Director of Culture (2025-2026 SY)
Description
Application Deadline: Friday, December 6th at 4:00pm CST
Location: In-person, on-site in Nashville, TN
Employment Type: Full time, 12-month role for the 2025-2026 school year
Salary: the salary range for this role is $81,840-$94,160 and placement is based on prior professional and leadership experience.
About Valor:
Founded in 2014, Valor Collegiate Academies is a top-performing, public charter school network in Nashville, Tennessee, serving students in Grades 5-12 across three schools. Our mission is to create a community where students of all backgrounds have equitable access to an education that prepares them to live inspired and purposeful lives. This mission is made possible through an innovative school model that balances rigorous academics and whole-child education in an intentionally diverse environment. Learn more about Valor: https://valorcollegiate.org/our-model/
About the Role:
For the 2025-2026 school year, Valor is seeking a Director of Culture to partner with our Chief Culture Officer to support our vision and strategic plan for Valor’s Compass program and results across all three Valor schools. The Director of Culture will play an integral role supporting our network’s four school Principals and four culture Assistant Principals to meet our ambitious culture and human-development centered goals across the middle and high school grades.
Key Responsibilities:
Strategic Leadership (15%)
Organization-Wide
- Develop, plan, and lead professional development sessions for staff related to culture and culture systems
Student Culture
- Supporting school leaders with bi-annual student surveys (e.g. ensuring school leaders have a plan for taking the survey and following up with responses)
- Understanding, implementing, and teaching the overall vision for student culture
Facilitating Leadership (50%)
Leadership Development
- Attend conferences related to school culture leadership
- Plan and lead a weekly meeting with culture APs that allows data review and develops them as culture leaders and enhance their coaching of Compass Coaches
- Monitor and support plans to develop Compass Coaches
- Support systems for development of House Team Leaders
- Creating and maintaining systems for analyzing culture-facing leadership development (e.g. Compass Coach dashboards, Compass Team Intervention dashboards, etc…)
Executing (30%)
- Alongside CCO, supporting school leaders with student and family crises
- Manage regular Compass Support Center observations alongside culture APs.
- Regularly attend Compass Coach coaching with culture APs
- Support school leaders with developing culture PLs for staff
- Creating and maintaining accountability structures for tier 1, 2 and 3 systems
- Attend org-wide events in support of network initiatives, such as identity-based celebrations, school-based celebrations, etc,
School Support & Faculty Engagement (5%)
- Enforce, uphold, and exhibit the school's values, student management policies, and culture.
- Support schools by providing support with volunteer opportunities (8 per year) and commit to a routine duty to help schools (ex. arrival/dismissal duty).
- Sits on Valor’s Powered by Compass team and performs additional duties and responsibilities to support school teams.
- Attend weekly staff Circles
Critical Experience and Qualifications:
- Bachelor's degree, with an advanced degree strongly preferred
- 3+ years of K-12 school leadership experience AND 2+ years of K-12 classroom teaching experience or relevant student-serving experience
- 2+ years of direct experience in managing K-12 school culture or managing the development of a K-12 culture team
- Experience or background in mental health not required, but preferred
- A strong track record of success and exceptional results in previous/current school-based role
- Active teaching or administrative license is preferred
Key Skills & Knowledge:
- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
- Ability to prioritize well and to work efficiently under pressure
- Strong organizational skills
- A systems thinker with an understanding of the importance of relationships
- Understanding of PBIS implementation and maintenance
- Strong understanding of advanced spreadsheet creation
- General familiarity with child development theory or willingness to learn
Personal Attributes:
- Ability to give targeted feedback
- Flexible thinking and attitude
- Staying calm under pressure and ability and willingness to deal with ambiguity
- Team-player and servant-leader mindset
- Ability to set and hold boundaries
- Comfortable with making decisions using limited information
- Optimistic about the work of school culture and able to find joy in the small wins
- Strong sense of internal motivation and purpose
Interview Process:
- Application Review
- Phone Interview
- Performance Task
- Final Interview with School Leaders
- Reference Checks
- Offer Extension
Compensation & Benefits
- We offer robust retirement and benefits plan through Metro Nashville Public School
- We offer comprehensive health (medical, dental, and vision) and retirement benefits
- We have a fully-paid parental leave policy
- We offer 15 days of PTO, plus a PTO Sharing program
- Free access to an on-site strength & conditioning facility, Vanderbilt Health Clinic, retirement counseling, and mental health support and resources
- We offer employee laptops and unlimited supplies
- Full-time employees wishing to enroll their child at Valor in grades 5-12 will be placed at the top of the new student waitlist.
Valor believes in the importance of being a diverse, equitable, and inclusive organization that enables students and staff to thrive. As an equal opportunity employer, we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We actively seek applications from people of all backgrounds to strengthen our community and the perspectives needed to thrive in a diverse world.