Head of Schools 2025-2026

Breakthrough Public Schools is a nationally recognized Charter Management Organization (CMO) network in Ohio. Our mission is to provide Cleveland-area scholars with an education that empowers them to lead lives of impact and opportunity. Our network of schools centers joy, curiosity, and individual growth, uniquely positioning Breakthrough Public Schools to cultivate a learning community where all students thrive. At Breakthrough, we are committed to providing scholars with the academic, social, and emotional skills necessary to excel at learning and citizenship from kindergarten through eighth-grade promotion. We are committed to the success of every child.

The BPS CMO exists to provide operational, leadership, and strategic services to the schools in the Breakthrough Schools network. The CMO is committed to providing high-quality services to the schools and bolstering the high-impact performance of the schools, making the CMO and network greater than the sum of its parts. The CMO provides economies of scale when it comes to staffing, tools, and time-based efficiencies. We serve 3,000 K-8 grade scholars across five campuses and employ over 450 staff members.

OPPORTUNITY

Breakthrough Public Schools seeks an experienced, strategic school leader, principal coach, and manager to serve as the Head of Schools (HOS). This role reports to the Chief Academic Officer and is a member of the broader Academic Team and the Expanded Leadership Team.

The Head of Schools (HOS) is responsible for managing and leading our schools to achieve our ambitious network goals at the highest level of excellence and with a steadfast commitment to practices that cultivate transformative change. They are laser-focused on the overall quality of school programming from instructional to cultural to operational. The HOS pursues this work through excellent management and development of the Managing Directors of Schools (direct managers and coaches of our principals), School Principals, and the Managing Director of Operations (coach of school-based operations directors). The HOS drives collaboration cross-functionally with academic, operations, people, and finance leaders.

ROLES & RESPONSIBILITIES

Management and Leadership of Schools

• Support and manage principals to drive excellent campus results and experiences for scholars and students through the management of the two Managing Directors of Schools
• Work closely with the broader Academic Team to develop, set, and implement our annual academic strategy plan at each school, ensuring that every scholar is making progress towards their greatest potential
• Manage and oversee school strategic plans and priorities throughout the year
• Ensure that every school effectively implements our network's school culture vision
• Ensure that every school has a best-in-class approach to educating students with disabilities and ELLs
• Ensure that principals and their leadership teams have clearly articulated plans for daily operations and implementation of student services, including support services, discipline management, enrollment, parent and student satisfaction, attendance and scholar retention, as well as crisis intervention
• Assume personal responsibility for student outcomes and positive student experiences across academics and school culture
• Track and analyze student data to inform best practices and to determine the next steps toward improving student outcomes

Developing Leadership

• Develop the leadership capacity of the HOS's three direct reports and school leadership teams to exemplify Breakthrough's core values, create a culture of performance, build talent management capacity, develop strong relationships rooted in trust, empower team members with the challenge and support for personal growth, and prioritize effectively
• Plan and facilitate professional development and other structures established to build a cohesive and ever-improving team of school leaders
• Establish learning opportunities for broader school leadership teams to be continuously developing a pipeline of ready-next school leaders.

Building Instructional Capacity

• Continuously driving action to meet our long-term academic outcomes for scholars
• Collaborating with the Academic Team to implement our Academic Strategy Roadmap
• Ensure school leaders are improving their practice as instructional leaders
• Track scholar outcomes, diagnose trends, and work to ensure campuses consistently reach equitable experiences and outcomes

Fostering a Diverse, Equitable, and Inclusive Culture

• Build upon and strengthen Breakthrough's commitment to ensuring that all people, regardless of background, feel welcome and included at BPS.
• Ensure campuses are environments where families and scholars are involved in the community of running a great school.
• Commit to driving equitable outcomes and experiences for scholars.

QUALIFICATIONS

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty and work strategically across teams in the network. The requirements listed below represent the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform essential functions.

Strategic Leadership

• Bring strategic business skills to bear for the network and function simultaneously
• Identify and assess organizational opportunities and challenges while keeping pace in an environment of rapid change
• Use data to identify and understand challenges, make decisions, and drive toward solutions
• Demonstrate knowledge of industry best practices grounded in diversity, equity, and inclusion
• Anticipate barriers to action and proactively work to remove them
• Synthesize complex ideas into actionable plans and bring others along as needed
• Provide excellent customer service experiences to school-level leadership
• Demonstrate excellent judgment, exceptional reasoning, problem-solving, and prioritization skills

Organizational Effectiveness

• Bring multiple stakeholders together to develop and achieve shared goals
• Use effective communication and persuasion to drive and manage change
• Deftly navigate difficult conversations and deliver candid and direct feedback
• Excellent people manager; able to effectively manage a range of people in a diverse set of roles while also bringing out the best performance in others
• Commit to continually enhancing own capabilities and developing others
• Establish and maintain effective, efficient systems and processes; hold a continuous improvement mindset and proactively avert problems
• Excellent project management skills; demonstrated ability to lead multiple high-profile and complex projects simultaneously as well as a diverse set of stakeholders.

Personal Effectiveness

• Manage a wide range of details with meticulous precision
• Manage multiple projects and deadlines with a high sense of urgency
• Demonstrate commitment to ongoing learning and improvement
• Willing and able to solve problems personally in an ever-changing landscape
• Manage competing priorities and remain level-headed in stressful situations
• Demonstrate strong organization, time management, and follow-through skills

Commitment to Mission

• Demonstrated commitment to the mission and values of Breakthrough Public Schools.

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE

• 7+ y ears of experience in leadership roles in an urban school setting
• At least three (3) years of school-based leadership experience as a Principal and 3-5 years teaching of experience, preferred
• A minimum of a Bachelor's degree, Master's Degree is preferred
• Experience in and commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion work
• Strong interpersonal, communication, and leadership skills
• Demonstrated experience of effective project management and work plan implementation
• A deep connection and understanding of the Breakthrough Public Schools and the Cleveland community is strongly preferred
• Willingness to attend occasional evening and weekend meetings and events
• Proficient in the knowledge and use of technical computer applications, including Google Suite.

Breakthrough Public Schools is an equal opportunity employer. We hire without consideration of race, religion, creed, color, national origin, age, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, veteran status, or disability.

Any person who knowingly makes a false statement is guilty of falsification under section 2921.13 of the Revised Code, which is a misdemeanor of the first degree.