Position: Preschool and School Director at Chaparral Christian Community School
Work hours: Full-Time (40 hours), salaried, exempt
Primary Work Schedule: Monday-Friday
Reports to: Lead Pastor
Position Summary
After years of dedicated leadership, our current School Director will step down at the end of the 2026-2027 school year. This planned transition provides an exciting opportunity for a new leader to build upon a strong foundation and guide the school into its next season of growth.
Our new School Director will carry and champion the educational soul of the school: a formational model built on Making, Mastery, and Margin, in service of our mission to form curious, capable children who are growing into everything God made them to be.
The Director provides clear, confident leadership to faculty and staff, translating vision into priorities, systems, and action. This leader sets direction for school operations, ensures compliance with educational standards, develops the team, builds trusted relationships with families, and advocates for the school’s people, resources, and future. The Director also partners closely with church leadership to align the school with the broader ministry of Chaparral Christian Church and its mission to create environments where everyone can find and follow God.
Chaparral is in a season of building, and the school is an important part of that momentum. The next Director will inherit a healthy, well-run school with the opportunity to bring fresh structure, sharpen direction, strengthen the model, and lead thoughtful growth. We are looking for a leader who sees opportunity, brings people around a clear path forward, and confidently moves ideas into action.
Scope of Role
Chaparral Christian Schools serves approximately 110 students across two programs: a preschool of about 60 children and a K–8 school of about 50 students. The Director leads a team of 12 teachers and 2 support staff, with additional operational support from Chaparral Christian Church's administrative team.
Our Identity: Made to Flourish
Everything at our school flows from the conviction that every child was made on purpose, with a mind built for wonder and a life pointed toward something great. That conviction shows up Monday through Friday in three commitments:
- Making. Children learn by building, creating, and doing. We trade lectures and fixed-pace instruction for hands-on, project-based learning, because children bear the image of our Creator and come alive when they create.
- Mastery. Each child moves at their own pace and owns the fundamentals. Individualized techniques free our teachers to sit beside one child at a time, and owning the fundamentals frees each child's day for the richer, hands-on work where deeper learning happens.
- Margin. We protect each child's time and each family, on purpose. Little to no homework, unhurried days, and evenings that belong to the family. Everything forms a child, and we would rather it be the right things.
The Director is the primary keeper and leader of this identity. Every responsibility below serves it.
Primary Responsibilities
1. Pedagogical & Formational Leadership
The School Director:
- Owns, guards, and champions the school's educational model: Making, Mastery, and Margin. The Director can articulate it compellingly to teachers, parents, prospective families, and the board.
- Develops teachers into the model through coaching, observation, and training, so that project-based learning and self-paced mastery are practiced with skill and consistency in every classroom.
- Plans, evaluates, and continually improves curriculum in alignment with the model, ensuring academic excellence and genuine mastery of fundamentals.
- Guards Margin as a matter of policy and culture: protecting unhurried days, keeping homework light and purposeful, and helping families understand why.
- Ensures the spiritual formation of students is woven into the school day through teaching, not merely in what we add on.
2. Spiritual Leadership & Ministry
The School Director:
- Is first and foremost a disciple-maker who intentionally invests in staff, students, and families, equipping others to make disciples.
- Models a spiritually surrendered life and demonstrates Christian maturity in both leadership and personal conduct.
- Leads and develops an apprentice, intentionally investing in future ministry leaders.
- Creates opportunities for meaningful connection between the Preschool, School, Church, Gym, and other ministries at Chaparral.
- Is fully supportive of all that happens at Chaparral through consistent involvement and service.
- Fully supports and lives in alignment with the mission, core values, and beliefs of Chaparral Christian Church.
3. Team Leadership & Development
The School Director:
- Recruits, hires, supervises, develops, and evaluates all Preschool and School employees, building a team capable of carrying the model.
- Sets clear expectations, gives honest feedback, and moves with urgency when the team or the model needs attention.
- Provides ongoing coaching, encouragement, and leadership to faculty and staff, and conducts regular staff meetings to communicate vision and strengthen team culture.
- Plans and facilitates monthly and annual staff training and professional development, oriented toward the school's pedagogical model.
- Cultivates a healthy, joyful, collaborative, and Christ-centered workplace.
- Ensures all employees and volunteers remain compliant with federal, state, local, and church policies and procedures.
4. Operational Vision & Oversight
The School Director:
- Sets direction for school operations and oversees their execution through the school's operational support: the part-time school operations manager, Chaparral's operations team, and the Support Services Director.
- Designs the structures, systems, and rhythms the school needs to grow through the annual calendar, staffing plans, enrollment processes, and program structure.
- Oversees the school budget in partnership with Chaparral's financial staff.
- Maintains all required licensing, accreditation, tax, health, safety, and scholarship compliance with applicable governmental and accrediting agencies.
- Ensures school policies and procedures are current, consistent, and consistently followed.
5. Student & Family Engagement
The School Director:
- Creates a safe, engaging, nurturing, and fun learning environment where every student can flourish.
- Builds strong relationships with teachers, students, and parents through consistent communication and accessibility.
- Responds promptly and professionally to questions, concerns, and opportunities for support.
- Serves current and prospective families with excellence throughout the enrollment process and school year.
- Partners with Chaparral's pastoral care staff in caring for families walking through crisis or significant need.
6. Community Relations & School Growth
The School Director:
- Promotes the Preschool and School throughout the surrounding community as a school with a distinct identity worth choosing.
- Develops and implements marketing and enrollment strategies, in partnership with marketing support staff, that lead with the school's identity and model.
- Builds positive relationships with prospective families and community partners, and represents the school with professionalism in all public interactions.
This Season at Our School
Our school is healthy, established, and loved by students and parents alike. Having been around for 7 years, we are now watching the early classes of students who have been deeply involved in our model enter High School and thrive in a variety of contexts.
After years of faithful and steady leadership, the school is ready for the next Director to lead and develop our schools into a new season. Growing enrollment and developing the school into the most full version of what it can be are top priorities.
This is a role for a true director: someone with experience leading, comfortable owning outcomes, energized by building structure, and able to move with non-anxious urgency. We hope the right person will read this and feel the pull of it.
Calling
The School Director has a genuine passion for ministering to children, families, and educators, and a real conviction about how children learn and flourish. This individual desires to build a safe, Christ-centered, academically excellent environment where students grow spiritually, emotionally, socially, and intellectually. This person believes the way we teach is itself a statement about who a child is and what a child is for.
The Director is a devoted follower of Jesus Christ who leads from a heart of humility, service, and obedience to God.
Character & Leadership Qualities
The School Director is expected to demonstrate the highest standards of biblical integrity, moral character, and ethical leadership. This leader:
- Leads with humility, wisdom, and servant leadership with the confidence to make and own decisions.
- Builds trusting relationships with students, parents, staff, and church leadership.
- Takes initiative, brings energy and urgency to the work, and follows through until things are done and done well.
- Encourages and equips others to grow spiritually and professionally.
- Is viewed as a respected leader among peers.
- Demonstrates compassion, optimism, and excellent communication skills.
- Reflects Christ in every interaction and seeks to help others find and follow God.
Qualifications
The School Director should possess:
- A bachelor's degree in Education, Early Childhood Education, Educational Leadership, or a related field.
- Appropriate educational credentials required by state licensing agencies.
- Significant experience in education, including progressively increasing leadership responsibility and demonstrated experience leading a team.
- Genuine conviction about (or demonstrated hunger for) hands-on, mastery-based, formation-first education. Familiarity with project-based learning or Acton-influenced approaches is a strong plus.
- Demonstrated experience building or improving organizational structure: systems, processes, and team design, not merely maintaining them.
- Strong organizational, administrative, and communication skills, including experience managing budgets.
- A personal commitment to the mission, values, and doctrinal beliefs of Chaparral Christian Church.
Reporting Relationship
The School Director reports to the Lead Pastor of Chaparral Christian Church, who reports to the Elder Board (which also serves as the Board for all of Chaparral).
Work Expectations
This is a full-time exempt position that generally follows a Monday-Friday schedule, with occasional evening and weekend responsibilities for school events, parent meetings, and other Chaparral community activities.
Compensation & Benefits
This is a full-time, year-round, salaried position with an annual range of $65,000-$75,000. Compensation may be adjusted for a candidate with exceptional experience. Benefits include health insurance and paid time off.
How To Apply
Please send a résumé and a brief cover letter describing why this role and this school resonate with you to jobs@chaparral.org.
Applications will be reviewed as they are received.
Pay: $65,000.00 - $75,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- Health insurance
- Paid time off
Work Location: In person
