[2026-2027] Principal - Founding Middle School

Company: KIPP Foundation
Location: Elkins Park
Posted on: February 17, 2026

Job Description:

KIPP Public Schools is a national network of tuition-free public charter schools preparing students with the skills and confidence needed to create the futures they want for themselves, their communities, and us all. We are a network of 279 schools, nearly 16,500 educators, and 210,000 students and alumni. KIPP Philadelphia Public Schools (KPPS) is part of the national KIPP Public Schools network and currently leads eight schools serving 3,400 students in North and West Philadelphia. By 2030, KPPS will be serving approximately 4,000 students. KPPS MISSION Together with families and communities, we create joyful, academically excellent schools that prepare students to pursue the paths they choose—college, career, and beyond—so they can lead fulfilling lives and build a more just world. LIFE AT KPPS At KPPS, we believe that talented, committed, and culturally competent educators and staff are foundation of our students success. We work to create a professional community grounded in joy, candor, care, and connection – where every team member can bring their authentic self, grow in their craft, and contribute to meaningful work. Here is what you can expect: Commitment to Anti-Racism & Equity: Join a team dedicated to dismantling systemic barriers and creating inclusive, culturally responsive schools where all students and staff can thrive. Joyful, Inclusive Community: Work in a collaborative, identity-affirming environment that values relationships, celebrates individuality, and supports the well-being of adults and children alike. Competitive & Equitable Compensation: Benefit from transparent compensation structures, including performance-based bonuses that recognize meaningful contributions. Professional Growth & Leadership Pathways: Access high-quality development – including coaching, workshops, and tailored leadership opportunities – designed to support your long-term career trajectory. Authenticity & Belonging: Be part of a culture that encourages you to show up as your full self and contribute to a community rooted in trust and respect. Student- and People-Centered Excellence: Join colleagues who believe strong relationships and thoughtful preparation drive excellent outcomes—for students and for staff. Comprehensive Well-Being Support: Receive whole-person support through coaching, mental health resources, wellness initiatives, and team-building experiences that prioritize your professional and personal growth. Job Description The school will launch with 5th grade and add one grade level each year through 8th grade. At KPPS, the Founding Middle School Principal’s primary role is to lead a strong, coherent school system that delivers a joyful, affirming, and academically rigorous experience for students and staff. The Founding Middle School Principal is responsible for designing and institutionalizing the instructional, cultural, and operational systems of a new school, with a primary focus on instructional leadership, adult development, and culture-building—ensuring high-quality teaching, strong relationships, and clear expectations are consistently experienced across the school community. The Founding Middle School Principal does not do this work alone. They lead in close partnership with the KPPS Regional Office, collaborating with regional instructional leaders, operations, student support teams, and talent partners to implement aligned systems, analyze data, and strengthen school-wide practices. The Founding Middle School Principal also works as part of a community of practice with fellow KPPS principals, engaging in shared learning, problem-solving, and collective accountability to reduce variability and accelerate student outcomes across the region. In addition, the Founding Middle School Principal partners with the KIPP Foundation to align regional priorities with national initiatives, leverage network-wide resources, and contribute to the continuous improvement of KIPP’s instructional, leadership, and student experience frameworks. Through these partnerships, the Founding Middle School Principal is expected to both lead their individual school effectively and contribute to the strength and coherence of the broader KPPS and KIPP network, ensuring that students and families experience excellence regardless of school or grade. KEY RESPONSIBILITIES School Vision Establish, communicate, and build investment in an ambitious school-wide vision aligned to the KIPP Philadelphia region-wide vision for learning, school experience, and culture that sets the stage for both children and staff to grow and thrive Create a welcoming, inclusive school environment, and operate with a mindset of families as authentic partners in childrens school experience Operate with strong knowledge of the core academic and social-emotional skills, knowledge, and mindsets that are essential for childrens development and success across middle school, ensuring that all students are challenged with rigorous, grade-appropriate content Ensure that school programming effectively serves all students, monitoring and enhancing special education, intervention, and student support services as needed, ensuring compliance with state law Set a vision for student culture that ensures all children are affirmed, valued and challenged on a daily basis, and ensure that all student culture approaches, systems, and strategies are grounded in equity, are clear, effectively communicated, and are implemented by all staff Plan and prioritize time and resources to achieve annual goals and the broader vision of the school, analyzing and acting on data on a regular basis to identify, plan for, and drive the success of key initiatives and improvements in practice Prepare an annual operating school budget, detailing projected revenues and expenditures, conduct regular budget reviews to compare actual spending against projections, adjusting for unforeseen changes. Staff Culture Cultivate a positive, cohesive leadership team culture grounded in mutual trust by developing and upholding shared norms regarding communication, collaboration, decision-making, use of systems, and more, and creating opportunities for authentic relationship-building and coordination across workstreams Set a vision for adult culture rooted in our core values, building a community bound by mutual trust and a shared purpose and pride in the school’s vision Create and refine systems for communication and collaboration across school staff at large, ensuring opportunities for authentic discourse and clarity Build relationships with every staff member, child, and family, and create opportunities to understand and respond to staff, leader, student, and family needs and perspectives Staff Development & Coaching Directly coach, develop, and manage members of the leadership team via 1-1 check-ins, observation, walkthroughs, feedback, real-time feedback, practice, data analysis, co-planning, and other direct supports Create a culture of feedback, continuous improvement, and safety in trying new approaches Ensure teachers have the data, development, and consistent support needed to provide rigorous, affirming, high-quality instruction Sharpen and norm with APs on classroom analysis and classroom bar via walkthroughs Regularly observe and coach instructional coaches (Assistant Principals) to support them in providing high-impact, actionable, and bite-sized feedback to teachers on a weekly basis Ensure teachers can collaborate, analyze their practice and their student data, and adjust instruction in content teams Lead whole-school professional development workshops that drive high-impact improvements in teacher practice Cultivate a diverse, high-potential school leadership pipeline (from teacher leader to AP to successor) Effectively interview, select, and onboard new staff members Operate with an intentional strategy regarding staff and teacher retention, cultivating a desire for the team to make KPPS their long-term home Student Experience & Family Engagement Create and model a warm, inclusive school environment for students and families with diverse needs and experiences; proactively and positively engage with families throughout the school year and when there are specific student behavioral concerns. Be highly present and visible, relentlessly ensuring the school has a strong school culture and serving as a model for engaging with students, families and staff Ensure families are treated as true partners and are effectively engaged in and aware of school systems, practices, and student programming Refine the vision for positive student culture, leveraging school context, lessons learned, and staff feedback to clarify the following: The student experience KPPS is striving for, and how this vision ensures students are valued, affirmed, and challenged everyday The core mindsets adults in the building share about students, families, and culture work The core mindsets staff are collectively working to foster among students The concrete, proactive, and reactive practices and systems staff leverage in their work with students to restore trust, repair harm, build relationships, create accountability, communicate with all stakeholders (including staff and families) effectively, and design and monitor interventions or supports Ensure all practices, systems, and protocols are clearly and consistently codified, communicated, and executed. Support the Dean team and Social Worker in – Ensuring that all KPPS students experience a scope and sequence of meaningful school traditions and milestones that foster community, joy and collective identity Ensuring KPPS students have access to a wide variety of meaningful after-school activities, clubs, and groups that align with their interests, social needs, and aspirations Ensuring the disciplinary process is effectively executed, including incident follow up/investigation, team determination of next steps, informal/formal hearing protocols, and AEDY referral Developing individual behavior plans and other supports for students with significant behavior needs (in conjunction with the Assistant Principal of Student Support), and ensure all student culture responses appropriately account for students with individual education plans Ensuring all student safety and movement systems and procedures are fully operationalized, communicated, and codified, including student arrival, dismissal, and transitions Tracking and monitoring key school culture data, coordinating collaboration with stakeholders, and implementing responsive plans as needed Effectively managing behavioral and emotional supports through the school’s MTSS structure, ensuring that students with demonstrated needs have access to evidence-based mental health supports Amplifying KPPS’s existing tutoring program, ensuring the most critical academic needs are being addressed through tutoring and that the impact of tutoring supports is effectively monitored Ensuring that students and their families or caretakers are connected to community resources and services Leadership Model expectations for leaders, teachers, and students on school-wide practices for a positive learning culture, including modeling our KPPS core values (Children First, Community, Cultural Competence, Ownership) Operate with a management approach that centers staff members’ humanity, operating with both high expectations and a high degree of care Operate with four core KPPS leadership mindsets: Equity is Everything: Principals approach all of their work with an equity lens. Principals recognize and take responsibility for naming and tackling school and region-wide barriers to inclusiveness. Change Management: Principals lead change fully, supporting staff, children, and families in embracing a new way. Principals drive the investment, collective ownership, and operational systems needed for change to take root. Make the Weather: Principals recognize and leverage daily opportunities to set the tone for the school and shape staff norms, beliefs, reactions, and values. Talent Mindset: Principals demonstrate a deep belief that people are a school’s most precious resource by devoting significant energy to hiring, developing, and retaining a talented, diverse team and cultivating strong staff culture. WHO YOU ARE An experienced transformational leader Experience leading transformational change and driving school improvement initiatives. Demonstrated evidence in successfully leading turnaround efforts in a school setting, resulting in significant academic gains. Proven track record of setting and achieving rigorous academic standards aligned with school and district goals. Ability to exercise excellent judgment in decision-making in light of complex and high stakes situations A proven people centered coach and leader Ability to recruit, hire, lead, and develop a team of exceptional educators to become future leaders as teacher leaders and school leaders. The ability to envision, set and drive a positive, collaborative, results-oriented staff culture Proof of concretely improving performance of teachers and leaders in a school Operate with a management approach that centers staff members’ humanity, operating with both high expectations and a high degree of care Urgent and relentless in setting and holding a high bar for academics and culture You have the ability to set direction and aligned expectations across an entire school and motivate others to action You have demonstrated resilience and focus on student outcomes Ability to articulate a vision for and operationalize the development of a safe, healthy, and joyful student culture. Constantly models expectations for leaders, teachers, and students on school-wide practices for a positive learning culture, including modeling our KPPS core values (Children First, Community, Cultural Competence, Ownership) A leader who centers students and families You love and see the high potential of all children, possessing the belief that all students can and will succeed. You operate with cultural competence and a commitment to inclusion, anti-racism, and the eradication of anti-Blackness You believe in parents and families as authentic partners in students’ school experience; ability to forge strong relationships with families An excellent instructional leader You are adept at data analysis; ability to extract meaningful insights across school-wide data You possess expertise in what the school-wide academic standards and state assessments require of students’ knowledge and skills to demonstrate mastery; able to translate student mastery requirements into instructional plans and strategies You have a deep understanding of appropriate application and differentiation of high-leverage instructional strategies based on comprehension of child development and pedagogy. You have experience in implementing best practices for students with IEPS, 504 plans and those who qualify for MTSS intervention. Qualifications Bachelor’s Degree required 3 years of experience leading (Principal experience required) a strong school that serves an under-resourced population. Exceptional relationship-building and interpersonal skills, with the ability to connect quickly and authentically with diverse stakeholders Strong data analysis skills and the ability to use insights to drive decisions and improve systems Excellent written and verbal communication skills – clear, professional, and compelling Highly organized; able to manage multiple workstreams, meet deadlines, and maintain accurate information Demonstrated ability to navigate change, solve problems, and work effectively in an ambiguous, fast-paced environment Commitment to equity, belief in the potential of all students, and alignment with KPPS’s mission and values. Openness to feedback, continuous learning, and personal/professional growth Additional Information Compensation: Salary range for this position is $136,000-$165,750 commensurate with K-12 Principal experience, or similar roles in K-12 settings that include a) directly coaching, supporting, and managing a team of leaders/managers (including instructional leaders) and b) accountability for school-wide performance and compliance. All full-time team members at KPPS enjoy a comprehensive health benefits package (including vision and dental, a telehealth option, and flexible spending accounts) for themselves and their families as well as a 403B matching program for retirement savings.

Keywords: KIPP Foundation, Hackensack , [2026-2027] Principal - Founding Middle School, Education / Teaching , Elkins Park, New Jersey