Operations Coordinator - Illinois Network of Charter Schools

Position Title: Operations Coordinator 

Type: Full Time  

Location: Chicago, IL  

Compensation: Competitive Salary Full Benefits 

We seek a highly organized Operations Coordinator to support our office and Executive team.  The ideal candidate will be proactive, extremely organized, possess excellent communications skills, and demonstrate a strong commitment to confidentiality and discretion.  The Operations Coordinator serves as the face of the INCS office. Primary responsibilities include working with the Senior Manager of Finance & Operations and the Chief Program & Operations Officer to offer strong operations functions to the organization.  The ideal candidate will also believe deeply in our mission to improve public education for all students. 

THE ORGANIZATION  

The Illinois Network of Charter Schools (INCS) advocates for the improvement of public education by creating the conditions that allow high-quality charter public schools to grow, thrive, and serve students and families well. We work toward creating positive conditions for charter schools by informing community members of the value of charter schools and supporting elected officials who enact laws providing equitable funding and accountability. We partner with education leaders to maintain fair and transparent charter school policies and practices. As a membership organization, providing charter school leaders with the resources needed to ensure student success is a critical feature of our mission.   

OUR CORE VALUES 

EXCELLENCE.  The commitment to work hard, produce excellent work, and always demonstrate the highest level of professionalism. 

INITIATIVE.  The drive to identify organizational needs or challenges and step up to solve them. 

SERVICE.  The commitment to serve and strengthen our member schools to build a more cohesive, high-performing charter community.  

COMMITMENT.  The unwavering belief that all children should have access to a great school and that the charter model is an important strategy in increasing educational equity in this country. 

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES 

General Office Management & Administrative Support (50%) 

• Executive Support: Provide high-level administrative support to the Chief Program & Operations Officer, including managing calendars, scheduling meetings, organizing travel, and preparing for key presentations and events and prioritizing meetings aligned with the goals of the organization and priorities of the organization, and meeting with the Chief Program & Operations Officer to regularly to understand priorities, context, and responsibilities.  

• Support C-level members with filing, recordkeeping, scheduling, meeting prep, basic internet research, as needed 

• Maintaining related credit card expenses of Chief Program & Operations Officer for the credit card reconciliation process; support Senior Manager of Finance & Operations with simple budget tracking of expenses such as for organizational events. 

• Responsible for day-to-day office operations tasks including but not limited to processing ingoing and outgoing mail and packages; greeting visitors; answering phone, routing calls, and taking messages; making copies; managing inventory and stocking of kitchen and supplies; maintain an organized and clean working environment. 

• Ensure proper functioning of office equipment and related supplies (e.g., copier/printer, postage meter, water); request servicing as needed with goal of minimizing disruption to office operations 

• Coordinate and prepare materials for executive meetings, including agendas, presentations, and reports. 

• Maintain a central calendar of standard meetings which includes an events calendar and promote a more streamlined approach with scheduling meetings across the organization. 

• Prepare onboarding materials for new hires and organize personnel records 

• File and maintain INCS records, documents, and reports (soft copies and hard files). 

• Serve as a liaison between the strategic leaders and their teams, internal/external stakeholders, maintaining professionalism and confidentiality. 

• Conduct research and gather information as needed to support decision-making processes for Chiefs and above. 

• Attend annual meetings and train staff on proper evacuation and emergency procedures that pertain to the office building. 

• Maintain confidentiality when handling sensitive information pertaining to all communication 

• Responsible for scheduling staff and Board meetings, testing links and other technology, and supporting meetings in virtual and in-person spaces; maintaining repository of notes for key stakeholder meetings with schools (D299 and Greater Illinois meetings) 

• Hybrid work schedule (Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday) 

Data Input, Management, Reporting, & Records Management (25%) 

• Maintain database records such as LGL (i.e., contact information, demographics) for all stakeholders  

• Create process for organizing and migrating online resources and files on SharePoint over to cloud platform. 

• Produce accurate and timely reports 

• Draft letters, memos, and other communications for internal and external audiences 

Project Support (25%) 

• Event planning and preparation for internal and external events from initial planning stages to post-event evaluation (e.g., creating name tags, program materials, coordinating swag bags, etc.)  

• Outreach phone calls before/after events, coordinating school visits 

• Supporting overall team culture with coordination of staff events; birthdays and milestone activities recognition 

• Coordinate transportation, venue sourcing, and travel arrangement for off-site events 

EXPERIENCE AND QUALIFICATIONS 
First and foremost, candidates must believe that every child, regardless of socioeconomic factors or their academic starting point, has the potential to succeed in school, career, and life. In addition, candidates should have an awareness of how public education systems have historically and disproportionately disadvantaged certain communities and must believe that charter schools have the power to transform public education and the lives of students.  

Ideal candidates will possess the following characteristics:  

Required 

• Enthusiastic orientation toward customer service and problem solving and the ability to take initiative 

• High expectations and a focus on results 

• Proven ability to develop rapport and effectively work with a wide range of people and in a variety of environments 

• Ability to interface with all levels of clients (executives, school leaders) 

• Highly organized with excellent attention to detail and ability to independently manage multiple projects at once  

• Strong sense of accountability, taking ownerships over projects and responsibilities 

• Proactively communicate to clarify priorities as needed 

• Comfort working independently and taking direction as needed 

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills 

• Advanced Microsoft Office skills including Word, Excel, and Power Point (e.g., mail merge, pivot tables, PPT animation) 

• Confident outlook and presence, maturity, optimism, calm under pressure, and a sense of humor 

• Strong affinity for feedback and open conversations 

• A commitment to embracing diversity and fostering an environment of inclusion and cultural competency (see our definition below) 

• Undergraduate degree or experience in office management/administrative support preferred 

CULTURAL COMPETENCY AT INCS 

Cultural competency is a lifelong process of building the knowledge, mindset, and skills necessary to engage fully and effectively with students, colleagues, and stakeholders of different backgrounds. This process requires us to deeply understand our nation’s history of injustice and its link to the persistent opportunity gaps that INCS and its member schools are focused on closing. It also requires us to strengthen our cultural competency by better understanding our own implicit and explicit biases and by reflecting on our words and actions through open dialogue.  

INCS invests in building greater cultural competence and responsiveness across our team by supporting ongoing reflection, learning, skill-building, and positive actions. We know that culturally competent teams, especially when inclusive of individuals who share the racial, socioeconomic, and/or academic backgrounds (e.g., first generation college goers) of member schools’ student populations, are best equipped to take action to ensure fairness inside and outside of INCS. To that end, we believe in building a richly diverse and inclusive organization, including a mission-critical imperative for all staff to both model and contribute to the vision we hope to achieve. 

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY 

INCS believes it is critical for leaders to reflect the communities that they serve, and that diversity across multiple dimensions enables us to achieve our mission of transforming lives and communities through public education. We do not just accept difference – we celebrate it, support it, and thrive on it for the benefit of our staff, member schools, and the broader community. We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and seek and welcome a diverse pool of candidates in this search. 

HOW TO APPLY 

We will review candidates until the position is filled. Please visit our website to apply. https://www.incschools.org/join-our-team/ 

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