Singapore American School
Job Description
Associate Director of Parent Engagement
Reports to: Executive Director of Communications
Executive Summary
SAS believes that the school and parent partnership is central to our mission of providing each student an exemplary American educational experience with an international perspective. The Associate Director of Parent Engagement is an integral part of the Communications Team, who are tasked with growing and maintaining this strong partnership and engagement with our parent community. The Associate Director role is responsible for leading and organizing successful programming to encourage parent engagement with the school by creating and supporting two-way communication channels, championing parent volunteer activities, and running structured processes to support the parent and school partnership.
Success in this role will require professional agility, originality, judgment, exceptional communication skills, and a thorough knowledge of the programs and structures of the school and community we serve. The Associate Director of Parent Engagement will develop recommendations to share with the Executive Director of Communications that may involve subtle, sensitive, and sophisticated relationships, and take into account divergent and often contradictory demands and expectations.
Desired Qualifications
- Demonstrate a deep commitment to the SAS Vision, Mission, Strategic Anchors, and Desired Student Learning Outcomes.
- Exceptional communication skills, values-driven judgment and adaptability.
- Minimum of bachelor's degree required
- 10+ years of experience working in a large complex environment, preferably with a portion of that experience in education
- Understanding of K-12 American curriculum international schools and their challenges.
- Experience in customer relations, public relations, or related field preferred.
- Chinese and additional languages a plus.
- Experience working in a competitive environment and a track record of success.
- Exceptional writing skills with the ability to write for a variety of audiences and contexts
- Experience in a multicultural, high performance, educational environment
- Excellent interpersonal and small group presentation and facilitation skills
- Experience with the creation and implementation of complex initiatives.
- Working knowledge of policies, procedures, and operations at SAS is a benefit
- Strong leadership skills, demonstrating the ability to motivate, engage and influence stakeholders, without direct authority.
- High competence in current systems and technology
- Ability to:
- contribute to a positive school climate
- handle multiple priorities simultaneously with changing urgency daily.
- collect and analyze data and information, draw conclusions, and produce reports.
- reason logically and analyze and solve complicated problems.
- establish and maintain cooperative working relationships with a wide variety of stakeholders.
- work successfully alone and on a team.
- develop and/or review proposals, prepare analyses, draft responses.
- Flexible availability to work nights, weekends, and during school vacations.
- Chinese language proficiency is desirable but not essential
Responsibilities
- Oversee parent engagement activities and projects in support of the vision and mission of the school, and build understanding within the parent community. This includes agenda development, leading and/or facilitating advisory groups, task forces, and parent education programs.
- Work closely with school leaders and parent volunteer groups to support their involvement at the school.
- Build bridges with diverse parent groups through our cultural ambassador program and professional development opportunities for school leaders, teachers, and parent leaders
- Develop and implement an onboarding module for new families to help them understand the SAS culture and expectations.
- Enhance and develop opportunities for parents to engage at various levels (ranging from minimal to highly involved).
- Facilitate campus leaders meetings and support authentic and productive communication between the school and parent leaders.
- Build strong and meaningful relationships with parents in the SAS community in support of development efforts at the school.
- Communicate with key leaders regarding both strategic and emergent issues that need attention and develop reporting tools for regularly communicating trends.
- Supervise and support the work of Booster Booth Coordinator, PTA Store Coordinator and Community Ambassadors.
- Craft and execute recommendations on engagement strategies for SAS.
- Perform other duties as determined by the Executive Director of Communications.
