POSITION SUMMARY:
The Assistant Early Childhood Director who under the direction of the Sr. Director, Youth Programs, will be responsible in assisting with the overall daily operations of the Preschool and UPK programs and serve a leadership role in the summer Kiddie Camp program. The Assistant Director must assist the Director in maintaining licensing status through the NYS OCFS. The Assistant Director will promote a continuity between Preschool, UPK, and Summer Camp in its curriculum, health and general feel.
ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS:
• Maintain and support the overall quality safety, supervision of children and staff and program components of the Preschool program.
• Keep track of classroom enrollments, registration fees, tuition, child files, and communications with families.
• Work collaboratively to maintaining licensing regulations and procedures, and filing appropriate reports monitoring agencies, as required or requested.
• Meet and greet families and children daily at arrival and departure times.
• Ensure the supervision, safety and well-being of children and classroom teaching staff, daily, including moving staff with children as they change locations throughout the day.
• Supervise and support all preschool teaching staff in developing and implementing a rich and innovative curriculum and creating a safe environment.
• Support, guide, and train staff in utilizing various assessment tools of observation, documentation, writing, letters, data collection, work samples, photos, videos and other methods to assess children’s developmental skills and progress both individually through portfolio collection and with classroom curriculum plans and evaluation.
• Collect and maintain assessment completion timeline and compile records and classroom data of preschool children for review with teachers and Director.
• Assist preschool classroom teams and others, as needed, with using assessment information to set individual children and classroom goals.
• Participate with teaching staff and Director with family conferences.
• Assist Director with preschool tours, information sessions and open house for preschool.
• Oversee intentional classroom curriculum and activity plans weekly and their connection to assessment goals for children.
• Conduct regular observations of staff and classrooms and provided feedback to teaching teams, UPK coordinator, and Early Childhood Director.
• Train classroom staff to utilize tools of observation, documentation, provocation, discussion and planning daily for classroom and individual children’s goals.
• Participate in all training sessions related to professional development or required for the position, on an annual or as needed basis.
• Lead and participate in weekly staff planning meetings for classroom and preschool.
• Maintain positive communication with all program participants, volunteers and visitors.
• Organize and maintain equipment and supplies; notify Director of needed supplies.
• Follow health and safety standards, regulations and practices of required state regulatory agencies NYS OCFS, DOH and CDC.
• Responsible for notifying the Director of any safety hazards in all learning environments.
• Accommodate schedule changes and cover staff when needed (this includes anything from teaching in classrooms to working in office).
• Participate in special events, as needed or requested.
• Act as Director on Duty as scheduled, including working one Saturday each quarter.
QUALIFICATIONS:
• Bachelor’s Degree in Early Childhood Education or a related field, or a Child Development Associate Credential. NYS Teaching certification preferred.
• A minimum of 2 years of experience in an Early Childhood setting.
• Current Certifications in CPR and First Aid required.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to supervise, mentor, and evaluate staff.
• Excellent computer skills and experience with standard business software.
• Demonstrated commitment to mission driven programming and customer service.
• Ability to articulate the YMCA mission and programs to staff, volunteer, and community.
• Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to relate effectively to diverse groups of people from all social and economic segments of the community.
• Ability to work in a fast paced, highly flexible and rapidly changing work environment.
HOW TO APPLY:
For consideration, email your resume to Cindy Becker at Cindy.Becker@ymcali.org and Bob Pettersen at Bob.Pettersen@ymcali.org.