Job Description

ABOUT NEIGHBORHOOD CHARTER SCHOOLS

Neighborhood Charter Schools (NCS) is a public charter school network rooted in Harlem and the Bronx, serving students in an intentionally designed, inclusive learning community. NCS is built on a simple but powerful belief: every child deserves to be known, valued, and supported as their full self. Our schools operate as a true neighborhood model, grounded in deep relationships with families and a commitment to belonging for every student.

What distinguishes NCS is an inclusive-by-design approach. Classrooms, schedules, and supports are intentionally built to serve high-functioning autistic students, multilingual learners, students with IEPs, and general education students together. Inclusion is not a program or an add-on—it is the foundation of how our schools function and how students experience learning every day.

As NCS expands from a K–8 network to a K–12 system, the launch of its first high school marks a defining moment for the organization. The high school represents an opportunity to extend NCS’s inclusive, neighborhood-based model through adolescence, creating continuity, care, and high expectations over time. The Founding High School Principal will play a central role in shaping this next chapter and bringing the NCS high school vision to life.

To learn more about NCS, please visit .

ABOUT THE ROLE 

The Founding High School Principal is the instructional and culture leader of Neighborhood Charter Schools’ first high school. Reporting to the Chief Academic & Schools Officer and serving as a key member of the school and network leadership team, the Founding Principal is responsible for bringing the NCS high school vision to life through excellent instruction, a deeply inclusive school culture, and strong adult leadership.

This role is both entrepreneurial and deeply instructional. The Founding Principal will be joining NCS for a full planning year in advance of the first day of school and will work alongside network leadership to launch and scale the NCS high school, translating the school’s vision into daily practice as the community grows. As network-wide academic systems and supports take shape, the Principal will play a critical role in shaping how those frameworks live at the school level—building a rigorous instructional program, an inclusive and joyful culture, and a leadership team designed to grow with the school over time.

The Founding Principal is a highly visible and active leader for students, families, and the broader community and serves as a key steward of the NCS high school model in practice.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

Lead Instructional Excellence & Academic Outcomes

• Lead the instructional vision and day-to-day academic life of the high school, ensuring classrooms reflect the depth, rigor, and inquiry at the heart of the NCS high school model.
• Bring coherence to curriculum, instruction, assessment, and grading so that students experience learning as purposeful, challenging, and connected across disciplines.
• Lead an academic program intentionally designed for inclusion, where instructional planning, classroom practice, assessment, and student supports are built from the outset to serve a wide range of learners and pathways.
• Use student work, observation, and multiple forms of data to continuously strengthen teaching practice and student learning.

Build & Sustain a Strong School Culture

• Build a joyful, affirming, and intellectually serious school culture where students feel known, challenged, and empowered to take ownership of their learning.
• Establish shared norms, rituals, and routines that reinforce a sense of belonging, purpose, and high expectations for students and adults.
• Model and cultivate culturally responsive, inclusive, and restorative practices as foundational—not supplemental—to the school’s identity.
• Ensure that academic expectations, student experience, and community values are tightly aligned and mutually reinforcing.

Develop & Lead a High-Performing Team

• Build the founding leadership team—including Assistant Principals, Deans, the Director of Operations, and the Director of College and Career—and set a strong foundation for collaboration and shared leadership.
• Recruit, develop, and retain educators who are deeply aligned with the school’s instructional vision and commitment to inclusion.
• Invest in adult learning through meaningful observation, coaching, feedback, and professional learning experiences that strengthen practice over time.
• Create clear expectations and accountability structures that support growth, reflection, and collective responsibility for student success.

Partner with Families & the Community

• Serve as a visible, trusted leader with students, families, and community members.
• Build strong relationships with families through clear communication, partnership, and shared ownership of student success.
• Engage community organizations and partners to enrich students’ learning experiences and support postsecondary pathways.

Launch & Grow the High School

• Partner closely with the Chief Academic & Schools Officer and network teams to support the launch and growth of the high school within emerging network academic frameworks and systems.
• Translate network-level vision, priorities, and expectations into coherent school-level practices as systems and structures are developed.
• Build founding routines, structures, and team practices that support consistency, coherence, and scalability over time.
• Continuously reflect, learn, and adapt as the school grows, balancing fidelity to the evolving model with responsiveness to student and community needs.

WHO YOU’LL WORK WITH

• Chief Academic & Schools Officer – your manager and a close partner on academic vision, instructional quality, and school performance.
• School Leadership Team – your direct reports (Assistant Principals, Director of Operations, and Director of College and Career) and key partners in the daily implementation of the high school program. 
• Network Teams – essential cross-functional partners in curriculum, professional learning, student support services, enrollment, and operations.
• Students, Families, & Community Partners – as core partners in building a strong, inclusive school community.

Requirements

REQUIRED SKILLS, EXPERIENCE & MINDSETS 

Core Leadership Experience

• Proven success as an instructional leader, with a minimum of two years of experience as a high school Assistant Principal or Principal (strongly preferred), leading high-quality teaching and learning in rigorous, inclusive school environments.
• Strong track record of building positive school cultures grounded in high expectations, care, and inclusion as the starting point—not the exception.
• Experience recruiting, developing, and leading diverse teams.
• Demonstrated ability to use data, student work, and multiple forms of evidence to drive instructional improvement and student outcomes, with the understanding that success is not one-size-fits-all and requires clear, supported pathways for students.
• Strong communication, relationship-building, and community engagement skills, including partnership with families and the existing K–8 community.
• Alignment with NCS’s mission, values, and vision for high school education.

Founding & Growth Mindsets

• Ability to build clarity where it does not yet exist yet, and set direction in new or evolving contexts.
• Comfort testing, iterating, and refining practices, systems, and structures over time.
• Ability to lead people through uncertainty with steadiness, transparency, and sound judgment.
• Capacity to think in terms of systems that grow, not just systems that function today.
• Thoughtful judgment about sequencing and pacing, with a focus on building durable foundations rather than short-term wins.

Benefits

ADDITIONAL DETAILS

• This is a full-time, NYC-based, in-person role.
• The Founding Principal will be expected to engage in pre-launch planning during SY26-27 prior to the school’s opening in SY27-28.
• The salary range for this position is $172,000 - $210,000, commensurate with years of prior experience. Candidates holding NY State SBL certification will have an additional $4,000 added to their starting salary.

TO APPLY

Please submit a resume online at

Neighborhood Charter Schools is committed to building a diverse, equitable, and inclusive organization. We encourage candidates of all backgrounds who share our mission and values to apply.

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