Visionary Leadership
- Promote and maintain the vision, mission and core values of Lionheart Children's Academy.
- Exercise both professional and spiritual leadership and focus to ensure that the goals and vision for the academy maintain priority.
- Ensure that the culture of the academy is dynamic, inspiring and fun.
Church Relations
- Cultivate and develop strong relationships with church partners to maintain their satisfaction and ensure their goals are achieved.
- Contribute to reports on progress and meet with Regional Director to assess effectiveness.
- Maintain regular communications with key church contacts with academy updates and spiritual highlights.
- Assist in marketing efforts to cultivate additional church partners.
Outreach Marketing
- Develop and strengthen partnerships with teachers, educational specialists, school/district administrators, churches and parent/teacher organizations.
- Produce effective marketing plans and other direct marketing strategies to achieve and maintain enrollment goals.
- Consistently grow the academy through on-going marketing and promotion of the academy.
- Work closely with the Regional Director and National Office on production of collateral, social media strategies, web content, etc. for promotion and operation of the academy.
Staffing & Leadership Development
- Recruit, hire, and train exceptional academy staff.
- Provide leadership to academy leadership and academy staff- including spiritual nurturing, coaching, mentoring, encouragement, educational and professional development - to ensure that they are passionate and joy-filled as they lead others.
- Be available to Academy leadership, staff, parents and church leaders for resourcing and/or problem-solving.
- Evaluate and document Academy staff job performance, development plans and compensation recommendations. Collaborate with NO and regional on all HR issues.
- Actively participate in key professional organizations so as to enrich personal and professional development.
- Ensure that all staff have the LCA New Employee Orientation and state required training.
- Travel, as requested, to trainings, staff development events, new academy openings, etc. for support and ongoing training and development.
General Operations
- Implement and oversee all operating standards, processes and systems necessary to effectively operate academy to achieve stated outcomes.
- Ensure compliance with all licensing requirements and federal and state laws related to academy operations.
- Conduct annual tuition rate survey in order to adjust tuition rates, based on child care trends in the area.
- Work with National Office to leverage opportunities to receive competitive quotes from new vendors for products and services.
- Enforce tuition requirements and resolve problems for non-payment, when necessary.
- Ensure that information in the faculty, polices, and handbook remains relevant and up to date.
- Visit classrooms on a daily basis to ensure adherence to corporate and academy goals, standards and objectives.
- Maintain daily/weekly/monthly checklists for licensing standards compliance.
Space & Equipment
- Planning for and equipping outdoor areas.
- Planning for and equipping indoor areas.
- Arranging for custodial care, maintenance, and repairs.
- Do playground, bus, and facility inspections to make sure everything is safe and clean.
Enrollment
- Interviewing parents of prospective students.
- Use the CRM and 1Core daily to meet enrollment and retention goals.
- Oversee other administrators use of CRM to ensure accuracy.
- Orientation of newly enrolled students.
- Familiarizing the parents of newly enrolled students with school policies.
- Being alert to enrollment needs at all times
- Update your monthly marketing calendar with both internal and external opportunities.
- Maintaining an advertising and public relations program to promote enrollments.
Parents
- Maintaining an active system of parent-school relationships.
- Planning and administering a parent-education program.
- Planning and administering a parent-participation program.
- Maintaining an open line of communication between parents and staff.
- Establishing and maintaining parents’ resource library.
Health
- Planning and implementing a health program for the school.
- Contacting recognized agencies that are able to help children with special needs.
- Maintaining a referral system for children who have special needs.
Safety
- Planning and implementing a safety program for the school.
- Must have licensing, Health and Fire regulations in good standing .
- Keeping informed of the school’s legal responsibilities and liabilities.
- Scheduling, conducting and recording fire and storm drills.
- Assuring that teachers plan activities to teach the children safety on an ongoing basis.
- Maintaining all vehicles and providing annual training for staff to ensure transportation safety.
Community Relationships
- Welcoming visitors to the school and arranging for the visits to be pleasant and worthwhile.
- Being available to community groups for public events that pertain to early childhood and to family life as a whole.
- Maintaining a liaison with representatives of various branches of local, state, and federal government for the purpose of supporting legislation concerned with education.
Planning, Budget & Forecasting
- Work closely with the VP of Operation to follow the Academy's annual financial plan including key outcomes and corresponding budget.
- Manage weekly/monthly billing using the academy's management software.
- Collect, post, and deposit tuition payments daily.
- Collect outstanding tuition and implement academy policies regarding such.
- Provide weekly tuition aging report to Academy Director.
- Provide timely and accurate weekly and monthly records and reports - to include bank deposits, billing reports, contact logs and call backs, etc. to Academy Director as requested.
- Adhere to budgetary guidelines - specifically accounts receivable, labor expenditures and food purchases.
Background, Experience, and Education
- Bachelor's Degree preferred.
- 2-3 years experience as Academy Director for a licensed child care facility.
- Academic experience with infant, toddler, pre-school, and/or elementary teaching.
- Key expertise will include state licensing, marketing, recruitment and staff supervision, operations management and customer service.
- Experience with Microsoft office products, with proficiency in Outlook, Excel and/or other database management or CRM systems.
Critical Gifts
- Spiritual maturity - committed and passionate follower of Jesus Christ
- Burning desire to reach children and parents
- People builder - proven ability to build teams, grow leaders, and create culture
- Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written
- Results-driven, self-starter
- Excellent customer-service skills and the ability to create effective partnerships with churches, families and staff
- Well-versed in child care accreditation and licensing standards
- Strong collaboration and teamwork