Superintendent, Norristown Area School District

About Our District

Norristown Area School District (NASD) represents 3 municipalities; Norristown (known locally as the Borough), and the Townships of East Norriton and West Norriton, all located in central Montgomery County, about 15 miles northwest of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. With approximately 7,700 students across 12 schools, the district is recognized as one of the most diverse districts in the region and has welcomed immigrant communities for generations. The student community is 53% Latino, 28% Black, and 8% multiracial, and has made critical progress in recent years standardizing curriculum, stabilizing its finances, and establishing its arts and music programming as a successful driver of student engagement.

About the Superintendent

The district is now ready to chart its next path forward toward a bold and transformational vision for student achievement. The nine-member Board of School of Directors is seeking a Superintendent who can partner with our educators and community as we work to strengthen literacy and math proficiency across grades and improve pathways to graduation for all our students. NASD is just beginning a six- to seven-year phase of significant funding expansion that will grow our annual revenue by more than 30%. Our ultimate goal - to be a place our students are proud to attend, and to become the most improved district in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

What You’ll Do (“Key Responsibilities”)

Lead transformational academic success for every student

• Strengthen literacy, math, writing, and STEM proficiency - our Superintendent will establish the culturally responsive and research-based instructional models and supports that enable our classrooms to achieve consistent and meaningful progress in academic proficiency across all grades. This begins with ensuring that our students learn to read by the third grade and reading to learn after that. Math, writing, and STEM follow closely behind as priorities for our students. 

• Improve graduation rates and postsecondary pathways - we have many pathways to graduation in our district. Our Superintendent will ensure that each of our students utilizes those pathways to realize improved graduation rates with a clear path to postsecondary success.
• Ensure safe learning environments - the concept of safety is evolving in the current climate where ICE may have students wondering if their parents will still be home at the end of the school day. Our Superintendent will work to create safe, welcoming learning environments sensitive to the unique contexts we face today, and secure mental health support for students’ wellbeing.
• Support strong bilingual and English Language Learner programming - NASD is proud of our support for our immigrant community, as well as our bilingual programming which enables many students to graduate fully bilingual, whether they speak two languages or not. 
• Review and strengthen support for special education - assess current special education offerings and ensure that the district is meeting research-based best practice and offering high-quality instruction and opportunities for our special needs students.
• Protect the district’s arts and music programming, review and restore athletics programming - arts and music are shining strengths in the district and should be sustained and uplifted. Our athletics programming has lost engagement and there is an opportunity to assess and strengthen athletics overall.

Establish a collaborative learning culture with high aspirations for each of our students

• Partner with our educators, leaders, and labor to realize our vision - Our educators and our leaders are our greatest strength. To achieve different outcomes for our students, we will need a Superintendent who can help us envision a new path forward and see ourselves in that plan. We are looking for a leader who can set a vision in partnership with our workforce, and lead change across all schools on a classroom-by- classroom level, where teachers have the development and support needed to be able to implement change and experience success for their students.
• Seek out student and community voices to help inform district decisions - honor the voices of our students, parents and community members to help inform and drive key district decisions, especially marginalized communities to ensure well-rounded and diverse input before strategies are finalized.
• Communicate transparently and share data as the district makes progress - it is important to be honest about where the district is making progress and where we are not. Sharing student achievement data transparently with all stakeholders helps the district face shortcomings clearly and plan our path forward together. We seek a leader who can share data clearly and explain the path forward as a result.

Create the conditions where our staff can do their best work on behalf of their students

• Attract and develop a leadership team - cultivate, manage, and coach a strong and cohesive leadership team that delivers the district’s vision for student achievement and operational success. 
• Establish professional learning supports for staff as we build on our work to standardize curriculum and support stronger outcomes for students
• Support hiring and retention for talent - assess our human resource practices, including a closer look at local recruitment and hiring, proactive and early competition in the market for educators, and best in class HR practices for recruitment, hiring, and retention.
• Partner with employee associations - our relationships with our employee associations are important to our success. Our philosophy is that we are better together, and we want to continue this philosophy as we implement new approaches to strengthen instructional practices in our schools.

Support the district’s continued fiscal and operational sustainability

• Sustain and build on the district’s positive financial position - The district is in the best position financially it has been in years. Our credit rating has improved, our fund balance restored, and our financial position is strong. The Superintendent will steward the district’s $233.15 million budget, ensuring proper monitoring and oversight with transparency and fiscal responsibility, and ensuring that resources are equitably prioritized and allocated across the district. 
• Manage the Master Facilities Plan - the district has a 3-phased master facilities plan in place that the Superintendent will need to oversee, monitor and deliver. This will include ensuring on-time and on-budget expansion of schools, and major construction efforts with implications for our communities.
• Ensure high-functioning operations and effective service for schools from every layer of the central office.
• Represent the district and advocate at the local and state level to secure continued resources and continue to strengthen NASD’s brand and reputation locally and nationally.

Requirements

Skills You’ll Need to be Successful (“Core Competencies”)

Change Leadership for Student Success 

• Track record of improving student achievement outcomes for all students, and especially Black, Latinx, and English Language Learners, especially in the areas of reading and math proficiency.  
• Achieves systemwide results based on planning, monitoring, and implementation of clear action plans for complex efforts that require the engagement and ownership of stakeholders to ensure success.
• Analyzes complex situations and data, before making decisions, and then sets clear metrics for success, monitor progress and honestly acknowledge mistakes when something does not go as planned.
• Thoughtfully assesses what is working well and what is not working well before planning any change. 
• Works with the key people who will own a change effort to think through the appropriate pace of change and the best support systems, training and support needed to implement a major change well. 
• Willing to disrupt long-standing patterns to find creative solutions. Envisions the possibilities that others may not see and offer innovative solutions to seemingly intractable problems.

Cultural Competency

• Understands the rich history of the Norristown Area School District, our three municipalities, and the numerous communities served by the district.
• Demonstrates a commitment to embracing our immigrant community and understands the complexity of this unique moment in time, and finds ways to address the new concerns for safety this climate raises for our students and their families.
• Leads with a strong racial equity lens deeply rooted in understanding the systemically oppressed, and how systemic racism has led to inequitable access to opportunities and resources for our students.
• Recognizes race and power dynamics playing out within our district at all levels and is willing to interrupt those inequities through honest and difficult conversations and actions.
• Addresses matters of equity, race, and bias in decision-making with clarity, confidence, openness, empathy and historical context.
• Builds authentic relationships across lines of difference (race, ethnicity, gender, age, socioeconomic background, LGBTQ status, religion, etc.) through self-reflection, empathy, and a clear personal identity.

Authentic Communication and Coalition Building

• Communicates effectively, tailoring messages for each audience, context, and mode of communication.
• Maintains clear two-way channels of communication between the district and all stakeholders. 
• Unifies students, parents, board members, education leaders, local and state officials, and other key stakeholders behind a shared vision that inspires an aspirational vision for NASD students.
• Maintains consistent visibility and accessibility in the district.
• Pushes back thoughtfully when needed to avoid distraction from core priorities and goals in the better interest of student success.
• Collaborate effectively across organizational boundaries to achieve meaningful outcomes for scholars.

Holds high expectations for self and others

• Is reflective and transparent about the school system’s opportunities for improvement.
• Holds self and others accountable for shifts in practice, and seeks opportunities for continuous alignment, feedback, and shared learning.
• Creates opportunities where individuals can collaborate, feel supported, and are able to reflect and learn from one another to continue to improve practice over time.

Minimum Qualifications

• At least five years of senior education leadership experience with progressive levels of responsibility and evidence of success. 
• Demonstrated track record of school turnaround success and data-driven decision making ideally in a diverse public school district setting.
• Successful experience working in diverse economic, multicultural, and multilingual communities and environments with student demographics similar to Norristown Area School District. 
• A growth mindset and belief that continuous improvement happens through purposeful, relevant, differentiated learning experiences that set all students up for success.
• Experience, and a successful track record, of collaboration with labor unions and collective bargaining.
• Experience working in conjunction with a school board to identify priorities, establish goals, monitor progress, and produce outcomes in service to stakeholders.
• Demonstrated experience building consensus and trust within an organization.
• Exceptional written, oral, and visual communication skills. Bilingual preferred.
• Meets eligibility criteria for a Superintendent’s letter of eligibility in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Benefits

Salary for this integral leadership position is commensurate with prior experience. In addition, a comprehensive benefits package will be included in the ultimate offer for the identified sole finalist.  We look forward to discussing details with you as the interview process progresses.