Superintendent, Madison Metropolitan School District
Alma Advisory Group, United States
Job Description
About our District
The Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD) is the second-largest school district in Wisconsin and serves over 26,000 students in 52 schools. The district covers approximately 74 square miles including all or part of the cities of Madison and Fitchburg, the villages of Maple Bluff and Shorewood Hills, and the towns of Blooming Grove and Burke. Madison is a growing and diversifying community with a thriving network of nonprofit, civic and community-based organizations, and higher education institutions. The vision of our school district is to ensure that every school will be a thriving school that prepares every student to graduate ready for college, career and community. MMSD is proud of the work done to support and nurture our current success and we recognize that there is much work to be done, especially as we look at outcomes for students with special needs, multilingual learners, and our Black, Latinx, Asian, including Hmong students. Significant work is already underway to address disparate outcomes, to close opportunity gaps and to ensure appropriate resources are allocated to address these challenges and continue moving us closer to our vision.
About the Superintendent Role
Reporting to the seven-member school board, the Superintendent of MMSD will work diligently to bring forth the vision and mission outlined in the District's Strategic Framework. The strategic framework lifts up and articulates our commitment to anti-racism, inclusion and alliance to all children and their families and is grounded in our core values of excellence, belonging, racial equity and social justice, voice, focus and creativity. Our next Superintendent will be charged with moving forward three ambitious goals outlined in the framework:
- Every child is on track to graduate ready for college, career and community.
- The district and every school in it is a place where children, staff, and families thrive.
- African American children and youth excel in school.
The pillars of the framework articulate how we will continuously move forward these goals and include five major levers for change:
- Empower school communities
- Invest in people
- Streamline priorities
- Plan for the future
- Embrace innovation
The Superintendent will enter the district at a critical time when the foundation has been laid and key challenges have been identified; the new Superintendent will strengthen the systems, structures and framework to fully implement, monitor and sustain this work on behalf of every student in the district.
What You’ll Do (Responsibilities)
Galvanize and unite the MMSD community around the goals and vision of our Strategic Framework
- Partner with the MMSD community to review the district’s Strategic Framework and how it has been supported and implemented over the last 5+ years. Develop a clear and coherent plan moving forward, identifying top priorities, and the systems and supports needed system-wide to allow for the full actualization of the Strategic Framework.
- Ensure that the district's mission, vision, key priorities and the "why" are clearly articulated and well-understood by our staff, partners, and stakeholders.
- Build on MMSD’s track record of whole student support and ensure an immediate focus on providing the resources and training needed to support social emotional learning, mental health supports and safety for students.
- Inspire and galvanize action across the board members, administrators, teachers, parents, students and the broader education, civic, and philanthropic communities in support of the vision and strategy for student success.
Champion bold and unwavering advocacy for each of our students
- Strengthen supports for Black, First Nations and Native American, Latinx, Asian including Hmong students, Students With Disabilities, LGBTQIA+ community, multilingual and multicultural students.
- Advocate for and cultivate safe, engaging learning environments that fully support multilingual learners, students with diverse learning styles and needs.
- Adopt instructional models and structures based on practices that are research based, culturally responsive and demonstrated to be effective and desired by families.
- Prepare each and every one of our students for career and college by strengthening programming from PK-16, beginning with our earliest learners in PK4, all the way to high school graduation, and ensuring that students graduate with credits for college and/or the skills and path to the career of their choice.
- Establish structures that ensure staff have clear guidelines and procedures when advocating for students and community.
Establish coherent plans, systems and structures to ensure c