Job Abstract

The Primary School is creating a new school model that brings together all of the adults in a child’s life, including parents, educators, and medical and mental health providers, starting from a very early age. We recognize the entrenched racism that exists within our public systems and the unjust impact this has had on families of color. Our aim is that children and families most impacted by systemic poverty and racism receive the multidisciplinary support they deserve to be well, learn, and thrive.

Long-term, we hope to create a game-changing model that can be replicated across the country. As we continue to learn and grow, we plan to share what we’ve learned and pursue policy and systems change on a local, state, and national level. We are supported by a growing coalition of philanthropic partners, building on the generous support of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

Our approach has three defining characteristics:

• We start early. We start working with children as young as 12 months and provide full-time school starting at age three to reach them at a critical stage in development.
• We partner with parents. We believe that when parents thrive, children thrive, so we support the wellness and growth of parents alongside the growth of their children.
• We integrate services. Our unique model unites health care and education, building a multi-disciplinary team and holistic system of care around a child’s full needs.

In 2016, we opened our flagship school in East Palo Alto, California, with our first class of four year olds. We have grown to serve over 400 children and their families through our Early Family Foundations program, parent wellness program, full-day preschool, and elementary/middle school, which will grow through eighth grade. In 2021, we opened our second site in the East Bay.

We are continuing to grow our East Palo Alto site and are excited to launch 7th grade for our 2024-2025 school year. In our school program, we currently serve over 400 students across two preschool grades (3 and 4 year olds) and kindergarten through sixth grade. Integrated into our program are the other core components of our model including our parent program - partnering closely with parents throughout their child’s development and providing wellness programming for caregivers; our Early Family Foundations program - coordinating early developmental screenings and intervention services; and our medical home partnerships - working with existing health care providers in the community to coordinate care for children.

Given The Primary School’s unique focus on health integration and building a new school model, Manager of Health role offers a unique opportunity to leverage unique programs and partnerships to impact student health and wellbeing within a school model.

The role will have ownership in leading and implementing health integration programming of The Primary School model at EPA. This entails leveraging a school site to bring more accessible health services to campus that prevent and address health barriers to learning, fostering partnerships that help families navigate the health care system, and supporting programs that build life-long health behaviors for our students. The director/ sr manager will work closely with the Executive Director to ensure health programming is being fully integrated throughout the site. They will also work with the central office Medical Director and Sr Manager of Health to design and refine programs that re-imagine how well child care, developmental services, and social emotional supports are delivered to support the whole child. Additionally, they will work closely with the integrated school nurse from Ravenswood Family Health Center to bring clinical expertise about the health needs of children. Finally, in collaboration with our learning and data team, as leader of the site’s health team, the health team manager will oversee our tracking of annual goals, health outcomes, and improvement processes that build the school models rapid cycle learning and evaluation engine.

This role reports to the Executive Director and will be a part of the EPA Health Team. This position follows a year-round calendar.

Job Type: Full-time

Work Location: In-person

Health Program Management

• Manage the Health team and focus on their professional growth, consistent and high quality integration across East Palo Alto programs, and continued high quality of services that are staff and family facing.
• In partnership with the central office Medical Director and Senior Manager of Health, align on and ensure quality implementation of the 5 year strategic staffing and program plan for the health team.
• Be accountable for the tracking of goals and KPIs for the health team. Monitor Key Performance Indicators (KPI) and contribute to discussions at monthly data review meetings to ensure programs are meeting their goals
• Ensure smooth day-to-day program operations, including scheduling, program assignments and materials, space planning, and expense management.
• Work with program leaders to refine and implement program as designed
• In partnership with Central Office and as approved by EPA leadership, iterate on components of select programming to improve how that programming meet the needs of students, families, and staff tasked with implementing the program
• Ensure smooth collaboration between parent wellness coaching team, school operations team, school leaders, teachers, and 0-3 teams
• Attend relevant meetings, trainings and events, as well as hold regular 1:1 check ins with program leadership, to stay up-to-date on what is going on with programs to ensure alignment
• Support in the creation and management of communications to families
• Troubleshoot and problem solve cross-program issues as needed
• Other duties consistent with the role as necessary

Team Culture and Management

• Facilitate a high degree of collaboration between direct reports and other programs’ staff
• Provide clarity, alignment, groundedness and solutions to challenges of the program and the team
• Work with team to identify opportunities for professional development, plan team building experiences and support leading team meetings
• Manager of the site health team, including management of integrated school nurse, supervision and management of 1-2 direct reports, health fellows, and other staff assigned to the health team

Community Health

• Collaborate with school design team and school leaders to enhance the educational process and the promotion of an optimal level of wellness for students, families and staff
• Collaborate with school team to support with school health education curriculum, focused on six core health behaviors: hand washing, oral health, sleep, nutrition, physical activity, and media health
• Serve as liaison between school site(s) and local health service providers/agencies in the community to build out community health partnerships
• Maintain and cultivate the partnership with Ravenswood Family Health Center, the school site’s medical partner clinic, including leading a pediatric working group, quarterly leadership meetings, and scoping partnership charter projects each year
• Orchestrate onsite events such as community vaccine events for flu or COVID vaccines or community health nights at school
• Collaborate with parent coaching team to support addressing social determinants of health with connections to appropriate community resources and coordination with medical homes

Quality Improvement

• Support and manage effective systems for the collection of data for required tracking and learning reports/KPI processes
• Assess and evaluate the effectiveness of services delivered and health programming
• Develop and coordinate quality improvement activities for school health services
• Participating in monthly data review meetings with our learning team

• Track record of successful implementation of programs and management of complex projects
• Excellent collaboration skills across multiple teams and expertises
• Demonstrated commitment to equity and inclusion when managing others
• Ability to manage people and work collaboratively across other teams
• Flexible and creative thinking
• Able to work with ambiguity and environments that change rapidly
• Deep commitment and alignment to the mission and vision of the organization
• Able to work at the times that work for families (some evenings and occasional weekends)

• Undergraduate or Graduate degree in public health or professional experience in health care, community health, mental health or social work
• Spanish speaking
• Connection to or experience working in East Palo Alto/Belle Haven

Mindset and Attitude

• You believe that we need a new model of school and have a deep commitment to re-defining systems and the way we care for our children
• You are deeply kind, humble, and courageous
• You have the courage to take bold bets, make mistakes, and try again
• You believe in the mission of The Primary School and that all children and families are capable of extraordinary things

Annual salary range begins at $75,900-$93,400; compensation is commensurate with qualifications and experience, plus excellent health benefits (medical, dental, and vision), 401k retirement plan, flexible spending account (FSA), dependent care FSA, and generous paid time off, including a competitive paid parental leave benefit. TPS will cover 93% of the total premium cost for individual team members in our HMO and PPO plans, and 95% for individual team members in our HDHP plan. TPS also covers 50% of enrolled partners and/or dependents' costs on all three of our medical plans (HMO,PPO, HDHP). Please note that in order to be considered for this position, you must be legally authorized to work in the U.S. We are unable to offer sponsorship.

To ensure fair and equitable compensation for all of our employees, The Primary School has a no-negotiation policy on all offers extended. Final offers are determined using role descriptions, job market data, internal parity, and semi-annual benchmarking. Our goal is that this policy, paired with ongoing transparency in our compensation process, will make TPS a more fair, inclusive, and diverse workplace.

TPS values diversity (please see our commitment to DEI); people of all backgrounds are encouraged to apply. Please complete the online application and submit your most recent resume. These short-answer questions are designed to replace a cover letter, so take your time with them and copy in your answers from a separate document. If you feel that the questions do not accurately capture what you have to offer The Primary School, you are also welcome to attach a cover letter. Applications are being reviewed on a rolling basis so we encourage you to submit yours soon. We look forward to reading your application!

The Primary School provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, marital status, amnesty, or status as a covered veteran in accordance with applicable federal, state and local laws. The Primary School complies with applicable state and local laws governing non-discrimination in employment in every location in which the organization has facilities. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including, but not limited to, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, and training.