Innovative Schools Fellow

About the Opportunity Trust

Our Big Why

The world’s economy and job markets are changing, and St. Louis has to get in the race. Our community is filled with the people, knowledge, and resources to actualize endless possibilities for all children to thrive.  Our education system is becoming increasingly disconnected from our communities and children. Existing approaches to solving regional problems are not yielding the results we need.

It’s time to chart a new path forward.

The Opportunity Trust is putting plans into action by bringing new resources, insights, and support to individuals and organizations that are already effecting change, launching new initiatives when needed, and fostering collaboration across the region toward shared goals.

Opportunity Trust’s mission is to ensure every child in St. Louis is prepared to lead a life of choice and dignity as an adult by supporting organizations and advancing initiatives that seek measurable progress toward educational equity.

Opportunity Trust envisions a St. Louis where every single person is able to find success in a rapidly changing world and a region that draws people from all backgrounds because of its renewed sense of possibility, growing economic opportunity, and safe, just and joyful communities.

Fast Facts

• Established: 2019
• Employees: 10+
• Annual Budget: $12mm

Why Opportunity Trust

We have a school system built for 100,000 children that now serves just over 30,000.  We have too many schools and yet too few quality options.  Just 10% of children in St. Louis currently attend a school that is preparing them to thrive in the 21st century. Our children deserve schools that will set them up for success and our community needs a workforce for our changing economy.  Research is clear that designing new schools alongside a community coalition from the ground up is the most likely path to increase high quality and innovative school options. 

About the Position

Your Job

As a fellow in the Innovative Schools Fellowship you will:

• Build partnerships and alliances with families, community leaders, and organizations in St. Louis committed to transformational outcomes for children.
• Mobilize this coalition to advocate for expanded high quality public school options. 
• Co-Design an innovative school model that ensures that children are set up for success alongside a community coalition and a cabinet of national experts in various aspects of teaching, learning, and design.
• Launch the school by securing authorization for opening a new public school, which may include charter sponsorship.
• Recruit and onboard families and teammates aligned to the vision for the new school(s)
• Implement the necessary systems and structures in place to bring the vision of excellence and equity developed in the design process to life in a school on a daily basis.

Your Team

• You will ultimately be accountable to yourself in meeting the benchmarks to launch this school in partnership with a community coalition. Multiple stakeholders will support you as accountability partners, including The Opportunity Trust team, national partners, former and current ISF fellows, and, eventually your board of directors.

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Your Life

• Location: St. Louis
• Start date: Summer 2023
• Salary range: $90k-$125k

Your Future Legacy

• Hundreds of graduates who are living lives with greater choice and opportunity and committed to building a more just and equitable St. Louis
• You built and sustained a world-class school or network that became a proof of possibility, helping to combat implicit and explicit racism and bias through its very existence. 
• You set and achieved a standard of academic excellence that would make any parent proud to send their child to your school and changed the consciousness of our community.
• You attracted and developed a team that is representative of students served from the Board of Directors to junior staff who are equipped to grow and sustain the impact.

About You

While we are actively seeking diverse profiles of leadership, successful applicants must demonstrate:

• An unwavering bar for excellence and a track record of results

You are obsessed with exceeding the bar for rigorous and relevant learning and can show results achieved. School leadership experience is preferred.

• Commitment to equity

You regularly reflect on identity and power and are poised to co-create schools representing a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

• Curiosity and self-direction

You are humble and continually seek out broad inspiration. You drive development and are prepared to take the reins of your EIR journey. You effectively manage your time and execute tasks to completion.

• Strong people leadership

You have experience leading diverse, thriving teams and supporting the growth and development of others.

• Effective communication

You have the ability to connect with diverse audiences and convey compelling messages through verbal and written communication.

• A promising vision for a new school

While this will evolve through the program, you have an initial school vision that speaks to an authentic community need and represents an engaging, rigorous, relevant learning environment for students.

Believing that the wide array of perspectives resulting from diversity and inclusion allows all organizations to be more effective, we are deeply committed to promoting diversity and inclusion in philanthropy and the nonprofit sector. We know that a broad, diverse coalition of people is necessary to effect systematic change in St. Louis. We are dedicated to greater diversity and inclusion within our own organization and provide equal opportunity to people of all races, ethnicities, religions, genders, sexual orientations, gender identifications, abilities, incomes, marital statuses, ages, geographic locations, philosophies, and veteran statuses in all levels of staff and governance.

Priority Deadline: December 15, 2023

Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis after December 16, 2023 until January 19, 2024.