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About St. Mary’s Academy
St. Mary’s Academy (SMA) is a Catholic High School for young women, founded and sponsored by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet. Together with the students’ families, the administration, faculty and staff are committed to forming a Christian community that nurtures and challenges each young woman to attain her full potential. This effort is consistently characterized by respect for the individual, service to the “dear neighbor,” academic excellence; preparation for higher education and the empowerment of young women who are inspired to take their places in an ever-changing world. This education promotes the formation and integral development of young women from various backgrounds and cultures and provides opportunities for the development of contemporary leadership while preserving the spirit that has made St. Mary’s Academy unique.
Essential Responsibilities
Academic/College Counseling
- Set vision for 9-12th instructional academic/college counseling, including 9-11th pre-college programming, junior and senior counseling curriculum, and family engagement strategies.
- Staff management: lead a team of school counselors and the learning support specialist; conduct effective team meetings and one-on-one’s, provide subject matter expertise and support with core college counseling content and student caseloads.
- Build and celebrate a school‐wide college‐going culture (e.g., publicly posting college acceptances, on-‐site admissions days, planning and leading senior acceptance assemblies, and other school-‐wide traditions)
- Serve as school’s principal advisor and thought leader on best practices in college matriculation, persistence, and completion.
- Establish, pursue, and track school goals for college admissions, enrollment, persistence, and completion,
- Review transcripts to ensure that students meet graduation or college entrance requirements and write letters of recommendation.
- Coordinates the process whereby students receive academic and college counseling, which includes academic planning and post-secondary planning.
- Support students not meeting academic expectations.
- Lead and coordinate student success meetings involving parents, teachers, and students.
- Serve as SAT/PSAT testing coordinator and UCOP administrator.
- Coordinate annual college tours by grade level and SMA college fair.
- Guide and assist students through the entire college and financial aid application process.
- Oversee whole school systems and processes for letters of recommendation, school profile updates, application tracking software updates, and on-site events (e.g., college fairs, FAFSA workshops, etc.)
- Develop collaborative partnerships with colleges and create capacity to link students to college/university resources that support their successful enrollment and retention.
- Ensure students take advantage of special opportunities made available to students in the college search and application process (i.e., fee waivers, fly-‐in visits, university partner programs and scholarships)
- Participate in professional development opportunities offered by local and national college associations.
- Develop and maintain a robust network of college admission professionals through regular communication, college admissions visits, and participation in information programs hosted by colleges/universities.
- Collaborates with junior college colleagues on dual enrollment.
Personal Counseling
- Provides a safe environment for students to voice concerns and seek counseling while maintaining appropriate confidentiality.
- Provide short-term, solution-oriented counseling for students experiencing developmental difficulties, mental health concerns, relational issues, academic and/or behavioral problems.
- Effectively manage and supervise CPLA intern caseload/ consultation programs, referral process and procedure records, etc., budgets and daily operations.
- Provide students assembly at least once per semester to promote healthy peer relationships, mindfulness, conflict resolution, test anxiety, problem solving, etc.
Other Duties
- Serves on the Admissions, Baccalaureate Mass, Senior Awards and Graduation committees.
- Manage all summer school/ credit recovery requirements, if necessary.
- Evaluate the effectiveness of the school wide counseling program and recommend revisions.
- Ensures summative evaluation process of counselors is aligned to national counselor standards
- Plan and lead workshops for key stakeholders (parents, students, teachers, and school administration) on topics related to the college admissions process, including financial aid planning, college list development, and essay writing and emotional health and well being.
Professional Presence.
- Lead by modeling the school’s core values and serving as an exemplar of the mission: treating all stakeholders with empathy, love and care, modeling excellence in your work, prioritizing effectively, following through with commitments, communicating with integrity, serving others, spreading optimism and joy.
- Approach your professional practice through a developmental lens, and enthusiastically participate in professional development; seek and apply feedback from leadership and from colleagues in the interest of growth; demonstrate drive and independence in accessing resources to further your own improvement.
- Contribute fully, intentionally, and constructively to the team—the Board, school leadership, and faculty and school staff—in a range of contexts; collaborate with integrity, humility, commitment, and joy to ensure the foundation of trust that will enable the team to accomplish its ambitious goals.
- Embrace the team’s goals and the results we achieve as the collective responsibility of the entire SMA team; collaborate with colleagues to maximize the team’s impact; seek opportunities to push the team, to laugh with colleagues, and to recognize and celebrate the team’s accomplishments.
- Exhibit a commitment to equity by providing and targeting every opportunity and resource to obtain comparably high academic and other positive outcomes for every student.
Additional Duties: Additional duties include weekly yard duty, proctoring, study hall monitoring, after-school tutoring and substitute teaching. All St. Mary’s Academy teachers need to feel comfortable with, and actively participate in, the spiritual and co-curricular aspects of the school.
Requirements
Qualifications
Successful applicants will embody the mission-commitment (serve), intellectual curiosity (learn), openness to growth (live), joy (love) that are central to the character of our team. In addition, they will meet or exceed the following requirements:
- Master’s degree plus pupil personnel services credential required.
- At least 3 years of experience in counseling
- Proven ability to serve racially diverse students and their families.
- Success leading adults and shaping a high-performing culture of teaching and learning.
- Proficiency using technology to communicate and to track and analyze data.
- A belief that all students can succeed in college and career.
Compensation and Benefits
- Salary is based on prior work experience. Salary range: $66K-$80K
- Medical, dental, and vision plan options are covered
- Retirement
- Teacher Coaching/ Professional Development
- Leadership Opportunities
- Faith Opportunities
Interested candidates should submit a letter of intent explaining your desire to join the St. Mary’s Academy community. Please include ways in which you would contribute to the mission and what elements of your background and experience make you a good candidate for our community. Please also attach a resume with your submission. Intent letter and resume should be emailed to hr@smabelles.org.
Wage Range
The rate of pay offered to the selected candidate is based on internal pay policy and budget. New hires are commonly paid at the minimum of the wage range or within the lower part of the range. We consider a number of factors when making compensation decisions including, but not limited to, skill sets, experience, training and other department needs.