The Schenectady City School District, serving more than 9,000 students across an incredibly diverse PreK–12 community, is guided by a deep commitment to ensuring every child feels valued, safe, and supported. We work intentionally so that race, economics, disability, language, and other identity factors never predict a student’s access, experience, or achievement.

As a restorative practice district, we honor relationships, community wisdom, and the lived experiences of our students, families, and staff. We expect all leaders to understand how systems influence outcomes and to cultivate workplaces grounded in belonging, fairness, and dignity. The ideal candidate leads with integrity, approaches people with respect, meets individuals where they are, and guides them toward growth while maintaining neutral, factual, unbiased, and consistent processes in all HR matters.

PRIMARY FUNCTION

The Assistant Superintendent/Chief of Human Resources is an executive leader who establishes the vision and strategy for all human capital operations across the district. This leader fosters a high-performing, inclusive, and relationship-centered organizational culture that supports student success through an empowered workforce.

The Chief oversees the full scope of Human Resources functions, including talent acquisition, employee engagement, labor relations, civil service processes, certification, APPR and tenure compliance, compensation and benefits, data systems, professional growth pathways, and customer service.

This leader ensures HR systems reflect the district’s commitment to restorative practice, equity, belonging, and community partnership, building a workforce that reflects and effectively serves Schenectady’s rich diversity. The Assistant Superintendent/Chief reports directly to the Superintendent of Schools.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

Strategic Leadership in Recruitment, Retention & Workforce Planning

• Leads a districtwide strategy to attract, hire, develop, and retain high-quality and diverse talent for all positions.

• Serves on the Superintendent’s Executive Leadership Team, contributing to organizational planning, staffing allocations, and strategic initiatives.

• Partners with building and district leaders to align staffing and human capital planning to student needs and instructional priorities.

• Provides supervision, coaching, and development for HR staff and supports leadership development across employee groups.

• Oversees HR operations including budgeting, workflow systems, customer service, and continuous improvement.

• Develops HR-related policies and presents updates and recommendations to the Board of Education.

• Cultivates a positive, respectful, inclusive workplace culture where belonging and professionalism thrive.

Talent Attraction, Recruitment & Staffing

• Implements proactive strategies to build robust and diverse talent pipelines.

• Develops career pathways, succession planning models, and “grow your own” initiatives for teachers, administrators, paraprofessionals, and support staff.

• Ensures hiring practices are grounded in consistency, transparency, and fairness.

• Oversees accurate and timely personnel transactions in accordance with NYSED, Civil Service, and district policies.

• Maintains strong partnerships with higher education institutions, residency programs, and recruitment partners.

• Oversees the Teachers of Tomorrow Grant Program, Teacher Residency Grant Program, and related initiatives with the Office of Teaching and Learning.

Civil Service, Certification, APPR & Regulatory Compliance

• Serves as liaison to the Schenectady Civil Service Commission, ensuring compliance with civil service laws, classifications, exams, appointments, and eligibility lists.

• Oversees NYS certification compliance using the TEACH system and ensures appropriate credentials for all certificated staff.

• Ensures proper implementation of APPR timelines, documentation, tenure processes, and probationary requirements.

• Maintains accurate seniority lists, evaluations, and regulatory records.

• Ensures district-wide adherence to OSHA, EEO, ERISA, COBRA, ADA, FMLA, FLSA, Workplace Violence Prevention Act, and all relevant laws and policies.

• Serves as the Title IX Coordinator and Civil Rights Coordinator, ensuring compassionate, thorough, and impartial investigations.

Employee Engagement, Labor Relations & Restorative Practice

• Acts as lead advisor on employee relations, conflict resolution, and restorative approaches to concerns.

• Ensures all HR decisions reflect consistency, neutrality, fairness, and respect for the dignity of all employees.

• Oversees investigations involving all employee groups, using fact-based, unbiased processes.

• Builds collaborative relationships with bargaining units and contributes to negotiations, grievance processes, and contract interpretation.

• Develops mentoring, induction, and leadership development programs for staff.

• Works to create a workplace climate where staff feel heard, valued, supported, and able to grow.

Compensation, Benefits & Workforce Resource Management

• Oversees wage and salary systems and regularly analyzes labor market trends to maintain district competitiveness.

• Partners with the Business Office on staffing budgets, workforce forecasting, and strategic allocation of human capital resources.

• Manages benefits programs, leaves of absence, workers’ compensation, unemployment, and tuition reimbursement.

Data Systems & Human Capital Analytics

• Provides leadership for HR data systems, ensuring alignment with payroll, finance, certification, and reporting.

• Uses data to inform staffing decisions, address barriers, strengthen pipelines, and align resources with district priorities.

• Ensures accuracy, confidentiality, and audit readiness across all HR data systems.

Employee & Community Customer Service

• Ensures professional, timely, and respectful customer service to all employees, families, community members, and partners.

• Models and reinforces a culture in which every interaction reflects respect, clarity, and restorative communication.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, ABILITIES & PERSONAL ATTRIBUTES

• Extensive knowledge of NYSED requirements, Civil Service regulations, APPR, certification, and federal/state HR law.

• Demonstrated success leading HR systems in diverse, urban settings.

• Ability to maintain consistent, factual, unbiased, and transparent processes.

• Deep understanding of how to build belonging, fairness, and trust across a multicultural workforce.

• Strong interpersonal, communication, and conflict-resolution skills grounded in empathy and professionalism.

• Experience building staff pipelines, leadership development systems, and collaborative labor partnerships.

• Commitment to reflective practice, continuous learning, and community-informed leadership.

Embody, advocate and operationalize the mission, vision and strategic direction of the Schenectady City School District. Support the Office of Teaching and Learning and District schools to achieve the District’s goals for student and graduate success by ensuring equitable student and school access to all programs, resources, and high quality instruction.  Assist the District team in establishing District-wide practices that promote equity attending to the need for an antiracist, culturally responsive curriculum.

The Assistant Director leads the development, organization, implementation and coordination of specific services and supports for multilingual learners, bilingual education,  and students studying world languages throughout the district. Guided by the district's vision, mission and goals, they will provide instructional leadership and support to school leaders, teachers and staff. 

Primary responsibilities (provide assistance to the Teaching and Learning team):

• Provides districtwide leadership for Pre K-12 Bilingual Education (including ENL Programming), World Language and CRE instructional, curricular and professional development initiatives;

• Oversees data collection and analysis for planning, scheduling and leads in the use of language proficiency data with state level assessment and achievement data to improve the overall achievement of students;

• Implements a comprehensive program for increasing English language acquisition and academic achievement for all multilingual learners;

• Researches, promotes and supports the development of and the effective implementation of  Bilingual/ Dual Language programs;

• Collaborates with District administrators and the ENL Department Chair to integrate effective language acquisition instruction into all classrooms and the development of necessary bilingual programming;

• Implements a professional development plan to provide culturally and linguistically  responsive instruction to all students;

• Maintains compliance with federal, state and District policies and regulations

• Reviews and analyzes student achievement data and makes recommendations to immediate supervisor and to the Assistant Superintendent and to schools on key strategies to increase student achievement;

• Oversees the development of the District Title III budget assigned to the Office of Teaching and Learning, including monitoring purchases for effective implementation

• Consistent with the District's vision, promotes and implements identified strategies to accelerate language development, academic literacy and disciplinary knowledge of all students;

• Promotes and models leadership in the change process for continuous improvement and leads transformative changes, as appropriate;

• Works with World Language team leaders and teachers, along with administrators to create and continually adjust the World Language curricula;

• Serve as a resource to Principals, teachers, and community partners (community based organizations, universities, and non-profit educational organizations) to provide assistance to adopt culturally responsive curriculum and effective pedagogical practices for the purpose of advancing educational equity;

• Collaborates with teachers, families, and building  and District administration on the necessary ENL and World Language assessments; 

• Develop professional development opportunities for teachers to increase educational outcomes;

Serve as a resource to principals, teachers, and community partners (universities, colleges, non-profit educational organizations) to provide assistance to adopt culturally responsive curriculum and effective pedagogical practices for the purpose of advancing educational equity 

• Serve as a collaborative resource within the district for furthering goals of educational equity in developing and implementing effective language acquisition strategies that reflect and support diversity, equity and inclusion for student academic success;  

• Establishes strong working relationships with school and district staff; 

• Supports a climate where equity is discussed, challenged and used to promote opportunities for staff and student success;

• Serve on cross-functional teams to provide educational and managerial leadership that builds and supports a high performance educational team, inspiring and aligning the academic work of the District;

• Collaborates with building administration and builds the the development of bilingual programming

• Gathers input from staff and surveys from students as well as formal assessment data as     part of process to monitor and evaluate the impact of the instructional program; 

• Supports the development of the instructional and leadership capacity of staff. 

Develops professional development opportunities for teachers to increase educational outcomes 

• Analyzes and utilizes data to identify professional development needs and to evaluate, improve and report on program effectiveness;

• Communicates the goals, plans and progress of the District’s professional learning program;

• Collaborate with outside agencies (ex.R-BERN) and communicate available professional learning activities to school and district staff;

• Collaborates on the design and implementation of a comprehensive Professional Development Plan of all staff;

• Implements professional learning opportunities through multiple delivery models including, formal structured workshops and digital platforms;

• Organizes, maintains and supports professional learning communities; 

• Remains a learner and informed of innovative professional development techniques to provide the district with the highest quality of professional development activities;

• Participates in the development of the district school calendar to ensure adequate professional learning time;

• Assist in the development and onboarding of new staff;

• Works with District School Support and Improvement team and school administrators to improve consistency of practice within and across the schools;

Secondary responsibilities will include:

• Collaborate with the SCSD business office and Office of Planning and Accountability for accurate and timely NYSED submissions;

• Leads interpretation and translation for district

• Assist building administrations in the recruitment and hiring of ENL, Bilingual program and World Language staff;

• Will assist in conducting teacher evaluations with building administration to ensure proper implementation of curriculum;

• Within the framework of the tenets of the APPR process, provide support and/or supervise and coach teachers by adhering to precise instructional systems, visiting classrooms to observe instruction, modeling effective instructional practices, providing support, and giving feedback; 

• Creates relationships with a wide number of colleges and universities for the recruitment of bilingual and World Language teachers.