Wellness Lead- Indianapolis Metropolitan High School

The Director in this hybrid teaching and leadership role serves as a member of the instructional team and the cabinet leadership team.  The Wellness Lead facilitates learning for high school students in a “best fit” environment for teenagers with significant barriers to education.

Specifically, this role champions holistic wellness for students through a partial teaching load of Physical Education and Health classes and leadership of the elective and extracurricular activities for a small school of under 300 students.  As a member of a small school team managing many different priorities, this person creates systems and builds capacity in teachers, elective and extracurricular partners, volunteers, and students to ensure elective extracurricular programming is compliant and effective in influencing student wellness and academic achievement. With our core values of Professional, Unstoppable, Motivated, Accountable, and Supportive, the school priorities include:

• High rigor, high support instruction to close academic gaps and prepare students for post-secondary opportunities.
• Trauma-informed social-emotional learning.
• Student and family empowerment through coordination with a robust student services team of coaches, counselors, and more.

Example Duties and Activities

Cabinet Leader

• Serves as a member of the school’s Cabinet leadership team supporting schoolwide priorities and performs as the school expert on athletic and extracurricular programming:
  • Leads, assesses, and improves the school’s elective and extracurricular programs in a manner consistent with organizational values and goals.
  • Ensures compliance with relevant state, local, and organizational policies on safety, student eligibility, financial and inventory management, and communication.
  • Attends and oversees all after-school events hosted at the school.  Oversees the maintenance of the gymnasium.
  • Creates the schedule and budget for the Wellness Department and oversees contracts, spending, and fundraising.
  • Recruits, hires, oversees, provides feedback, and assesses elective and extracurricular partners with assistance from the school leadership team.
  • Collects and monitors data around key team metrics and reports progress regularly to the school administration and cabinet.
  • Provides feedback and professional development to assist other members of the team in implementing best practices aligned with the school mission and vision and improving team members’ contributions toward team goals.
    • Provides coaching in alignment with the administration’s formal evaluations.
    • Communicates closely with the administration regarding the progress of team members.
  • Assists the school administration with developing and maintaining community partnerships relevant to the team.

Teaching Role – (reduced load)

• Facilitates research-based, standards-aligned instructional plans to guide the scope and sequence of instruction using a combination of school-provided and teacher-created materials, with an emphasis on disciplinary literacy.
• Deconstructs standards to create daily learning goals that will drive students to standard mastery.
• Assesses and responds to evidence of student learning to differentiate and assist learners at a variety of levels.
• Engages in frequent instructional coaching and professional learning community partnership to improve student learning.
• Fosters a structured and encouraging classroom environment that is consistent with school agreements, is trauma-informed, and provides students with frequent feedback to aid their social-emotional development.
• Builds relationships with students and their webs of support.  Communicates strengths and challenges frequently and uses restorative approaches to resolve conflict.
• Partners with colleagues to refer and connect students to wraparound services including Family Empowerment Coaching for internal and community resources, Social-Emotional Learning, Special Education, and more.
• Chaperones field trips and drives mini-bus to take students to community events.
• Participates in school cultural initiatives.

Required Competencies

• Degree and Credential Requirements – Bachelor’s degree in subject specialty and current Indiana Teaching Certification in the subject specialty, or the willingness to obtain an emergency teaching license.
• Extracurricular Leadership Expertise – Has experience managing extracurricular program logistics as an administrator or advisor.
• Program Management – Is highly skilled at developing, organizing, monitoring, and evaluating programs, including writing policies and procedures, mapped to broader goals.  Creates systems and builds capacity in employees, volunteers, and students to ensure compliance and effectiveness.
• Instructional Strategies – Employs various approaches, learning styles, and channels to instruct and engage students, such as communicating content in terms they can comprehend, organizing talking points for clarity, and repeating arguments when necessary. Uses a wide range of teaching devices and methodologies appropriate to the class content, the learners’ level, goals, and priorities which increase student achievement results.
• Information Monitoring/Reporting – Collects and reviews information to manage or improve the achievement of learning goals.   
• Communication Skills – Articulates thoughts and expresses ideas effectively using oral, written, visual, and non-verbal communication skills, as well as listening skills to comprehend others’ needs. Delivers information in person, in writing, and in a digital world.
• Building Collaborative Relationships – Develops, maintains, and strengthens partnerships at all levels with others inside or outside the organization who can provide information, assistance, and support.  Is able to receive as well as provide feedback to improve performance or processes.
• Technical Knowledge – Has working knowledge of G Suite and MS Office.

Preferred Competencies 

• Teaching Expertise – Plans and delivers instruction and evaluation of student learning, ideally for high school-age students in a high-poverty, racially diverse setting.
• Instructional Coaching – Provides timely guidance and effective feedback to help teachers strengthen specific knowledge/skill areas needed to accomplish a task, solve problems, or reach goals within their role.
• Diversity Awareness – Works with diverse populations including people who have experienced barriers to their education.
• Industry Standards – Displays a working knowledge of the Indiana Academic Standards, Common Core State Standards, and 21st Century Skills and knowledge of disciplinary literacy.

Other Requirements

Background Screening – All candidates must pass a pre-employment background check.

Benefits: Full-time employees may participate in a comprehensive benefits program that includes:

• Continuing education and leadership development as well as tuition reimbursement
• Comprehensive health plan
• Paid time off (PTO) and paid holidays
• Life, dental and vision insurance
• Short- and long-term disability plans
• Parenting and sabbatical leaves
• Nationally recognized preventive health and wellness program
• Section 125 pre-tax health spending account, dependent care spending account, and premiums
• Retirement plan with generous match or contribution into Teachers’ Retirement Fund for eligible employees.
• Eligible for the Public Student Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program

Goodwill Education Initiatives

Goodwill strongly believes it is essential to raise education attainment levels in Indiana. Not only are the lifetime earnings of high school graduates significantly higher than those of dropouts, children of high school graduates are 50% less likely to drop out of high school than the children of dropouts are. Goodwill provides opportunities for adults (The Excel Center) and youth (Indianapolis Metropolitan High School).

The Indianapolis Metropolitan Charter High School

Indianapolis Metropolitan High School is a free public school offering a high school education to students in grades 9-12. Indianapolis Met is a best-fit school for students experiencing circumstance that may present a barrier to education. Our school places an emphasis on ensuring students enroll in college or enter into a career that offers a living wage post-graduation.

Indianapolis Met is designed to serve students who are experiencing circumstances that may become barriers to their education.