POSITION: Dean of Students

GRADE LEVEL:Hiring for both middle school and high school positions

LOCATION: Hiring at multiple locations. You can view the current openings at this link.

SALARY: $77,500-$92,500 based on up to 10 years of aligned experience. We also offer a relocation stipend for anyone joining us from 75 miles or more from Denver!

STATUS: Full time year round, benefits eligible, exempt, in-person position (Denver, CO)

START: Fall 2026. You can view the current School Year Calendar here.

KEY ROLES & RESPONSIBILITIES

The Dean of Students is the School Culture Leader on the campus. They coach and support students and staff members to ensure each member of the community is living our core values and committing to a strong community.

Leadership

• DSST Mission Driven: Demonstrate a sense of urgency about achievement for ALL students and preparing every student for four-year college.
• Pursue solutions with tenacity that maximize student achievement. Willing to do whatever it takes to get the work done right.
• Model professional maturity, maintain emotional constancy in stressful situations, bring out the best in others, seek solutions, and provide positive motivation.
• Mentor and coach staff members to drive towards student academic and personal growth
• Lead through adults to ensure school goals and network priorities are accomplished.

Culture

• Reinforce school culture centered on core values that deeply care for each student and staff member and hold each student and staff member to the highest level of accountability.
• Manage grade level leaders and their teams to support gradual release between grade levels.
• Collaborate with school staff to maximize the ability of the school to support students' academic and socio-emotional development.
• Provide leadership to all staff and students in establishing a positive, structured, achievement-oriented, and fun school culture.
• Support a professional learning community in which teachers regularly collaborate to reflect on and refine curriculum and instruction at the school using achievement data, student work, and their own observations/experiences.
• Relate effectively with students and engage them in relationships, in one-on-one, small group and large group settings.
• Communicate with families with respect to student academic performance, student conduct, school programs, and school performance.
• Partner with and develop all staff to ensure strong culture both in school-wide systems and in each classroom.
• Manage and track progress on individualized behavior plans for students to ensure we are meeting the needs of all students in the community.
• Collaborate with both the special education and mental health teams.

Family and Community Engagement

• Maintain communication and relations with the families of the school, ensuring they are kept involved with and held accountable for their children's academic and behavioral performance
• Communicate regularly with families regarding student performance and academic achievement
• Respond to family concerns promptly and effectively

Systems

• Implement and maintain systems that "sweat the small stuff," maximize the programmatic goals of the school, and align to DSST systems.
• Develop solutions to complex problems that involve multiple stakeholders and steps.
• Manage with fiscal responsibility by developing a disciplined planning process that identifies the school's highest priorities.
• Collect data (formally and informally) around school culture and the systems that support it in order to improve the systems and overall school culture.
• Manage the Morning Meeting System and other School-Wide Culture Celebrations
• Manage intervention systems for students

Additional Duties:

• Build relationships with teachers and other members of the administration team in order to positively impact school culture and results.
• Recruit and hire school faculty
• Serve as a recruiter for new students; actively engage prospective families in an effort to draw more students to choose your school; be willing to take on additional tasks to support recruitment, as needed.
• Work to ensure DSST 8th graders transition to a DSST high school.
• Work with DSST Home Office to create network-wide standards, curriculum, and assessment documents.
• Work with DSST Home Office to support network-wide new teacher professional development; create school-specific new and returning teacher professional development
• Participate in the Culture Leadership Development Series
• If applicable, teach course(s) within the school
• If applicable, act as a student advisor for a group of students
• Position may encompass instructional coaching, culture leadership and support

IDEAL QUALIFICATIONS

• Teaching experience
• At least 3 years working with students in 6-12 grade schools and classrooms
• Proven commitment to and experience with serving students of color, students with disabilities, and/or multilingual students

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor's Degree OR enrollment in a DSST approved degree program working towards completion of a Bachelor's degree. Please reach out to us if you have questions around this requirement
• An unwavering belief that all students can succeed in high school, reach their most ambitious post-secondary goals, and lead exemplary lives
• Desire to personally professionally grow in their practice of becoming an anti-racist educator
• Self-awareness, a regular practice of reflection, and a desire to continuously improve

Physical Demands

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to talk and hear. This position is active and may require standing, walking, bending, kneeling, stooping, and crouching throughout the day. The employee must lift and/or move items up to 30 pounds. The employee must have sufficient hand, arm, and finger dexterity to operate a computer keyboard and other office equipment. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and ability to adjust focus.