Director of Social Emotional Learning

Description

Title: Director of Social Emotional Learning

Reports to: Executive Vice President of Programs

Organization Overview:

Steppingstone prepares students from marginalized communities to access, navigate, and graduate from college through two initiatives, the Steppingstone Scholars Program and the National Partnership for Educational Access (NPEA). The Steppingstone Scholars Program is a direct-service program in Boston that provides academic, social-emotional, and college-readiness services to students, called Scholars, beginning as early as fifth grade and continuing all the way through college graduation. The Steppingstone Scholars Program consists of five components: Admissions, the Academy, Middle School Success, High School Success, and College Success. NPEA connects the people, practices, and innovations for eliminating barriers to educational access, and college and career success for underserved students.

Department and Position Overview:

At Steppingstone, we believe that social emotional learning is essential to Scholars’ success in middle school, high school, and beyond, and that this learning needs to be infused into all parts of the program for it to be most effective. To this end, the SEL programming at Steppingstone is largely preventative, consisting of community building programming, psychoeducational curriculum, an Advising system based on strong relationships, and staff professional development.

The Director of Social Emotional Learning will lead the promotion, implementation and evaluation of social and emotional learning across all program divisions. The Director will manage a team that will ensure the social and emotional needs of all Scholars are met. The Director will oversee the development of curriculum, coordinate climate and culture activities, evaluate the development of Scholars' foundational skills and ensure the effectiveness of the advising systems across program divisions.

Academic Year Schedule:

The Director will work a Tuesday-Saturday schedule during the school year. Wednesday afternoons during the school year end around 6:30 p.m., and occasional additional evening work is mandatory. In person programming occurs at the Curley School in Jamaica Plain on Saturdays and the Director will be expected to be at that location from 8:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.

The Steppingstone office is hybrid with the expectation that employees will work in the office a minimum of two days per week, with some flexibility around work hours. A $500 home office set-up stipend will be provided upon hire, followed by quarterly stipends of $50. Laptops are provided to each employee to enhance the hybrid experience.

The Steppingstone office is accessible by public transit and has very limited parking availability.

Program staff support the admission of new students and families to the Steppingstone Scholars Program, including interviewing prospective students and families. Due to the nature of those interviews, PTOs are granted on a very limited basis in February.

Summer Schedule:

During the summer, employees will work a Monday-Friday schedule. Steppingstone hosts a 6-week in-person program for Scholars, which will be held at Milton Academy in July and August. The Director must be able to work in person at Milton Academy, Monday-Friday from approximately 7:30 a.m. - 3:45 p.m., and until 5:00 p.m. on Wednesdays for faculty meetings. Due to the nature of the summer session, PTOs are granted on a very limited basis from the end of June through August. The Director will provide support to other program teams as needed.

Salary: $80,000 - $85,000

Start Date: September 2024

Responsibilities:

Staff Management

• Supervise a staff of 1 direct report by providing effective support, coaching, and management to all direct reports
• Facilitate cross-program SEL team
• Support continued professional development and growth for all Advisors through regular and effective Advisor trainings, observations and feedback, and exposure to external training opportunities

Social Emotional Learning Leadership

• Strengthen effective advising of all Scholars by: co-facilitating weekly Advising Team meetings and serving as a consultant to staff
• Manage and support the creation of developmentally appropriate social-emotional curriculum 
• Ensure the development of community building activities to support Scholars’ social-emotional learning in a restorative community with high expectations
• Assess Scholar needs, offer short term interventions and make referrals as