Chief Executive Officer (CEO) beginning April 2025 - Bricolage

ABOUT BRICOLAGE ACADEMY

Bricolage opened in 2013 with a Kindergarten class of seventy five students and twelve staff and slowly grew, one year and one grade at a time. Twelve years and nearly one thousand preK - 8th grade students and one hundred fifty staff members later, our school has grown, changed and constantly improved but our BIG GOAL has remained the same since the beginning - we aim to be the highest performing open enrollment charter school in New Orleans. We’ve experienced a lot of success and progress toward achieving our BIG GOAL over the years - we are amongst the most highly sought after and highest performing charter schools in Orleans Parish. We are now searching for our next Chief Executive Officer (CEO) to lead our continued progress towards our BIG GOAL.

OUR APPROACH

Advancing Equity

We believe education should be fair and impartial—all children deserve the same educational opportunities and expectations. All children, regardless of socioeconomic status, are entitled to a quality education. Moreover, at Bricolage we believe such educational equity requires students of all backgrounds to be educated together.

We believe everyone should learn from experiences and perspectives that differ from their own. That’s why we actively attract, recruit and maintain a diverse student body. As our country continues to diversify and our world becomes more interconnected, it will be essential to value, compete with and cooperate with people from various backgrounds. By making diversity a reality for children, we prepare them for an adulthood where diversity is the norm.

Creating Innovators

We believe innovation is central to education. To us, innovation means creative problem solving. We embed it throughout our curriculum. Our teachers and staff practice innovation, rapid iteration and a ‘design thinking’ process in everything we do. We’re always looking for new ways to improve something or address challenges.

MISSION, VISION AND VALUES

Our Mission

Bricolage Academy advances educational equity by preparing students from diverse backgrounds to be innovators who change the world.

Our Vision

Bricolage Academy envisions a time when public schools serve the needs of all students—when New Orleans is the world’s premier location for public education and is widely recognized as a world-class city for its creative, cultural and economic leadership.

Our Values

Respect, empathy, curiosity, courage and integrity ground our school culture. Everyone at Bricolage—and everything they do—is rooted in these core values.

• Respect - I honor myself, my family, my school and my community.

• Empathy - I seek to understand how others feel and I demonstrate this in my words and actions.

• Curiosity - I ask questions, I seek knowledge and show creativity.

• Courage - I try new things even when the task is difficult. I understand that mistakes help us learn and grow.

• Integrity - I am self-aware and accountable for my actions.

THE OPPORTUNITY

Position Title: Chief Executive Officer

Report To: the Bricolage Governing Board of Directors

Direct Reports: Senior Leaders (Chief Operating Officer, Chief Finance Officer, Principals, Director of Student Support, Director of HR, Director of Data, Enrollment & Records Manager)

Candidate Profile

Bricolage’s CEO will execute five key categories of competencies with consistency and fidelity: 1) set the direction, 2) maximize talent, 3) manage the organization, 4) engage stakeholders, and 5) drive to results

1. Set Direction

   • Ensures school-wide alignment around a clear vision, mission, and core values

     • With senior leadership team, and with input from staff, creates and aligns clearly worded statement of vision, mission, and core values

     • Creates consistent opportunities, in person and writing, to champion the vision and align the staff around it , particularly leveraging school-wide gatherings

     • Ensures all organization leaders consistently reinforce the vision across all staff

   • Develops collaboratively an actionable theory of action (TOA)/strategic priorities to achieve goals

     • In collaboration with the senior leadership team (and outside experts, if needed), develops a theory of action that identifies the strategic priorities or “big rocks” the the organization must execute against in order to achieve its vision

     • Creates clear connection between current performance and how TOA, if executed at a high level, will increase student success

     • Ensures all senior leaders reinforce TOA in all interactions (team meetings and individual check-ins)

   • Establishes priority annual and multi-year goals

     • With senior leadership team, creates “dashboard” of organization’s multi-year and annual goals, prioritized to guide implementation of the TOA

     • Through senior leaders, ensures all school teams align their goals to organization TOA

     • With senior leaders, manages an annual planning process that begins in the spring and utilizes available data to drive creation of plans (i.e. budget funding, achievement data)

     • Based on when new dashboard data is available, sets functional and school team data analysis meetings (3-5x annually) and aligns individual check-ins to review data; ultimate goal is to refine implementation plans toward the annual goals

2. Maximize Talent

   • Identifies, hires, and develops a values-aligned leadership team

     • Is reflective about his/her own values and strengths/weaknesses and proactively seeks out senior leadership team staff who share the same values and also fill in gaps in the CEO’s skill or knowledge set

     • Makes values and leadership style explicit during hiring process to ensure a good match

     • Makes adjustments and additions to the senior leadership team as new needs arise

     • Serves as a thought partner and coach to senior leadership team members and supports them in accessing development resources as needed

   • Establishes a culture of ongoing individual support and development

     • Models a commitment to learning in the CEO role by consistently seeking out insight from other CEOs and attending formal professional development opportunities (i.e. leadership conferences/convenings, exemplar school visits)

     • Commits to a regular cadence of weekly and/or biweekly check-in meetings with senior leadership team members; creates structures for all staff throughout the organization to have a regular cadence of check-ins with their direct reports to review progress toward individual, school, and network goals

     • Establishes regular opportunities for staff to collaborate and engage in professional development

   • Sets a high bar for excellence and holds the team accountable for progressing toward that bar

     • Sets ambitious short-term and long-term goals and consistently communicates belief that senior leadership team members can achieve those goals

     • Communicates trust by allowing senior leadership team broad autonomy in developing and carrying out a plan to meet their individual, team, and organization-aligned goals; monitors progress against plan and provides honest, constructive, and timely feedback when a team member is not meeting high performance standards

3. Manage the Organization

• Aligns organizational resources and focus areas to strategic priorities and to ensure sustainability

  • Identifies the resources and skills that senior leaders will need to carry out strategic priorities

  • Ensures there is a clear understanding of the drivers of financial sustainability, and a model in place for achieving sustainability (which may include some degree of ongoing fundraising)

  • Invests in providing those strategic resources and support for skill development to senior leaders (i.e. staff, curriculum, student support partnerships)

  • Understands senior leaders’ competency areas and assigns responsibility for strategic priorities in a way that maximizes each leader’s strengths

• Implements systems to monitor school-wide progress toward goals

  • With senior leadership team, creates consistent review process of “dashboard” of metrics to determine level of success in executing TOA consistently

  • Identifies the data needed to track progress toward those goals and works with senior leadership team to create data collection tools such as a school walkthrough rubric or staff survey if needed

  • Ensures that at each level of the organization (classroom, school, and organization), relevant data is collected, aggregated, and rolled up into the dashboard for efficient visibility into progress across the organization

• Ensures systems in place to respond to challenges and continually improve performance

  • Creates structures for all staff throughout the organization to have a regular cadence of check-ins with their direct reports to review progress toward individual, school, and organization goals

  • Establishes clear responsibilities, decision rights, and feedback loops for each role

  • Models and prioritizes an organization-wide culture of using data to identify effective practices, problem-solve, and set targets for improvement

4. Engage Stakeholders

• Regularly communicates with all staff to inspire, reinforce priorities, and provide actionable information

  • In meetings, professional development sessions, and school events, explicitly and consistently ties conversation back to organizational mission and strategic priorities

  • Establishes formal routines for communication at all levels, such as weekly CEO email, daily morning updates and announcements, alignment with senior leaders on organization messages to school staff in weekly staff emails (if applicable)

  • Establishes systems to recognize and reward excellent performance among staff

• Strategically builds and regularly engages the board, especially the board chair and committee chairs

  • Invests time in building relationships with board members (e.g. by attending trainings with them or inviting them on school visits)

  • Is intentional about ensuring that board composition includes the necessary range of expertise to achieve strategic priorities

  • Adjusts board composition as needed as strategic priorities change (e.g. adding more financial expertise and fundraising power as network expands)

  • Proactively engages the board in succession planning for CEO and leadership level roles

• Differentiates approach to stakeholder engagement, building support in a strategic manner

  • Garners support from funders and policymakers by speaking passionately, urgently, and succinctly about school’s mission and vision

  • Earns the trust of parents and community members by approaching interactions with humility, respect, and clarity of purpose

  • Proactively cultivates relationships and collaborates with fellow CEOs and with OPSB/NOLAPS, city and state entities to advocate for mutually beneficial policies in the city

5. Drive to Results

• Keeps high bar for student achievement front and center at all times

  • For every decision, prioritizes the path that is most likely to maximize student results Uses data to monitor trends in student achievement throughout the year, and problem solves to improve results for any group of students showing patterns of lower achievement

  • Is prompt and direct in pointing out when organization and school leaders’ performance is not producing desired student results, and pushes them to find better solutions

• Ensures shared understanding of what excellence looks like and manages to that bar

  • Ensures alignment across the senior leadership team related to the expected performance bar for each team member

  • Uses direct senior team member check-ins/school leader meetings, as well as formal/informal school observations, to reinforce and model execution bar for all leaders

• Regularly and transparently shares results, celebrating success and naming improvement areas

  • Establishes routines to share and celebrate successes

  • Establishes routines to collectively examine student results and develop plans to address areas for improvement

• Takes decisive action / makes difficult decisions when performance monitoring reveals issue

  • Provides prompt and constructive feedback. If a school or organization leader’s performance is not meeting expectations, CEO aligns resources and a plan to improve performance

  • If the leader’s performance does not improve with support, does not hesitate to make a personnel change

  • Encourages school leaders to use the same approach with school-level staff

Execution of these competencies is driven by six fundamental mindsets: 1) organization ownership, 2) reflectiveness, 3) diversity, equity, & inclusion lens, 4) learner, 5) reliability and followthrough, and 6) New Orleans commitment.

Required Qualifications and Experience

• BA/BS required; Master’s or higher in Education, Public Administration, or a related field preferred.

• 10+ years of professional experience in nonprofit management with a proven track record of success improving outcomes within their scope of management.

• Experience and successful track record of managing, coaching, and developing leaders.

• Strong leadership skills with the ability to inspire and motivate staff.

• Experience in partnering with nonprofit Board of Directors.

• Highly proficient in business and financial management. Possesses the skills essential to managing an enterprise, such as strategic financial planning, intelligent budgeting, development of achievable business plans and analyses, prudent expense control, and required financial reporting.

• Demonstrated success with fundraising with both private donors and government entities at the federal, state, or local level.

• Keen analytic, organization and problem-solving skills which support and enable sound decision making.

• Successful experience implementing multi-year strategic action plans.

• Excellent relationship building skills with an ability to prioritize, negotiate, and work with a variety of internal and external stakeholders through engaging communication skills.

• Outstanding verbal and written communication skills and ability to communicate effectively on multiple levels ranging from the Board to leaders and staff.

• A commitment and ability to develop and maintain constructive relationships with staff, students, parents, donors, community constituents, local government entities, media, and vendors.

• Experience articulating the mission, vision, and values of an entity to the public through media engagements, public speaking, and more.

• Experience in effectively navigating a highly regulated governmental environment.

• Excellent analytical skills, strong ability to lead multiple complex projects under rigorous timelines and political nuances and to work in a demanding dynamic environment to meet organizational goals.

• High emotional intelligence, integrity, and interpersonal skills – and an exceptional collaborator.

• A strong sense of confidence, and the wisdom and courage to make difficult choices, based on available data.

Compensation and Benefits

This is a full-time position that will be performed on-site in New Orleans, LA. Salary is competitive and commensurate with qualifications and experience. Bricolage also offers a robust benefits program including health insurance, flexible spending account (FSA) & commuter benefits, 403b retirement plan, and generous paid time off.

Bricolage provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, marital status, amnesty, or status as a covered veteran in accordance with applicable federal, state and local laws. Bricolage complies with applicable state and local laws governing non-discrimination in employment. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including, but not limited to, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, and training. Bricolage expressly prohibits any form of unlawful employee harassment based on race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, age, genetic information, disability, or veteran status.