Student Support Specialist, Ingenium Barack Obama Charter School, Compton, CA

Student Support Specialist

Job Title: Student Support Specialist FLSA Status: Non-exempt

Schedule: 40 hrs/week Reports to: Principal

Job Type: Full-time, 11-months, At-will Pay: $23/hr, starting; DOE

About Ingenium Schools

Ingenium Schools is transforming education by restoring joy and meaning to learning. Since 2009, Ingenium Schools has helped students build confidence, leadership, and a lifelong love of learning with the Ingenium Learning System, an easily replicable, standards-based educational model that promotes personal mastery. Ingenium Schools currently operates several charter schools, serving students throughout Los Angeles.

Position Summary:

The student support specialist is responsible for helping develop and maintaining systems, processes, and policies that maintain a positive, safe, and learning-centered culture at the school site. The student support specialist supports staff, parents, and students to implement these systems based on intrinsic motivation and student ownership.

The student support specialist reports to the school site principal.

Essential Functions & Job Duties:

Essential Duties may include, but are not limited to:

• Support Ingenium Goals:
• Support the mission, vision, and core values of Ingenium Schools
• Strive to implement, by instruction and action, Ingenium Schools' philosophy of education and instructional goals and objectives
• Maintain and improve professional competence, and participate in all required professional development opportunities
• Attend mandatory training as required
• Behavior Management System:
• Support the development and implementation of a comprehensive behavior system that clearly articulates the school-wide systems and supports students will use to build positive relationships and manage their own behavior.
• Support teachers and staff to effectively implement school-wide and classroom culture systems, including how to track behavior.
• Train and coach students on the behavior system to maintain a positive school climate and culture of high expectations.
• Effectively respond to student referrals with a restorative and responsive lens as well as appropriate behavior modification strategies.
• Effectively communicate with parents, staff, and administration to create partnerships to support students.
• Input data into a system to collect and monitor effectiveness of individual student behavior referrals as well as trends in class, grade, and school.
• Work with administration to utilize the PDSA process to evaluate behavior trends and adjust supports to improve school culture.
• Observe target students or student sub-groups in order to develop effective supports and behavior plans with staff.
• Student Success Team (SST) Support:
• Serve as the member of the "Student Success Team" team to provide input for students not responding to the school-wide behavior system.
• Support teachers, staff, and parents to implement SST behavior plans, including tracking student growth during the implementation of the SST behavior plan.
• Positive School Culture:
• Collaborate with teachers and administrators to design and implement key whole-school activities to build and celebrate school culture, such as community meetings, assemblies, and other activities.
• Family Communication and Support:
• Collaborate with administration to lead proactive, site-based learning experiences for families that connects to building positive student culture
• Clearly and consistently communicate with all stakeholders, especially families, about student behavior and interventions.
• Policies and Safety:
• Support teachers and staff to fully implement student incident policies.
• Collaborate with site administration to update and refine the parent-student handbook.
• Monitor the suspension process, communicating and collaborating with the principal as incidents escalate and reach expulsion level.
• Support outdoor supervision systems to ensure student safety.

Knowledge and Abilities

Knowledge of:

• Effective practices for creating intrinsically motivating environments.
• Quality systems and experience in applying them in an educational setting, especially tracking and PDSA tools.
• Various processes and policies: SST, suspension and expulsion.
• Urban children and their families, especially those represented in the school's student population.
• Child cognitive development and learning styles
• Learning and motivational strategies for students

Ability to:

• Communicate clearly, both orally and in writing
• Inspire adults to use restorative practices
• Manage multiple tasks simultaneously while prioritizing projects and assignments
• Learn quickly and advocate for own learning needs
• Build positive culture with parents, students, staff, and other stakeholders
• Work under time pressure while maintaining a positive work environment
• Maintain positive attitude
• Maintain regular attendance (adequate supervision required by law and ability to find staff substitute limited)
• Establish a culture of high expectations based on the belief that all students can be successful
• Interact appropriately with children of all ages and adequately supervise large groups of children
• Effectively collaborate with colleagues, parents, and community
• Manage student behavior to ensure every student is fully engaged, productive, and safe
• Read and understand the rules and policies, labels, and instructions

Experience, Education, and Credentials

• Application of Quality Learning in own classroom as a classroom or campus assistant
• Experience building positive culture through intrinsic motivation
• Bilingual (Spanish/English) preferred
• CPR and First Aid preferred
• High School Diploma or GED equivalent
• Offers conditioned upon negative TB test and background check required

Working Conditions

Environment:

Majority of duties performed outdoors in varying weather conditions (heat, cold, rain, dust, wind, etc.). Some exposure to childhood and other diseases. Exposure to moderate and loud campus noise and seasonal temperatures.

Physical Demands:

Student Support Specialists are physically active and must be able to lift at least 50 pounds and run at least 100 yards. In addition, this job requires at least 1 hour of sitting and potentially 5 hours of continuous standing, walking, and/or moving outdoors and outdoors in minimal shade, stooping, crouching, kneeling, squatting, and twisting. Campus Leaders must have adequate vision and the ability to communicate orally and in writing.