Organization Name:     Academy for Advanced and Creative Learning

Title of Position:          Classroom Assistant on Special Assignment (CASA)

Position Type:             Part Time (8:30am - 12:30pm M-F); 10 month position

Training Dates:            

Start Date:                   ASAP

Pay Range:                  13.50 per hour

FLSA Status:               Non-Exempt

Benefits:

• This position is not eligible for health/dental/vision benefits.
• As members of the Public Employees Retirement Association (PERA), AcademyACL employees contribute to PERA; AcademyACL employees do not contribute to, nor receive, Social Security benefits for this employment.
• Beginning January 1, 2021, the state of Colorado enacted the Healthy Family & Workplaces Act (HFWA). Part-time employees will receive 1 hour of sick leave for every 30 hours worked per HFWA.

Location: 2510 N. Chestnut Street, Colorado Springs, CO 80907

Summary of Position:

This is a special assignment for the 2021-23 school year's and is primarily funded through federal grant dollars, for the specific purpose of addressing student achievement needs caused by COVID-19 disruptions to the 2020-21 school year.

Candidates will be interviewed and chosen for this position based on their ability to serve one or a small group of teachers Monday through Friday from 8:30am to 12:30pm, with specific tasks and supportive measures. The focus of this position is to enable teachers to have a specialized focus on curriculum preparation and updates, implementation, and assessment analysis for students’ needs.

Educational Requirements: High School Diploma Required;

• Bachelor’s Degree or Higher preferred;
• Awareness of Special Needs preferred;
• Colorado Licensure and/or Gifted Education Endorsement welcome
• Preference for Teacher Candidates, College “Education” Majors or Minors, Retired/Experienced Teachers or Educators

Reports To: The Classroom Teacher/s, Lead Teacher, and Academy Director.

Job Summary: The CASA is paired with one specific teacher and may be assigned to support another small group of teachers. The CASA is entrusted with excellent support of the classroom teacher so that this teacher can spend specific “cognitive load” time on curriculum updates, teaching implementation, and analysis of kids’ assessment results.

This requires that the CASA learns and implements the classroom teacher’s routine so that it can continue seamlessly when the teacher has to step out of the classroom; builds calm, positive, and effective relationships with students so that the Capturing Kids’ Hearts © strategies are consistently maintained; and works collaboratively with the classroom teacher in many ways as an executive assistant so that the teachers’ time can be spent on this year’s specific goals.

Job Description Specific Assistant Tasks:

Within these broad areas, and working collaboratively with the classroom teacher, the CASA may include a range of tasks along the following lines (as examples):

• Clerical work such as photocopying and preparing materials for teachers
• Data entry
• Grading student assessments that do not require subjective rulings (i.e. only those with a specific answer key for multiple choice, true/false, etc. No short answer, essays, or papers, which require a rubric.)
• Guiding students to read through the Social Contract on a daily basis as needed and identifying positive steps and goals
• Light custodial tasks
• Listening to students read
• Planning ahead in the schedule with the teacher so that copies, materials, spirit days, special events, communication reminders to kids and parents, etc. are accomplished in a timely, ahead-of-time manner.
• Practicing math facts with one or a small group of students
• Providing editing support to students who are proofreading their papers
• Scribing for students who need to dictate their thoughts to someone
• Small group tasked assigned by the “highly qualified” supervising teacher to support an individual or small group of students with behavior interventions, or academic supports
• Supervising Fitness & Fun outside time with students
• Supporting individual assessments either through implementation or running classroom procedures while classroom teacher implements
• Supporting student Academic Groups with points, tracking assignment completion, celebrating group goals, according to a rubric with the classroom teacher
• Supporting students with sensory room/space breaks
• Tracking missing assignment numbers and following up with individual students to help them notify their parents that they need to finish something that night; following up to celebrate the next day when it gets turned in.
• Weekly posting of students’ work on writing boards

Academic Excellence:

• Responsible for celebrating student achievement along with the classroom teacher and students in the classroom.
• Responsible for functioning as a calm and positive member of a great learning environment
• Responsible for enabling the classroom teacher to have such a smooth functioning room that s/he can focus on the cycle of adjusting curriculum, implementing it, and analyzing students’ results for further adjustment.
• Responsible for one day or class period per week, implementing the teachers’ procedures for student lesson and work time while the teacher is out of the classroom working on lesson and unit preparation.
• If a CASA has appropriate qualifications, s/he may qualify as an emergency substitute/guest teacher, to be paid as such, in the event that such is needed for that classroom. This would require more instructional decision-making on lesson plans than the routine role of the CASA and requires prior approval (including the day-of) from the Business Manager/HR (or Academy Director, in the absence that day of the Business Manager/HR).

Culture, Climate & Learning environment:

• Lunch: Responsible for monitoring an assigned classroom for lunch, with positive and calm techniques so that students focus on relaxing, eating, and conversing with each other over the “dinner table” of their desks and that is TECH-FREE.
• Fitness & Fun Time: Monitoring for students’ safety, social skills, and collaboration patterns, during outside free time (10:00-10:30).
• Safety: Responsible for maintaining the assigned areas and supporting secure, safe educational environment of classroom, hallways, playground, and related areas, as appropriate

• Classroom Management: Responsible for consistently, positively, addressing student violations of the Social Contract that happened outside of the Classroom Teachers’ attention, within channels to bring it to the classroom teachers’ attention, and to the office for safety or health violations that students must discuss with the Dean or Academy Director.
• De-Escalation: Responsible to use a consistently calm voice- including not speaking when needed- and to use appropriate de-escalation techniques with any students who become “antsy”, are having a bad day or moment, are dysregulated, etc.
• Confidentiality. Responsible for maintaining the privacy of students in the classroom and of the classroom teacher. Apart from any issues of safety, security, or health that need to be brought to the Academy Director, the CASA should consistently maintain confidential trust of the work and of the students’ needs in the classroom.
  • The CASA is expected to know and understand the FERPA rights of each student (Federal Education Rights and Privacy Act)
  • The CASA is expected to know and follow the Staff Social Contract, Handbook, and SOP (Standard Operating Protocols)
• Conflict Resolution. Responsible for maintaining respectful, kind, and professional working relationships with any assigned classroom teachers, as well as the rest of the AcademyACL staff.
  • This includes supporting individual work styles whether or not the CASA has a different personal approach; having effective, proactive, and kind conversations to address any concerns; and maintaining the goal of service to the teacher in order to more effectively meet the needs of the students after the disruptions of COVID-19.
  • This includes scheduling a time to meet with the Academy Director or Dean to ask for coaching on how to approach an issue, or to ask for facilitation of a solution-finding opportunity for any issues as they arise.
• Supportive Measures: This position requires that the CASA comes with a pleasant disposition each day, ready to support the classroom teacher and the students with the needs of the day.
  • It requires flexibility for unexpected situations, and excellent, proactive communication to keep the classroom teacher abreast of any interactions that may occur outside his/her awareness with students (such as when s/he is out of the classroom).
  • While the CASA will not be the first contact for parents, s/he must present selves to parents as a calm, positive, professional, and welcoming member of the AcademyACL team that is caring for each student.

Physical Requirements: This job requires a high activity level that includes movement throughout the building, active involvement with student activities including jogging, dancing and jumping, support for janitorial tasks as needed (including things such as cleaning tables, vacuuming, and light lifting of boxes with classroom materials), and personal contact with children who may be seated on the floor or at low tables. This job requires the staff member to sit on the floor at times with students. This job may require safety strategies for supporting students who are working on behavior plans, such as CPI/Crisis Prevention training and techniques designed to protect students and self from injury. This job also requires emotional stamina and personal stress management to maintain a positive approach with students, parents, families, and colleagues throughout the entire scheduled time, including students with very high energy and some with low impulse control.

Other Position Requirements:

Certain trainings and meetings will be required and therefore part of paid-time; other trainings will be ‘open welcome’ where the teacher’s aide is invited to attend if interested, but not required, and therefore not paid for that time. No extended travel will be required; local travel may be required to attend additional training.

At-Will Employment

All employment, in every position, at AcademyACL is under “At-Will Employment” status. Colorado follows the legal doctrine of "employment-at-will" which provides that in the absence of a contract to the contrary, neither an employer nor an employee is required to give notice or advance notice of termination or resignation. Additionally, neither an employer nor an employee is required to give a reason for the separation from employment. No AcademyACL employee shall be authorized by the AcademyACL Board of Directors to provide or convey any employment agreement that does not follow expectations for at-will employment.

Organization Information: AcademyACL is a K-8 Charter School in Colorado Springs School District 11 specializing in gifted & talented education. Please visit our website at www.academyacl.org for more information.

AcademyACL is an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status or any other characteristic protected by law.