About the SailFuture Academy

The SailFuture Academy is a purposefully disruptive, private non-profit high school in St. Petersburg, Florida. We serve families who struggle with a variety of financial, social, or community risk factors, including students who range from non-traditional learners to those involved in the foster care system. The vast majority of our students receive full scholarships, allowing them to attend with minimal to no cost to their families.

We strongly believe in making exceptional education equitable, and empowering our students to achieve economic freedom and social mobility through a pragmatic high school experience.

The school model leverages integrated coursework in business, technology, science, math, and language arts with practical application labs in business, maritime, and culinary settings. Students focus on foundational academic and character development curriculum in 9th and 10th grade and participate in an in-house internship in 11th grade and an external apprenticeship in their 12th-grade year.

Most notably, every student participates in 7-week, international rite-of-passage sailing expeditions onboard a 100’ school ship. Students travel across the Caribbean and North/South America to help lead service projects, manage a responsibility onboard, and expand their world view to cultivate personal growth.

About the Academic Dean

We are seeking a creative, passionate, and experienced leader who shares our vision for project-based education that equips a young person with an entrepreneurial mindset and the core skills needed to enter the ‘real world.’

The Academic Dean reports directly to the Head of School and is responsible for overseeing all academic affairs, teacher leadership, and curriculum development at the SailFuture Academy.

The Academic Dean is expected to be a creative thought leader and should view their role as a coach, mentor, and standard-setter for educators. The ideal candidate will have compelling ideas for how to develop real-world curriculum and the ability to implement those ideas in the classroom across all seven of our key disciplines: Applied Mathematics, English Language Arts, Maritime Leadership, Social Emotional Learning, Design Lab, Pathways, and Business. The Academic Dean is not expected to be a subject matter expert in all disciplines, but must show an ability and commitment to learn, solve problems, and author engaging classroom experiences at a high school level.

Day-to-Day responsibilities vary, and include lesson planning, curriculum writing, direct instruction, and administrative duties, teacher coaching, classroom observations, and more.

This is a year-round position and typical working hours are 8am - 5pm, Monday through Friday.

Essential Functions:

• Assisting in the leadership and development of hands-on learning experiences, curriculum, lesson planning, and assignment creation.
• Faculty Recruitment
• Faculty training and onboarding
• Faculty supervision and classroom management
• Curriculum development, oversight, and managing supply/material ordering
• Manage all academic tools, including LMS systems, NWEA, School Information System, Notion Curriculum Database, Google Drive, and more.
• Manage and implement NWEA Map testing
• Oversee academic probation, parent notifications, and student accountability
• Serve as the primary point of contact for academic affairs between parent, teachers, and the school
• Oversee end of term student showcases
• Curriculum supply storage and organization

The ideal candidate:

• The ideal candidate is aligned with our core values and is eager to begin, and capable of sustaining, the work needed to build a legacy project. The Ideal candidate will:
• Possesses a ‘whatever it takes’ mentality
• Demonstrated portfolio of work in project-based learning
• Successful track record working with, or developing curriculum for at-risk youth populations
• Has experience leading and managing teams
• Passionate about reimagining education
• Collaborative in their approach
• Lead by example and be excited to work in the trenches

Benefits:

• $250 per month employee health contribution
• 401k with 6% match
• 20 days PTO (accrual)