Reporting to the program services coordinator, the Preschool Teacher Coordinator will supervise, lead, oversee, and support center staff in their implementation of the Head Start (HS) program and the delivery of high-quality comprehensive services to enrolled children and families. The Preschool Teacher Coordinator oversees the administrative requirements of the center including compliance with a broad range of local, state, and federal regulations such as childcare licensing (BCCL) and ERSEA (eligibility, recruitment, selection, enrollment, and attendance). The Preschool Teacher Coordinator implements daily routines with children that promote children’s cognitive, social, health, and emotional growth for later success in school. The Preschool Teacher Coordinator serves as the parent’s primary contact for all Head Start services. The Preschool Teacher Coordinator receives regular on-going support from the program services coordinator and the education specialist (coach) to implement the agency’s curriculum that includes creating a safe and enriching environment, embedding responsive and effective teacher-child interactions, and fostering partnerships with families by respecting values, strengths, and cultures and welcoming parent's contributions and participation. The Preschool Teacher Coordinator position is funded for eight hours per day Monday through Friday, working directly with children for 4-6.75 hours per day four days of the week. When children are not attending class, the Preschool Teacher Coordinator guides the center team activities such as regulatory compliance, food service oversight, transportation oversight, parent meetings, curriculum planning lessons, documenting children's work and outcomes, entering and analyzing child and family data, setting goals, and attending professional development opportunities.
Implement the Languages of Learning curriculum with a minimum of 6.5 hours per day four days per week. Ensure and support the completion of at least two parent conferences and two home visits during the program year.
Set learning goals and plan learning experiences by integrating knowledge of each child’s temperament, interests, gender, culture, language, learning approaches, understanding, misconceptions, and abilities and by working collaboratively with families and a range of specialists (e.g., medical, dental, speech, nutrition, mental health)
Promote children’s active exploration, creativity, and development in all domains by designing indoor and outdoor environments based on knowledge of how children develop and learn, and their individual abilities.
Build children’s pride in their cultures, families, and communities by ensuring that classroom learning centers and materials reflect children’s cultures and communities (e.g., books and print in families’ languages, family photographs, items from their culture)
Ensure that children are intellectually challenged by selecting, organizing, and using high-quality materials and equipment and by adapting the environment to support each child’s skill acquisition and success.
Use information about children obtained through home visits, parent-teacher conferences, and other parent-staff interactions by incorporating this data into daily routines and interactions with children.
Maintain a healthy physical environment by developing and implementing health and safety policies and procedures (e.g., following universal precautions, regularly sanitizing equipment, and child-proofing environments).
Build children’s awareness of and ability to follow basic health and safety rules by providing opportunities for health and safety learning (e.g., implementing and discussing routines—washing hands, fire drills, crossing streets) and by supervising children at all times and positively redirecting them from potentially harmful activities.
Develop and implement the child supervision system, child count system, and active supervision implementation plan to ensure all children are supervised at all times.
Support parents in extending children’s learning at home by providing newsletters, take-home activities, home visits, and parent-teacher conferences.
Help children who are learning English by providing them with the supports (e.g., props, gestures, incorporating basic words in the child’s home language, securing volunteers who speak the child’s language) they need to fully participate in classroom experiences.
Enhance children’s knowledge and language and literacy development by regularly reading books with children individually, in small groups, and in various settings (e.g., block area, housekeeping area)
Encourage children’s emergent writing skills, their awareness of print, and the varied purposes for writing by providing and using a range of writing materials (e.g., markers, crayons, finger paint, letter magnets) and environmental print (e.g., traffic signs, labels in the classroom, store signs)
Support children’s interest in and awareness of numbers, counting, and problem solving by initiating counting games and activities and by providing materials that link number concepts to numerals and mathematical understanding and vocabulary.
Promoting children’s understanding of size, shape, color, and directionality by engaging them is small and large-motor activities that require them to sort, match, and identify patterns, group objects, and measure objects.
Build children’s ability to compare and talk about the similarities and differences between objects by providing experiences with sorting, matching, patterns, grouping, and measurement.
Assist children in understanding math and science concepts by embedding math and science experiences into everyday routines, music, movement, literacy, art, and play.
Help children expand their knowledge of their bodies and the world around them by planning and implementing in-depth exploration of topics in physical, life, and earth sciences.
Encourage children’s use of scientific inquiry by offering experiences and opportunities to engage in questioning, predicting, investigating, and collecting and analyzing data.
Expand children’s knowledge of nature, living things, and materials and processes by providing objects, tools, and experiences that enable them to closely observe and explore nature and scientific concepts (e.g., cause and effect, time, temperature, buoyancy, changes in materials).
Facilitate children’s ability to listen to, interact with, and appreciate different types of music by providing individual and group experiences with singing, finger plays, creative movement, and musical instruments.
Develop children’s imagination and creativity by providing child-directed and teacher-guided opportunities for them to express their thoughts, ideas, experiences, and feelings through various media (e.g., movement, dance, drama, music, visual arts).
Help children learn about themselves and others by designing and implementing meaningful experiences to explore similarities and differences between people.
Align goals and approaches to support children’s progress by engaging with program staff, specialists, families, and staff in other learning settings who also serve the child.
Offer families opportunities to increase their child observation skills by providing written and verbal information and encouraging participation in classroom and family education activities.
Engage families as full partners in their own and their children’s development and learning by helping families develop and reach realistic and achievable long- and short-term goals, engaging them in assessing their needs and strengths, and supporting them in taking actions to reach their goals.
Strengthening parent-child relationships by helping families recognize the satisfaction and value of engaging with their children and supporting their learning through daily, routine experiences in the home and community.
Build families’ and children’s self-esteem by drawing on their cultural strengths (e.g., family child bond, extended family, health and nutrition practices) to influence child-rearing skills and to foster positive family interactions.
Support families in addressing challenges (e.g., mental illness, substance abuse, disabilities, family violence) that affect their well-being, by discussing issues and/or linking them to community.
Individualized approaches to working with families by drawing on a sound understanding of family development issues and the unique needs of each family.
Plan, organize, lead, and support center staff in day-to-day operations for the delivery of high-quality comprehensive Head Start services to children and families. Identify service delivery challenges and emerging resource needs. Assess and recommend to supervisor changes for the center’s service plan, service delivery model, staffing pattern.
Ensure compliance with applicable federal, state, local, and program standards, policies, and/or procedures by keeping abreast of these requirements and by promoting staff’s understanding and implementation of them related to the operation of a childcare facility including staffing, safety, food service, required postings, inspections, and record retention. Ensure follow-up and successful resolution of regulatory inspections findings.
Build a staff that advances the program’s mission by hiring and promoting qualified staff who support the program’s philosophy and goals and who culturally and linguistically represent the community and program and by training staff on practices and requirements specific to the center.
Exercise prudent stewardship of program resources by making decisions based on program financial reports and applicable federal, state, and program financial requirements (e.g., allowable costs, nonfederal share, cost-sharing)
Advocate resources to improve program quality by offering suggestions and providing information about needed resources during the program’s planning and budget development process.
Encourage families’ involvement in program decision making by ensuring that families are informed about decision-making opportunities (e.g., parent meetings, workshops, policy group, governance committees) and by supporting their involvement (e.g., transportation, training, convenient meeting times).
Strengthening staff’s commitment to family empowerment by engaging with families, acknowledging the contributions they make, and modeling approaches for working with families as full partners.
Train, guide, and support center staff in the development and implementation of overall center safety and emergency planning systems including child supervision system, child count system, and active supervision implementation plan.
Recruit eligible children and families and assist potential enrollees in completing enrollment process and obtaining needed services.
Participate with and support teaching staff in a variety of activities related to their work with families including social service needs, completion of medical and/or dental screenings, follow up appointments and/or referrals.
Implement operational systems related to safety, security, maintenance, and supplies for the center including the keyless entry system, work request system, CPC alerts, inventory, supply ordering, and where applicable, the child transportation system.
Act as liaison with facility owner or manager when located in a facility not owned by the agency.
Conduct a variety of monitoring activities related to safety, food service, program goals and objectives, participant requirements, and staff requirements. Identify and acknowledge accomplishments. Recommend to supervisor strategies for continued improvement.
Meet federal, state, and program documentation requirements by maintaining accurate, complete, timely, and well-organized child, family, staff, facility, and vehicle (where applicable) records. Correct inaccurate or incomplete records as able and/or coordinate collection of records through the corresponding department.
Monitor and update as necessary the overall center safety and emergency planning system using reports and or/anecdotal communication about the effectiveness of the plan. Complete and enter Safety Review – Quarterly in Critical Issues Database by required date per policy and procedures. Monitor patterns of non-compliance and provide support and training to staff as necessary.
Review and maintain current community resource and referral file.
Follow agency monitoring system for center areas including mid-month and end of month reporting about Center Profile projections and work with staff on program improvement plans where necessary.
Monitor child observation, screening, and assessment data to plan individualized experiences and small and large group activities.
Monitor children’s progress per the goals developed by self and other staff and specialists, including those in IEPs, by observing and documenting children’s play, conversations, routines/schedules, and work samples and through conversations with families.
Provide accurate and timely data into child information systems (SmartTeach and/or ChildPlus) to support the agency’s program reports to local, state, and federal officials.
Responsible for reporting (including self-reporting) any unsupervised child incidents to the supervisor and to those with a need to know.
Lead and facilitate the center team meetings and the Comprehensive Services Cross-disciplinary team meetings (Health and Nutrition Services, Education Services, Family and Community Partnerships) in providing support to center staff to ensure high quality services to children and families.
Actively participates on the program services department team and contribute to the decision-making process for compliance, strategic initiatives, professional development, budget, governance, and agency self-assessment. Implement and monitor key management decisions in the area of program services.
Collaborate with organization and employee development to assess center staff strengths and areas of support needs and recommend strategies for system/process improvement and/or development. Participate in the development and the implementation of high-quality researched-based pre-service and in-service learning for center staff.
Work collaboratively (directly or through other program leaders) with committees, the policy group, and the governing body by sharing data, problem solving, acting on their recommendations, and/or implementing policies and plans.
Contribute to the ongoing activities of the Health and Safety Committee. Provide insight and recommendations regarding safety and emergency planning, regulatory compliance, child supervision, safe spaces, and age-appropriate materials.
Maintain content area expertise including best practices, local, state, and federal initiatives through active membership in professional associations and/or organizations and establishment of good working relationships with internal and external stakeholders with goals and objectives that align with the vision and mission of the agency.
Represent the organization at community activities or through study tours to enhance the organization's community profile. Support and participate in the Arizona Head Start Association and other groups.
Collaborate with Human Resources management staff on personnel and human resource matters including personnel systems and policies and/or procedures to ensure the staffing structure supports program mission and goals.
Attend Policy Council and advisory committee meetings, as required. Transport parents to meetings, as needed.
Broaden ability to accurately assess children’s development by seeking consultation to supplement own observation and planning and to determine when referral is needed.
Facilitate transitions to or from Early Head Start, Head Start, home, and/or other early education and care settings by engaging families, others in the program, and members of the community in planning.
Maintain professional boundaries in relationships with staff and families by distinguishing between others’ needs and one’s own, guarding against abuse of power and sexual misconduct, and using appropriate language.
Secure, train, and supervise classroom volunteers.
