Director of Innovation and Technology

Inspire and challenge.  At Belmont Day, we foster intellectual curiosity, honor differences, and empower meaningful contribution with excellence, respect, honesty, responsibility, caring and joy.

DIRECTOR OF TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION

Belmont Day seeks a dynamic, skilled, and creative leader to serve as the school’s director of technology and innovation. At Belmont Day School, we believe that a foundation of excellence in education is a diverse community of innovators where children and adults understand, appreciate, and celebrate differences and imagine possibilities together. The leader in this role would help to provide strategic clarity as we seek to assess and strengthen our current technology infrastructure as well as our innovative curricular efforts, and provide a clear vision for the school community as we seek to bring this work into the future. 

The school understands the importance of remaining technologically versed and inquisitive while continuing to build digital competencies in our students, faculty and community. This position will play an important role in strategically redefining and reshaping technology initiatives for our school. The director is part of the technology and academic teams and provides leadership in support of the school’s mission and values. The candidate should demonstrate a strong vision for academic technology with an ability to anticipate and propose projects based on future trends in educational technology and with planning, integration, collaboration and communication skills at the core. A successful candidate will possess qualities that enable them to innovate, teach, and coach faculty and students. This individual will also have a strong background in curriculum design, a vision for academic technology, and teaching experience at the lower elementary and middle school levels. The director will work closely with colleagues to design dynamic and interactive student-centered curriculum focused on authentic deeper learning and problem-solving. The director will also determine how to use the tools of the modern classroom, including those found in a maker lab and educational technology applications associated with Belmont Day School’s 1:1 program.  

Finally, this individual will have an appreciation for working with energetic elementary and middle school students excited for the projects and learning they undertake as well as an interest in contributing to a culture that cultivates empathy, an anti-bias mindset, curiosity, self-advocacy, creativity, iteration, innovation, tinkering, and entrepreneurship.

This is a full-time, 12-month, exempt, benefit-eligible position that begins on July 1, 2022. The director serves as a member of the senior administrative team and reports to head of school. This position is not eligible for employer-sponsored relocation.

Instructional and Innovation Oversight:

• Lead a collaborative process with division heads to improve, develop and implement a PK-8 strategic vision and curricular path as innovators and design thinkers — including maker, design, computer science, and related disciplines — that is aligned to the school’s mission, strategic plan, values, culture, and individual divisional and departmental needs.

• Design, deliver, and oversee professional development and growth experiences in areas of innovation, technology integration and instructional design, and work 1:1 with faculty to foster an environment of thoughtful, creative, and independent use of technology and build excitement for leveraging technology in the curriculum.

• Evaluate instructional technology tools and guide senior academic leaders on strategic and operational decisions involving hardware, software, and services to enhance student learning and innovative pedagogy.

• Support students, parents, and faculty in effective implementation of the Responsible Use Policy (RUP), and promote appropriate, ethical use of technology in accordance with school policy.

• Teach in an area of expertise modeling the research and design process and maintain documentation on technology programming and written curriculum.

• Collaborate creatively with the director of summer programs to infuse research and design into summer programming.

Operational Services Oversight

• Serve as an active member of the administrative team, supervise other members of the tech team (faculty and staff).

• Develop and control the annual operating and capital expenditure budget for IT to ensure it is consistent with the school's overall strategic objectives.

• Oversee the successful delivery of technology services including: IT, enterprise data / systems, and event, AV, and classroom technologies.

• Serve as the school's primary project manager for enterprise-wide data transitions, and manage all outside technology vendors, contractors, and part-time specialists.

• Align departmental procedures, policies, and end-user support with the mission and culture of the school to build effective bridges and partnerships with end-users.

• Develop outreach opportunities and coordinate scheduling and supervision of the Impact Lab for special events, school and summer programs, including establishing best practices and protocols for the space.

• Manage the safety, logistics, and inventory and administer the 1:1 program in collaboration with technology staff and divisional leadership.

Desired Qualifications:

• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills: written, verbal, presentation, and training.

• A “next practice” mindset that understands how teaching and learning are changing and how practices should adapt. 

• Bachelor's degree in a related content area required, master's degree in education technology or related field preferred.

• Minimum of 3 years’ experience in a school preferred with strong classroom management skills and exposure at the elementary and middle school levels.

• Student-centered, culturally proactive, and responsive pedagogy in which all students are met where they are, and see themselves represented and valued.

• Knowledge of design thinking and project-based learning (PBL) principles and experience helping faculty design curriculum that applies these practices to teaching and learning.

• Demonstrated ability to lead students and adults through the innovation and design thinking process.

• Willingness to research, learn, and share new technologies with students and faculty.

• A demonstrated commitment to equity, inclusion, and belonging.

• Experience designing activities and curriculum that use the equipment typically found in a maker lab, and conducting professional development in these areas,

• Experience with the Google suite of applications on iOS, OS X, Chrome, Adobe suite.

• A fundamental understanding of management-level IT principles and best practices.

• Technical trouble-shooting skills for hardware, software, printing, and audio-visual tools.

This is an exciting time at Belmont Day School! We are building some great new teams and hope you might consider being a part of one. Please check here for additional opportunities at BDS.