The Office of the Chief of Staff works to maximize DCPS’ collective impact through ensuring strategic and data-based decisions, building upon DCPS successes through meaningful engagement, and effectively navigating citywide government partnerships.

Divisions/Teams

• The Family and Community Engagement (FCE) division is responsible for DCPS’ work to engage parents, families, and the community in our students’ learning, the improvement of our schools, and DCPS’ planning and decision making. Our mission is to accelerate the rate of achievement in DC Public Schools by investing families and the greater DC community in student and school success. Our three core areas of work are: (1) community engagement, (2) school partnerships, and (3) family engagement with student and staff engagement as key components of our overall stakeholder strategy. All of our work is designed to impact and improve student achievement at the individual student, school, or district level.
• The Intergovernmental Affairs division advances DCPS’ legislative agenda, clearly communicates with political leadership, assists elected officials with constituent services related to DCPS, and builds the knowledge and capacity of internal colleagues to understand and navigate political and legislative developments.
• The Strategy and Performance Management division supports collaboration, alignment, and coherence across DCPS through systems and structures focused on the strategic plan.
• The Partnerships division develops and advances strategies and resources for schools and the district to maximize partner and community impact on student and school success.

The Specialist, Community Action Team (CAT) is responsible for building and sustaining strategic relationships with key family and community stakeholders in a way that engages people with DCPS in meaningful ways and facilitates the access to information and resources at DCPS. The Specialist will develop and maintain collaborative partnerships with a variety of agencies and organizations, serve in local and school-based committees and groups, communicate emerging needs and trends back to DCPS, and recommend related organizational changes. The Specialist also helps build the capacity of school staff within the clusters to whom they are assigned to enhance their school-level family and community engagement efforts. This is done by developing and helping to implement individualized strategies and by leveraging knowledge of best practices.

The Specialist, Community Action Team will report to the Manager, Community Affairs and Engagement.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

The below statements are intended to describe the general nature and scope of work being performed by this position. This is not a complete listing of all responsibilities, duties, and/or skills required. Other duties may be assigned.

• Applies deep knowledge and expertise of engagement practices in providing targeted capacity building, coaching, and support around transparent, timely, and authentic communications with families and community stakeholders.

• Leads a project specific to the interests and needs of the schools and communities with whom the CAT member works and which adheres to the DCPS Way and/or federal Title 1 and ESSA regulations (pproject includes the development of strategy and clear, specific, and ambitious performance measures that are easily translated into individual work goals and deliverables for others).

• Assists schools with external community outreach, identifying which key stakeholders and strategically important meetings and events to prioritize.

• Supports the creation, planning, and operations of school-based Local School Advisory Teams (LSAT).

• Participates in the direct recruitment and development of parent leaders in order to increase representative parent voice and involvement at the school and district level.

• Identifies and attends key meetings in and outside of schools (i.e., PTA, Education Councils, ANC, etc.) in a way that allows for a better and more consistent exchange of information between DCPS and its stakeholders, particularly around key DCPS priorities and initiatives.

• Anticipates, identifies, and resolves complex obstacles to successful community engagement, including managing challenging stakeholders.

• Builds relationships and liaises with various internal and external departments, agencies, organizations, and others to drive collaboration and success; and responds effectively to urgent requests from stakeholders.

• Regularly communicates progress to and collects feedback from colleagues and stakeholders to determine opportunities for improvement; and develops detailed recommendations and implementation plans to resolve.

• Synthesizes feedback; and helps manage the analysis and presentation of data, and progress of data-driven initiatives for senior leaders and external audiences.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree and three to five years of related work experience.
• Master's degree preferred.
• Previous exposure to or experience in the education sector a plus.
• Experience developing traditional and non-traditional collaborative partnerships.
• Facilitates high-quality, impactful adult professional development.
• Experience with community organizing in DC preferred.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills with a variety of audiences.
• Great interpersonal skills with the ability to build rapport with diverse stakeholders.
• Engaging speaker with active listening skills.
• Project management skills and the ability to motivate peers across and among teams.
• DC residents preferred.
• Creative and tenacious problem solver in high stress situations.
• Comfortable mediating conflict in public-facing scenarios.

DCPS Values

• STUDENTS FIRST: We recognize students as whole children and put their needs first in everything we do.
• COURAGE: We have the audacity to learn from our successes and failures, to try new things, and to lead the nation as a proof point of PK-12 success.
• EQUITY: We work proactively to eliminate opportunity gaps by interrupting institutional bias and investing in effective strategies to ensure every student succeeds.
• EXCELLENCE: We work with integrity and hold ourselves accountable for exemplary outcomes, service, and interactions.
• TEAMWORK: We recognize that our greatest asset is our collective vision and ability to work collaboratively and authentically.
• JOY: We enjoy our collective work and will enthusiastically celebrate our success and each other.