Technology Director

Overview

Founded in 1962, Presentation High School is a highly regarded Catholic independent school for young women in Silicon Valley sponsored by the Sisters of the Presentation. The school works in partnership with families to promote the spiritual and intellectual development of students, and graduates are expected to be women of faith who live by the motto “Not Words, But Deeds,” capturing its commitment to service to others. “Pres,” as it is affectionately called, believes that the all-female experience allows for increased leadership opportunities, greater empowerment, and a stronger perception of self-efficacy. The school is intentional about ensuring every student belongs, and there is a deep sense of family and community among the faculty, staff, and students. The school is fortunate to have a beautiful campus and facilities and is proud of its robust academics, competitive athletics, and outstanding fine arts.

The school provides small class sizes while offering a wide variety of courses, programs, and activities that would normally only be seen in much larger schools. Students exude joy and sisterhood, and enthusiastic school spirit fills the halls. A formidable campus master plan has been created, which visualizes an extraordinary campus expansion and renovation project.

Presentation High School is seeking a seasoned professional to become Technology Director, assuming the role in July 2022.

The ideal candidate is an experienced, goal-oriented leader and skilled communicator who will partner with school leadership and the technology team to lead the strategic changes in educational technology in partnership across the school community while embracing Presentation’s Catholic identity, mission, culture, and values.

Reporting to the CFOO, serving on the Business Operations Leadership Team team, and regularly collaborating with the President, Principal, and school leadership, the technology director, provides vision and leadership to integrate strategy, technology, and community to improve learning outcomes for students.

In this role, the tech director will assess potential areas of opportunity in which technology can facilitate the delivery of systems and programs, foster student learning, and enhance operational effectiveness.

Responsibilities

The Technology Director oversees the following areas of responsibility:

Lead to Results

1. Inform the direction of implementing innovative and effective learning environments and digital solutions as a critical part of the Technology Strategy Plan
   • Develop and update the school’s Technology Strategy Plan to provide a framework for prioritizing technology projects and promoting the meaningful use of technology in all school learning environments.
   • Develop standards to systematically evaluate the effective use of technology school-wide and assess technology systems regularly against those standards.
2. Through the lens of technology resources and tools, advance the quality of instructional and educational outcomes for every Presentation High School student.
3. Develop professional learning and capacity building to support Presentation High School adoption of technology tools, systems, and resources aligned to its Strategic Plan
4. Drive stakeholder engagement, impact analysis, learning/training, communications, user readiness, deployment, and adoption measurement
5. Develop a long-range vision for technology and annual strategic goals in partnership with school leadership and the technology team; ensure goals, key milestones, and deadlines are met.
6. Use data-driven analysis to inform decision-making.
   • Collaborate with all school staff to provide technical support for data collection, retention, dissemination to ensure access and interoperability within all school data systems.
7. Review, maintain and evaluate the technology budget and any technology project expenses in collaboration with the CFOO and the Director of Finance.
8. Manage vendor partnerships, upholding Presentation High School’s best interests
9. Represent the technology interests of the school in regional and state meetings, and serve as liaison to other schools within the Diocese and region for work on collaborative initiatives, grants, and projects.

Lead Teams

1. Lead teams by collaboratively facilitating partnerships and operationalizing best practices within the internal Pres and the local community to:
   • Ensure the technology team staff's development, success, and accountability through effective communication and fulfillment of commitments to all school constituents.
   • Embed the effective use of technology across pedagogy and productivity
   • Create a shared vision for technology integration
   • Plan, develop and implement professional learning opportunities for the Presentation High School community.
     • Provide leadership for enhancing teaching and learning by identifying, evaluating, adopting, and integrating effective educational technology into the curriculum and school-wide productivity solutions.
   • Develop and execute communications plans related to technology initiatives
   • Maintain feedback loops to promote continuous improvement
   • Support students, teachers, staff, and parents with devices, programs, and digital platforms
     • Engage the academic community in discussing and assessing digital educational and productivity tools.
     • Support the use of digital learning and productivity tools in the classrooms and campus-wide
2. Standardize technology-related best practices, policies, and protocols for clarity and efficiency
3. Chair the school’s internal technology committee.

Lead Relationships

1. Collaborates with fellow school leaders and the technology team to identify and anticipate the technology needs of the school to lead and manage projects by creating solutions and training to meet those needs.
   • Plan, organize, direct, coordinate, and provide technical support to activities related to all technology used at PHS, which includes, but is not limited to iPads, computer networks, student information systems, databases, business systems, content management systems, learning management systems, Google Apps for Education, hardware, and office machines.
2. Execute project and change management best practices and plans for digital learning and innovation that align with the Presentation High School culture that include but are not limited to the following:
3. Collaborate with the CFOO, President, Principal, Vice Principals, directors, faculty, and staff to effectively integrate technology
4. Identify relevant resources to best support faculty and staff in establishing learning networks and developing relationships with other schools.
5. Works with the Educational Technologist in maintaining technology resources (videos, training, web pages) for students and faculty and in partnership with the Marketing and Communications Department for website publication.
6. Establish and maintain feedback loops

Qualifications

This position requires establishing and maintaining cooperative working relationships effectively within a diverse, multicultural environment. To perform this job successfully, an ideal candidate must perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The items below represent the knowledge, skills, abilities, education, and experience required or preferred.

Education

● Master's degree (M.A. / M.S) from an accredited college or university in instructional design, educational technology, project management, change management or related field from an accredited college or university. Advanced degree preferred: Doctorate from an accredited college or university in instructional design, educational technology, project management, change management or related field from an accredited college or university.

Experience

• Five (5) years of experience in:
  • Facilitating professional learning, training, and capacity-building initiatives
  • Deployment experience or other relevant experience related to the successful delivery of technology-enabled learning solutions incorporating the disciplines of change management methodology, communication planning, teacher training, organizational readiness, or user adoption
• Minimum five years of experience teaching or working in school districts
• Experience in change and project management principles, methodologies, and tools
• Experience in adult learning principles, methods, and tools
• Strong leadership, communication, and interpersonal skills
• Understanding of school-based systems such as databases, SIS and LMS, financials, MDM Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities
• Total resonance with the mission, vision, and values of Presentation High School and the Catholic education tradition, including a demonstrated commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion
• A self-starter and team player with a sense of urgency who is driven to learn and continually identify and determine the cause of problems, seek ways to improve professional skills and programs, develops and present recommendations for modernization of internal systems, and best practice implementation
• Demonstrate complete integrity and inspire trust to effectively establish and maintain cooperative working relationships within a diverse, multicultural environment and promote and contribute to an inclusive and respectful workplace Ability to develop and maintain strong working relationships
• Ability to influence others and move toward a shared vision or goal
• Demonstrates agility
• Organized with a natural inclination for planning strategy and tactics
• Problem-solving and root cause identification skills
• Able to work effectively at all levels in an organization
• Understanding of organizational issues and challenges
• Flexibility and ability to prioritize individual workload
• Maintains strong attention to detail in high-pressure situations
• Experience with large-scale organizational change efforts
• Change management and/or Project management certified
• Google certifications
• Digital Citizenship, Single Sign-On, Student Data Privacy implementation
• Experience working with third-party vendors
• Experience with school deployment projects

Commitments of Presentation’s Leadership

As a member of the Business Operations Leadership Team, the Technology Director is expected to model the following commitments for all Presentation Leaders:

1. Total resonance with the mission, vision, and values of Presentation High School and the Catholic education tradition, including a demonstrated commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
2. Place students at the center of every decision.
3. Live out the promise that PHS is a connected community of individuals who care for and respect one another.
4. Team players with a sense of urgency who are driven to learn and continually identify and determine the cause of problems seek ways to improve professional skills and programs.
5. Commitment to collaborative and distributed leadership and defining what that means to be a leader at PHS.
6. Provide innovative and visionary direction to areas of oversight and present recommendations for best practice in advancing those areas in line with the school’s mission, vision, and values.
7. Use judgment when making decisions in areas of responsibility and leverage their professional experience and expertise and their knowledge of the school’s mission and values and determine if, when, and how to consult with others or escalate the matter to the President or Principal.
8. Demonstrate complete integrity and inspire trust to effectively establish and maintain cooperative working relationships and promote and contribute to an inclusive and respectful workplace.
9. To enable leaders to speak in one voice, ensure fellow leaders are informed of critical issues, consequential decisions, new programs, and that the rationale is clear before they are shared school-wide.
10. Stand in support of team members, senior leadership, and the decisions of fellow leaders. Respectfully and privately hold each other accountable to the leadership expectations and commitments.