Job description

For inquiries, please email rather than calling.The Vermont Learning Collaborative (VTLC) is seeking its first Executive Director. The Collaborative will serve a regional group of school districts in southeast Vermont, providing them with innovative, high quality, and cost-effective shared services across a range of areas. The districts currently served by the Collaborative include Windham Central SU, Windham Southwest SU, Windham Northeast SU, Windham Southeast SU, Windsor Central SU, Windsor Southeast SU, Two Rivers SU, and Springfield School District, serving about 9,000 students total.The Executive Director is expected to be a talented and experienced manager and leader, but expertise in any particular subject area, such as special education, is NOT required.The position can be either half or full time and can start in early 2023 or July 1st, depending on the needs of the selected candidate. All staff, including the executive director, will work remotely.

Compensation is comparable to senior central office administrators in Vermont.Applications will be confidential. Please send a resume and letter of interest to: VTLC Executive Director Searchc/o Nathan LevensonNew Solutions K12nlevenson@newsolutionsk12.com------------------Vermont Learning Collaborative (VTLC)Job DescriptionExecutive Director(part or full time)Reports to: The Board of Directors of the Vermont Learning Collaborative (VTLC) which includes member district superintendents and other central office leaders.Scope of Position: Serve as the inaugural chief administrative officer and program leader for the Vermont Learning Collaborative (VTLC) and its Board. The Executive Director will work collaboratively with the Board and its member districts leaders to achieve the Collaboratives goals. The ED will provide entrepreneurial leadership and organizational oversight in service of establishing and marketing cost-effective programs and services that address critical needs of its members.

This position can be full time or half time. Start date will be either early 2023 or July 1, at the preference of the candidate. All staff, including the executive director, will work remotely.Desired Qualities and Qualifications: 1.Excellent communicator: good listener, direct, approachable, clear, decisive2.Visionary, strategic, and flexible thinker who sees possibilities first, rather than obstacles3.Entrepreneurial, resourceful, and practical administrator who has a hands-on approach to leadership and welcomes the opportunity to create and lead a lean, high quality but cost efficient organization.4.Good judge of talent who is comfortable holding others and themselves to high standards of performance.5.Accomplished financial manager with experience building and overseeing budgets6.Demonstrated ability to work effectively with school district leaders, including superintendents, special education leaders and a Board.7.Successful experience as a central office leadership team member is preferred but not required.8.Working knowledge of student services and special education programming, needs, and providers is desirable, however deep understanding of special education or special education law is NOT required. Others working in the collaborative will have a deep understanding of special education.9.Established statewide connections and familiarity with Vermont K-12 culture and context are desirable.Performance Responsibilities: 1.Provide direction for and supervise all aspects of the Collaborative including administration and contracting; staff and contractor selection and supervision; budget and financial management; and development, operation, and assessment of all services and programs.2.Assist the Board with development of policies and budgets.

Ensure all policy requirements are met.3.Proactively seek out member district needs and interests, regularly communicating with superintendents, directors of special education, and others as needed and requested. See list of initial focus areas for the collaborative.4.Seek out and develop practical ways to leverage resources to meet member needs and address member interests.5.Monitor and assess all operations, programs, and services to ensure that all are efficient, high quality, and responsive to changing needs.6.Ensure that the Collaborative is in compliance with all legal requirements at all times.7.Ensure that all financial affairs within the Collaborative are conducted in a professional and ethical manner and in accordance with sound fiduciary practice.8.Develop annual budgets for Board review and approval with the expectation that the collaborative is self-funded within 2 years; monitor expenditures; ensure required audits are completed and that corrective actions are taken as necessary.9.Prepare and submit financial, statistical, and other reports as required by law and VTLC policy.10.Ensure that compensation, bidding, and contracting procedures are followed.11.All other duties as assigned by the Board. Evaluation: Effectiveness in demonstrating the qualities described above and performing the job responsibilities described above will be evaluated annually by the Board of Directors.Team: The executive director will have the opportunity to build their own team. Likely initial, intentionally lean structure to include: Part time recruiterPart time special education coordinatorPart time job-alike facilitatorPart time administrative assistantCompensation: Similar to senior central office administrators in Vermont.?Initial focus areas for VTLC Based on a primary needs assessment the ED and staff/subcontractors will be tasked to implement the following efforts.

It is not expected that the ED directly lead all of these efforts, but will hire and supervise part time staff or independent contractors to manage some of these initiatives. First Priorities a. Support districts in filling hard to fill positions through multiple strategies. All 50 states are experiencing a shortage of staff in some key areas.

The problem is particularly acute in Vermont and forecasted to get more challenging in the near future. The collaborative can play a very helpful role in recruiting and hiring special educators, related service providers, behaviorists, behavior trained paraprofessionals, mental health providers, school psychologists/assessment staff (including autism assessment), reading teachers, instructional coaches, literacy directors, and math coaches. These staff can be hired in many ways: Recruited by the collaborative and hired by the district. Recruited by the collaborative and outsourced to the district full time.

Recruited by the collaborative and shared across multiple districts.The collaborative has a number of advantages in filling hard-to-fill positions. They can embrace a market rate compensation approach; they can create full time positions even when a district needs just part time staff; and they can better support low incidence staff through job-alike groups, mentoring, technical supervision, and ongoing PD. As importantly, they can hire a dedicated and trained recruiter to proactively search for staff. The collaborative can augment in-person providers by finding, negotiating, and managing a slate of online providers to augment in-person staff, such as remote speech therapists and virtual counselors.

Other districts have had great success with these types of providers when in-person staff arent available. Over time, the collaborative can also take steps to increase the pool of local staff who can fill these hard to fill positions. This can include organizing training such as helping interested special educators become highly skilled behavior specialists, helping paraprofessionals become special education teachers, or helping school adjustment counselors increase their mental health counseling expertise. They can also have the time to work with community-based providers to increase the amount of insurance-funded services schools can access.

Lastly, they could offer alternative schedules, such as school psychologists working after regular school hours as either a second job or as a flex-time strategy. b. Coordinate placement into existing district run substantially separate programs that have capacity. Help facilitate placement into existing low incidence, high needs special education programs already run by the districts that have capacity.

This may sound simple, but enrollment availability changes often through the year, and knowing precisely which programs are appropriate for which children is complex. Program names and written descriptions are often insufficient. Only by visiting the programs can a nuanced understanding be gained by the program coordinator. The collaborative can manage a central clearing house of program availability, help set fair and consistent tuition rates, and help set fair and consistent entry criteria and entry process.

c. Manage and facilitate job-alike groups for low incidence professional staff. Some staff, like classroom teachers, get ample opportunity to plan and learn from their peers in the district. Others may be the only one in their district who has that role and thus have few opportunities for collaboration and peer learning.

Many collaboratives have provided job-alike groups for low incidence staff that have been greatly appreciated by the staff. This could include school psychologists, school business officers, directors of teaching and learning, reading teachers and others. Future Priorities d. Develop and manage collaborative-branded, school-based programs for high needs, low incidence disabilities based in schools near where students live, but not in one central location or mostly in one district.

Given the size of districts in southeast Vermont, shared low incidence programs make a great deal of sense. Many districts may not have a large enough group of students to warrant an in-district program. As a result, the child attends an out-of-district placement which means limited inclusion, long bus rides, and high costs. Shared collaborative programs can offer daily inclusion, shorter bus rides, and financial savings.

These programs would be managed and staffed by the collaborative, not the school or district that hosts them and host schools would receive a rental fee and other incentives designed to ensure their active support of the collaborative program at their school. Which programs come first will depend on the specific needs of students, but the most requested programs include life skills, older student community-based transition, emotional needs, behavior needs, and/or 45-day placement. Many of these programs would have as their goal, a transition back to the students home school. e.

Facilitate shared professional development (PD) All districts provide a great deal of PD for their staff. Sometimes nearby districts provide the same PD for their staff. When districts have similar PD needs, sharing the cost of the professional development can be an easy win. If multiple districts are interested in the same PD provider, it can be economical to bring them to southeast Vermont rather than having to send staff to Boston or elsewhere.

The goal of shared PD is not to change what PD districts provide to their staff, but to create economies of scale when areas of interest overlap. Additionally, the collaborative could provide PD for paraprofessionals, which many districts lack the time and capacity to provide. Finally, the collaborative could share information about what PD is going on across its membership and facilitate cross-district attendance. f.

Create and manage a centralized pool of on demand experts. Sometimes districts encounter tough to solve challenges that would benefit from a short dose of expertise. This could be to assess the needs of a student with an uncommon or complex disability, create a behavior plan for a student who hasnt been able to manage their behaviors despite a few thoughtful efforts, or just serve as a thought partner in planning for reading or math initiatives in the district. None of these needs require a full-time person and finding an expert who understands the Vermont context can take time.

The collaborative can seek out and manage a small group of experts who are available to districts for a few hours, a few days or as much time as needed. Districts pay only for the services they request. These experts typically are not full-time employees of the collaborative, but a small set of well-vetted, highly skilled third party, part time providers.

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