Academy Director - Five Lakes Church

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

• OCRA profile (career paths) of 4 or higher
• 4 years experience as Academy Director (ECE administrator) for a licensed child care facility. 
• 5 years 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