Job Description

Job Title: Principal

About the Bard Early Colleges

The Bard Early Colleges (BEC) are founded on the belief that, for many young people, college can and should start at an earlier age. Bard Early College’s simple idea - to begin serious college study in place of the traditional 11th and 12th grades, at no cost to students or families - has had an extraordinary impact on young people and on education innovation and equity in America.

The Bard Early Colleges offer a truly unique home for young people’s intellectual ambition: as both tuition-free, branch campuses of Bard College and public high schools, they award a high school diploma and a Bard College Associate in Arts degree (and 60 transferable credits) by the end of the 12th grade. Students are taught by college faculty in undergraduate, seminar classes, all deeply rooted in the liberal arts and sciences, in Bard College’s commitment to excellence in teaching, and in Bard’s mission as a private college in the public interest.

Now entering its third decade, the Bard Early College network enrolls over 3,700 young people in campuses in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, and Hudson, New York; Newark, New Jersey; New Orleans, Louisiana; Cleveland, Ohio; Baltimore, Maryland; and Washington, D.C.

Bard invites applications for dynamic leaders who will join the administrative team as a Principal or Assistant Principal of one of our Bard High School Early College (BHSEC) for the 2025 - 2026 academic year.

Position Objective and Duties

The Principal is the early college’s academic and administrative leader. The Principal is responsible for:

1. ensuring that the school meets Bard’s high standards of undergraduate academic rigor and student achievement;
2. facilitating smooth and effective collaboration with the school system partner and Bard regarding all aspects of school management;
3. alongside the school’s Dean of Studies, leading the faculty in designing and delivering an academic program of genuine collegiate quality and ensuring the implementation of Bard’s Early College pedagogy across the curriculum, including Bard’s Writing and Thinking Practices;
4. upholding and enriching the tenets of diversity, equity, and inclusion of BHSEC’s school culture and community, and fostering a campus culture of intellectual engagement, individual responsibility, and creativity; and
5. leading the school staff. The Principal reports to the school system partner and to Bard College, specifically through the Vice President/Dean of the Early Colleges. The Principal collaborates regularly with other BHSEC leadership teams.

Compensation: The compensation for this position is based on the local school district’s administrators’ salary steps.

Location of your assignment: TBD We have campuses in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, and Hudson, NY; Newark, NJ; New Orleans, LA; Cleveland, OH; Baltimore, MD; and Washington, D.C.

Qualifications

The Principal must lead a campus that is both a public high school as well as a degree-granting undergraduate branch campus of Bard College. As such, the Principal’s professional and academic experience should span both secondary and postsecondary teaching and administration, and, where relevant, scholarship. The successful candidate will excel at working in a community that is broadly diverse with regard to race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender, nationality, sexual orientation and religion.

The successful candidate for the position will possess the following characteristics and qualifications:

• Doctorate in a liberal arts and sciences discipline (corresponding to the fields available for study within the Bard College curriculum)
• Scholarship and engagement in that field of study since attainment of doctoral degree
• Relevant teaching experience, preferably with both college and high school-aged students
• Relevant leadership experience
• Very strong organizational and management skills
• Very strong interpersonal and communication skills
• Experience in and commitment to working with adolescents
• Administrator certification required
• Additionally, candidates will be subject to necessary qualifications and review in accordance with the local school district’s principal selection process.

Application Instructions

Please apply directly with Bard College / Bard Early Colleges. Do this by clicking on the “Apply Now” button found through the Interfolio job application link provided here: https://apply.interfolio.com/131154

Use the Interfolio link provided to upload the following documents directly with Bard College:

• a letter of interest

• curriculum vitae,

• Contact information for three references

Questions:

Contact Dumaine Williams, Vice President and Dean of the Early Colleges at dwilliam@bard.edu Please indicate in the subject line of your email that it is an Inquiry about the Principal Position at a BHSEC campus where the location is TBD

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement

Bard College is an equal opportunity employer and we welcome applications from those who contribute to our diversity. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, mental, or physical disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, familial status, veteran status, or genetic information.

Bard is committed to providing access, equal opportunity, and reasonable accommodation for all individuals in employment practices, services, programs, and activities.