• Supervise education engaged staff; manage hiring of education staff as necessary

• Direct professional development of staff members, scheduling trainings, sharing opportunities and tracking achievement

• Manage annual program cycles and staff scheduling / capacity

• Lead weekly meetings ○ Document and manage direct reports performance

Curriculum Development & Organization - 30%

• Create and add to the vision and direction of Spark-Y programs, navigating a course to continuously improving content and program literature

• Support the creative improvement of our action-oriented curriculum aligned with Spark-Y education models (5E, 5 Keys, and 3 Phase); ensure rigor, program quality, consistency, and branding

• Develop new lesson plans and units within key learning areas. Learning areas designed around real world hands on (RWHO) vehicles, and are aligned to both K-12 education standards and employer requirements

• Quality control of content and delivery via occasional in-person classroom audits ○ Workshop development

• Align curriculum with legal/education standards

Impact Measurement - 10%

• Oversee and improve upon impact measurement processes as well as data collection and analysis

• Write annual reports on status of educational programming

Strategic Direction & Cross-Functional Leadership - 10%

• Participate in leadership meetings to drive direction of the organization

• Collaboration with various department leads and teams to drive results smoothly across the organization

Requirements:
Experience + skills:
Working with youth (grades K-12) in an autonomous education program
Sustainability training and/or certification
Classroom teaching experience (all grades)
Reliable mode of transportation

Desired Experience/Education:

Bachelor degree; post-graduate degree preferred, teaching license preferred

Desired knowledge areas:

• Aquaponics

• Gardening / permaculture

• Urban / indoor farming

• Food systems

• Culinary basics

• Basic construction / mechanical troubleshooting

• Composting / vermiculture

• Mycology / bioremediation

• Arduino / coding basics

Desired Experience/Education:

Bachelor degree; post-graduate degree preferred, teaching license preferred

Salary:
$40,000+ starting (DOQ / Commensurate with experience) + Benefits

To apply, send resume and cover letter to jobs@spark-y.org

At Spark-Y we value: being of service, providing solutions, advocating for youth, exemplifying balance, delivering on outcomes, and facilitating enterprise. Our leadership and staff build collaborative relationships with our partners and team members to empower ourselves and others. We’re a forward-thinking organization fueled by resourceful innovators that take the initiative to better serve our mission. We encourage applicants of all backgrounds to apply, including women and applicants of color. | EEOC Employer.

Learning Continues - At Home, Online, and At Your Neighborhood Drain

The following blog post was written by Cecelia Watkins, Spark-Y Curriculum Director, on our partner program with Crossroads Elementary.

On Sunday afternoon, March 15, my heart sank. I had just heard Governor Walz’s announcement that all Minnesota schools would be ordered to close in an effort to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, starting Wednesday. I also got word that Saint Paul Public Schools wouldn’t be opening on Monday or Tuesday either; after a week of no school due to a teacher’s strike, it would be total chaos to start school back up only to have it end two days later. We never even got to say goodbye to our students.

Just like that, all our carefully laid plans went up in smoke. How could we possibly do the annual 5th grade Aquaponics Unit at Crossroads Elementary now? After weeks of letting water flow through the students’ ten gallon tanks to establish nitrification, we had been just about ready to add bluegill and goldfish to the experimental ecosystems. Now all the fish had to be evacuated since we’d no longer have access to the school building. And what would happen to all the tiny kale and tomato plants the students had been tending for weeks, ones that they’d just transplanted?

It was easy to feel robbed in those early days of the pandemic. How unfair that these 5th graders wouldn’t get to experience the springtime fish fry when we harvest the school’s tilapia for fish tacos! Crossroads students look forward to this Aquaponics unit for YEARS--when the current 5th graders were 3rd graders they were asking me when they’d get to run their own 10 gallon tanks. Now we just don’t know how we can offer them that quintessential Spark-Y experience. I have no doubt students across the country and around the world have felt the pain of being denied experiences they’d worked towards for years, from proms to graduations.

After the first few days, the sense of injustice shifted to a daunting question: How do we facilitate empowering hands-on education when schools are closed and no one’s supposed to go within 6 feet of anyone else? How can we still be of service to our community and Spark-Y youth?

Ah, the miracles of technology! Most people will tell you, I’m generally somewhat of a Luddite: opposed to excessive use of technology. I’m always asking, “Could we do this activity outside?” and “How can we get away from screens to teach this?” Well, in times like these, I’m sold: screens and a variety of technologies have been incredibly helpful in adapting to the new world of distance learning. As the past two weeks have unfolded, I’ve been impressed by how quickly my Spark-Y co-workers have demonstrated excellence in adaptation: we’ve done hours long collaborative planning sessions with our co-teachers over Zoom, fleshed out entire Google Classrooms and FlipGrids, and edited together footage using WeVideo. As we prepared for schools to resume --distance learning style-- we continuously asked ourselves: how can we go beyond kids interacting with a screen? Sure, the chromebooks and iPads that schools have sent home with students will be a fantastic way for us to connect, but when it comes down to it, we’re still Spark-Y: all about hands-on experiences. 

The trouble is, we know there’s a huge range in what supplies and supports our students have access to in their homes. Even if we make awesome student-facing activity instructions that don’t require any caregiver guidance, how do we ensure young scholars have what they need to do our hands-on projects? How do we not further widen the achievement gap during a time when that seems all but inevitable? 

We’ve come up with two solutions. One is to create what we’re calling “drop-site kits.” The idea is to package up all the supplies students would need to do a set of activities at home, and then drop the kits off at schools or community centers for student pick up. One kit could have everything students needed for a week of exploring the science behind germination, complete with seeds, test tubes, rock wool and labels. Another kit might be all about circuitry, with LED lights, breadboards and batteries included. Once the Shelter in Place order is lifted, we’re excited to explore how we can prepare drop-site kits for our school partners in a way that’s safe (I’m imagining lots of hand sanitizer) while still getting our youth the supplies they need. 

Luckily, the second solution to the issue of equitable supply access we can get started on right now: developing activities that highlight what almost all of us do have access to. We’ve been writing up activities where students will be working with water, dirt, trees, leaves fallen on the ground and even what’s in the recycling bin. Did you know you could Adopt A Drain in your neighborhood or test the permeability of your sidewalk? We’re excited to send students activity instructions to invent their own water filters using entirely recycled materials, and to go on Minnesota spring Scavenger Hunts for native plants. Some days I think more could be learned just by sitting on a back porch and listening for an hour than in any YouTube video I could send my students.   

Regardless, I will still be sending videos to my Crossroads students. They will include me conducting science experiments with the 10 gallon aquaponics set up that now lives in my basement, full of the students’ plants. They will be dorky, very homemade videos. I could easily link to pre-existing YouTube videos with snazzy effects, made by a whole professional crew, but I’m hoping they’ll appreciate a familiar face.

Of course, it’s not easy. It’s downright painful that so many critical events have been cancelled and critical places closed off to us. But it’s more important than ever to remind ourselves of everything that’s not cancelled: connection to each other. Fresh air. Springtime.