2024 BES Fellowship for Founding School Leader – Various Cities

The 2024 BES Fellowship for Founding School Leaders

BES seeks a full-time Fellow to serve as a Founding School Leader. We are seeking to select Fellows in several regions including but not limited to: Arizona, Baton Rouge, Georgia, Ohio, and Tennessee. Through the BES Fellowship, highly motivated leaders who are committed to transforming education will participate in rigorous, multi-year training that prepares them to design, found, and lead a high-achieving school that reflects and responds to the needs of their community.

Who We Are 

Strong schools rest on the shoulders of strong leaders. That’s why BES identifies and prepares excellent leaders to transform education in their communities. From school founders and executive directors, to operations leaders, deans of students, and directors of curriculum and instruction, we train leaders to build schools, to ensure their schools excel, and to sustain their results over time.

Over more than two decades, 120+ BES Fellows have created 63,000+ quality school seats across the country. Schools founded by BES-trained leaders are outpacing student achievement in their districts and states and closing the opportunity gap. The BES Fellowship and selection process is designed to create an equitable, inclusive, and uplifting experience for Fellows as BES fulfills its commitments to being an actively anti-racist organization.

What We Believe 

We invest in leaders so that they can invest in their teams and students, delivering on the promise of an excellent education for every child. What sets BES apart is our focus on entrepreneurial leadership. BES training equips school leaders with the skills they need to effectively manage instruction, operations, student and adult culture, and external relationships in a high-achieving, locally responsive school. BES-trained leaders hold themselves and their teams accountable for academic and non-academic results for all students. They demonstrate an ongoing commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and they lead schools that reflect and respond to the needs of their communities. Read our beliefs about excellent schools and leaders.

What You’ll Do 

The BES Fellowship for Founding School Leaders is a four or five year process that supports leaders in building a high-performing, locally responsive school. For a comprehensive description of our Fellowship, please visit our website. An overview is provided below.

Training and School Design Years

Fellows take part in one of two tracks, depending on their region:

Build Track: The “traditional” four-year Fellowship track focused on founding fresh-start public charter schools.

Character and Equity Fellowship in the Build Track (only in Arizona): This is a version of our four-year Build Track where Fellows found a school with character and equity at the core of its model, in addition to other locally responsive elements.

Community Co-Design Fellowship in the Build Track (only in Atlanta): This is a version of our Build Track where Fellows co-design a school alongside a community design team. This is a five year track and Fellows following this track spend an additional training year at the beginning of the process working to refine their school model with a community co-design team. 

Fellows participate in 300+ hours of intensive training on adaptive/technical leadership, board governance, school design, organizational leadership, community engagement, and diversity, equity and inclusion. They also spend a minimum of three weeks studying  schools with effective practices nationwide, in addition to five school studies in their region. Fellows complete a minimum of two extended residencies at high-performing schools, write and submit their charter application, and build a founding board.

Planning Year (Follow On Support)

Upon completion of the training year and approved charter application, Fellows partner with a dedicated BES coach, who works closely with leaders in years 2-4. This coaching program, called Follow On Support, ensures that schools start strong and stay strong.

During this year, Fellows work on becoming strong project managers, develop leadership skills where they have gaps, gain content knowledge, hire their founding team, recruit their founding students, move from lead founder to school leader, and crystallize their vision for the school.

Year 1 of Operation (Follow On Support)

Leaders actualize their vision when they welcome their inaugural class of students, become strong teacher-coaches, use data to intentionally move academic results, manage and cultivate talent, and implement personal organization systems that allow them to effectively deliver on their core responsibilities.

Year 2 of Operation (Follow On Support)

Leaders champion and uphold their vision as the school size doubles, sharpen the academic focus, attract and manage talent in a competitive market, develop leaders for future school growth, and manage their role to empower others.

What You Bring

• The ability to lead, manage and motivate: You have demonstrated the ability to lead and manage a team towards results, and you are committed to serving as a school leader in the community for at least 10 years.

Self awareness and humility: You possess a growth mindset and have a continuous desire to improve. You are eager to give, take, and implement feedback with humility and in real time.

• Commitment to community: You have experience in the community you are proposing for your school and bring strong community and organizational partnerships. You can articulate how you will gain and factor in community input.
• Diversity, equity and inclusion in action: Your school model will primarily serve students from under-sourced communities and bring an anti-racist lens to the work. You have had success with similar populations of students and been responsive to community needs.
• Commitment to excellence for all students:You have a clear vision for your school and can discuss key elements of the school in a detailed, compelling, and direct manner. You hold yourself accountable for results and believe that all students can achieve at high levels.

Minimum Requirements

Education & Work History

• Bachelor’s degree required; Master’s or Professional degree preferred
• 5-7 years full-time professional work experience required; 8-10+ strongly preferred

School Based Experience

• Two years of experience in K-12 education is required; 5-7+ years of K-12 school based experience strongly preferred
• Two years teaching/instructional experience preferred
• Two years instructional leadership experience (e.g. Dean, Assistant Principal, Department/Grade-Level Chair) preferred
• Public school (district or charter) experience serving primarily students from under-resourced communities is strongly preferred
• High bar for excellence required; experience at high performing local charter preferred

Leadership

Two years experience managing and supervising adults required

• Leadership experience at a school, non-profit, or startup preferred
• Preference for candidates with a strong history of managing and developing people, preferably in a school based setting

Community Connections

• 2-3 years living or working in the proposed school region is strongly preferred, not required, in addition to a preference for candidates with roots in and/or ties to the community
• Ability to establish and nurture local connections and activate the community to garner school support and enrollment

Additional minimum criteria may vary based on partner requirements in specific regions and Fellowship Track

Regional Preferences 

• Commitment to serving as a school leader in the proposed community for at least 10 years.
• Strong ties to the proposed community, including family, work, college, and/or K-12 experience.
• Clear and compelling rationale for proposed school location

Compensation and Benefits 

• $100,000+ stipend plus health benefits for each training year
• Travel and accommodations for training and during school study travel
• Technology support
• Reimbursement for up to $5,000 in moving expenses
• Up to $3,500 reimbursed for school design expenses for Fellows on the Build Track
• The opportunity to apply for BES start-up fund awards and/or those provided exclusively to Fellows by our partners

To Apply

Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis. Serious applicants are encouraged to apply today in order to secure limited spots in each region. Please visit our website for a list of our priority deadlines. We encourage you to attend an info session or connect with a recruiter to hear more about changes to the BES Fellowship and selection process before you apply

You are being entrusted to go into a community and lead the next generation. The first step in our application is very extensive. We suggest putting aside at least 1 hour to complete it.