Organization: Livingston Educational Service Agency  

Location: Howell, MI

Pay Range: $137,155 - $168,596

Summary:

The Livingston Educational Service Agency is seeking a warm-hearted and distinguished leader in early childhood education and community collaboration who will inspire their teams, care for employees of the Agency, and ensure the success of our educational programs, services, collaborations, and educational outcomes. This individual will demonstrate unquestioned ethics and integrity and will exemplify an innovative spirit focused on narrowing the educational opportunity gap and finding a way to say “yes” rather than “no.”

This leader will also embrace and advance the Agency’s service commitments. Internally, they will help ensure that employees feel empowered to serve, supported to grow, and valued every step of the way. Externally, they will champion our shared belief that each of us will share how we quietly support learners at every age and stage, strengthening the culture of collaboration that defines Livingston County’s educational community.

This person will provide executive-level leadership for the Agency’s Federal Head Start programs and the Livingston County Early Childhood Collaborative while also providing direct support and leadership for early childhood and elementary leaders throughout Livingston County. Ultimately, the intended outcome is a coordinated system that results in 100% of students being ready for Kindergarten and consistently outperforms its socioeconomic predictors on state assessments.

Position Responsibilities:

• Lead and sustain high-functioning professional networks that strengthen instructional leadership and collaboration across the county, including the Elementary Principals Network, Instructional Coaches Network, Early Childhood Leaders Network, and Early Childhood Inclusion Workgroup, ensuring these networks produce measurable improved outcomes in teaching, learning, and early childhood program quality.

• Develop and execute collaborative strategies with local districts and early childhood partners that advance shared priorities, strengthen relationships across the education ecosystem, and accelerate progress toward county-wide early learning goals.

• Secure and steward sustainable funding streams by identifying, writing, and securing state, federal, and private grants that expand early childhood opportunities and support innovative community initiatives such as Talking Is Teaching: Talk, Read, Sing.

• Design and advance a coordinated birth-through-elementary learning system for Livingston County that strengthens connections among private early childhood providers, community agencies, employers, and public schools to improve kindergarten readiness and long-term academic success.

• Position the Livingston Educational Service Agency as a recognized leader in collaborative early childhood innovation by contributing to research, sharing promising practices, and serving as a resource for education leaders across Michigan.

• Engage in strategic state-level leadership and policy work that elevates the Agency’s influence, strengthens partnerships, and enhances the services and opportunities available to local districts and early childhood stakeholders.

• In collaboration with the Director for Early Childhood Education & Programming, cultivate an exceptional employee experience within the Livingston ESA Early Childhood department that results in high levels of staff retention, professional growth, and organizational effectiveness while ensuring the continuous improvement, fiscal strength, and long-term success of the Agency’s Head Start programs and the Livingston County Early Childhood Collaborative.

• Expand equitable access to high-quality early childhood learning opportunities for all children and families in Livingston County—regardless of socioeconomic status or disability—by strengthening existing systems that narrow the educational opportunity gap and developing new strategies that ultimately eliminate that gap.

Supervisory Responsibilities:

• The Director for Early Childhood Education and Programming

• A team of approximately 40 early childhood educators working in the agency’s Head Start Programs and who support the Livingston County Early Childhood Collaborative and Community Based Partner GSRP programs.

• The Great Start Collaborative Coordinator

• The County 35a Literacy Coaches in collaboration with local districts

Qualifications:

• Minimum of a Master’s degree with administrative certificate; preference of a doctorate or the willingness to engage in a doctoral program.

• Elementary School Principal Experience.

Skills/Knowledge/Abilities (SKA) Required:

• The successful candidate will possess the ability to sustain and strengthen the many existing collaboratives and networks that support young children and families in Livingston County, while bringing a visionary spirit that inspires the creation of new partnerships and opportunities that advance early learning.

• Demonstrates unwavering ethics and integrity while fostering an innovative, solutions-oriented mindset focused on narrowing educational opportunity gaps and consistently seeking pathways to say “yes” when addressing challenges.

• Experience as a building principal, particularly at the elementary level, is highly desirable, as the position benefits from a deep understanding of the instructional leadership and school systems that support children’s successful transition into kindergarten and the early elementary grades.