TITLE: Early Childhood Jewish Education (ECJE) Coordinator
DEPARTMENT: Community Planning and Impact
REPORTS TO: Director of Jewish Education
CLASSIFICATION: Full-time, Exempt
PRINCIPAL FUNCTION: Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta is seeking a dynamic and experienced professional to serve as the Early Childhood Jewish Education Coordinator. One of the pillars of Federation’s work is a commitment to enhancing both formal and informal educational experiences that contribute to lifelong engagement, Jewish literacy, and a connection to Israel and Jewish peoplehood. ECJE Coordinator will serve as a liaison between Federation and our network of over 20 Jewish preschools on projects aimed at recruitment and retention of high-quality teachers, increasing affordability and access, strengthening the pipeline from ECJE to other Jewish education and identity building experiences, investing in educator wellbeing and professional development, and ensuring a commitment to excellence. All these strategies have a goal of increasing enrollment and retention in the Jewish Early Childhood sector.
IDEAL CANDIDATE: The ideal candidate is a passionate individual that has relationships, experience, and is recognized as a leader in ECJE. This person is a network-weaver, connecting people both within and beyond the local early childhood Jewish community. This individual is a strong communicator, takes initiative, is organized, detail-oriented, competent with technology, collaborative, has a flexible and innovative mindset, and able to balance a variety of tasks to elevate the field of early childhood education.
ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:
Federation’s commitment to early childhood Jewish education stems from the demonstrated success of Jewish preschools to foster a deep, enduring commitment to Jewish knowledge and values, and engage families in the Jewish community. The ECJE Coordinator will oversee the following projects:
ElevatEd
ElevatEd is a groundbreaking pilot initiative that is bringing together leading Jewish communal institutions and funders in a joint effort to strengthen the field of early childhood Jewish education (ECJE). The initiative seeks to fill critical gaps in the field through creating new pipelines for ECJE educators; developing more opportunities for them to access networks, professional development, and mentoring; and increasing the esteem and support for ECJE in communities around the country. ElevatEd is a partnership of JCC Association of North America, Union for Reform Judaism (URJ), and Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA)—with operational and fiduciary management situated within JCC Association. The project is supported nationally by the Jim Joseph Foundation, the Crown Family Philanthropies, and the Samuels Family Foundation. Atlanta will be part of the second cohort of pioneer communities across North America, and the ECJE Coordinator will serve as the liaison between the Atlanta community and the national project.
The ECJE Coordinator will play an essential role in establishing local community structure, scope, and connection to the national ElevatEd effort. Ideally, this professional is familiar with the local early childhood Jewish education landscape in Atlanta. In addition to being part of the Jewish Federation Team and supervised by the Director of Jewish Education in Atlanta, the ECJE Coordinator will also become a part of a cohort in a community of practice with the other Community Coordinators in other ElevatEd pioneer communities. Responsibilities specific to ElevatEd include:
Recruitment:
- Work with national team and local ECJE Directors to support the hiring of 30 new educators in Atlanta.
- Identify local markets and demographics for teacher recruitment.
- Support directors in recruitment process through understanding open positions, partnering on the writing of job descriptions and ensuring the use of ElevatEd’s technology for local recruitment.
- Learn state policy for credentials and licensing for teachers and substitutes.
- Explore partnerships with local community for substitute coverage.
- Share about ElevatEd at local job fairs and community gatherings.
- Supports the local directors in their work with recruitment.
Educational Facilitator and Network Weaver:
- Support schools and educators as a coach, connector, and resource.
- Facilitate reflection sessions for emerging educators and mentors.
- Supports the local mentors in their work with emerging educators.
- Participate in core curriculum learning with local educators to stay abreast of what the community is learning.
- Meet weekly with other Community Coordinators as part of a community of practice and participate in special trainings for Community Coordinators.
- Visit programs and connect with educators about their EleavtEd experiences.
- Bridge ElevatEd to local early childhood initiatives.
- Be an ambassador for ElevatEd and early childhood for local leaders both in the early childhood landscape as well as the Jewish communal landscape.
- Partner with national team to create resources to distribute on the local level.
Local Project Manager and Administration:
- Reports to the Implementation Partner (Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta), with accountability to national staff.
- Take attendance, follow up on absences and read reflection forms to ensure that educators are participating fully.
- Convene local gatherings with educators for community and relationship building (in person / 3x a year).
- Coordinates national staff’s visits to pioneer community and creates an itinerary with meetings that supports ElevatEd’s local and national work.
- Supports the creation and implementation of local experimentation grant including - convening focus group, choosing a topic, preparing budget, and sharing data and reflections.
- Adhering to evaluation requests from Rosov Consulting, (ElevatEd’s evaluation partner), ensuring survey completion, participating in interviews, etc.
- Administering payments to local schools for educator stipends, substitute coverage and credentialing.
- Share about EleavtEd through the writing of blog posts and PR efforts.
- Use social media to share about ElevatEd through local implementation partner’s platform.
- Serve as local liaison to local funding partners as needed.
Additional Early Childhood Community Responsibilities:
- JECCA - Facilitate community network of directors - the Jewish Early Childhood Council of Atlanta (JECCA) - beyond only those schools participating in ElevatEd.
- Convene and facilitate monthly in-person JECCA meetings.
- Provide support and resources to all local ECJE programs.
- Collect annual data from all Jewish preschools including enrollment, tuition, and salary data.
- Promote and distribute Professional Development incentive grants for ECJE Directors.
- Annual Kallah – Plan, coordinate and implement annual community-wide Kallah (a day-long professional learning conference for ECJE teachers), in partnership with the Director of Jewish Education.
- Plan content themes and topics for professional learning.
- Create budget for all revenue and expenses.
- Identify and secure workshop presenters and execute contracts for services.
- Complete conference certification process through “Bright From the Start” state agency to provide professional learning credit hours to participants.
- Create and distribute marketing/registration materials in partnership with JFGA Marketing team.
- Manage registration process, including workshop selection, dietary needs, and school representation.
- Coordinate food, set-ups, technology needs, and all logistics for the conference, in partnership with the host facility.
- Organize volunteers.
- Distribute conference evaluations, manage evaluation collection process, and provide required Kallah completion certificates accordingly.
- Invoice schools for participation fees.
- Liaison Responsibilities
- To JFGA Day School Coordinator on matters related to the Alef Fund, the state student scholarship tax program that includes Pre-K students.
- To “The Orchard” and other national networks of Jewish Early Childhood Education. Participate in online meetings to remain current on trends and best practices in the field.
General Organizational Support
- Provide support for a variety of Federation and community-wide programs and initiatives.
- Remain knowledgeable about Jewish life, early childhood education, and engagement trends in and out of the Atlanta community.
- Serve as an advocate for Federation’s mission and work at all times.
- Complete a broad variety of tasks as needed to further the mission of Federation and Community Planning and Impact department.
QUALIFICATIONS: Bachelor’s degree required, and at least 3 years of full-time leadership experience in the field of early childhood education. Demonstrated success in project management, developing and implementing strategies for growth, management of diverse constituencies, and knowledge of the Jewish community preferred. Must have excellent verbal and written communication skills, knowledge, and ability to use databases, computer spreadsheets, word processing and other basic programs, and demonstrated ability to manage competing demands and changing pace of priorities.
PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS: Position requires intermittent standing, walking, and prolonged periods of time sitting at a desk/table. The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 25 pounds.
COMPENSATION: The salary range is $61,000 - $69,000 for this position plus a comprehensive benefits package. Anticipated salary near midpoint; commensurate with experience.
Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta is an equal opportunity employer.