Center Director

Catherine Hershey Schools for Early Learning; Lancaster (Lancaster County); On-site; USD 104,000 - 127,000; Full time

Job summary

Catherine Hershey Schools for Early Learning seeks a Center Director to lead a state-of-the-art Early Childhood Education Center in Lancaster County, serving children from under resourced backgrounds. The role spans operations, program delivery, and family support, with a strong focus on value-driven leadership and high standards.

Responsibilities include supervising departments, ensuring inclusive culture, recruiting and developing staff, and maintaining health and safety compliance with state

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Early Childhood Education or related field; Master's preferred.
• 8 years of experience as an ECE teacher and leader.
• Experience overseeing multiple operations/departments and leading teams.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills; ability to influence and educate large teams.

Responsibilities

• Supervise center departments to deliver high-quality, child-centered education.
• Establish inclusive center culture through value-inspired leadership.
• Observe, resolve gaps and conflicts in day-to-day operations.
• Recruit, hire, train, and retain staff; support budget and reporting needs.
• Lead child recruitment, acceptance, and retention with cross-team collaboration.
• Ensure health, safety, and compliance with DHS/OCDEL and NAEYC standards.

Skills

Leadership

Communication

Spanish language

Interpersonal skills

Education

Bachelor's degree in Early Childhood Education

Master's degree preferred

Tools

MS Office Suite

Job description

The CHS Center Director is passionate about making a positive impact on the lives of children ages six weeks to 5 years old from under resourced and overburdened backgrounds by providing high-quality Early Childhood Education and care. This individual oversees operations of a state-of-the-art Early Childhood Education Center.

Responsibilities of the CHS Center Director include providing leadership and guidance to a team in line with CHS policies, guidelines, and curriculum. They are accountable for ensuring the delivery of a top-tier early childhood and family support program that delivers results for children and families. The Center Director manages the day-to-day operations, implementation, and administration of the center, leading scholastic, family success, health services, and operations teams to deliver CHS mission, vision and values.

The Center Director reports to the CHS Central Office's Senior Director of Programs. They are expected to exemplify leadership for administrators, teachers, children, and families, setting a national standard for quality Early Childhood Education and guiding staff towards achieving this standard. The salary range for this position is $104,250 to $126,630 per year, based on expertise.

Responsibilities:

• Supervising and guiding the center departments to deliver high quality, child-centered education tochildren. Department staff include Teachers, Family Success, Health & Safety, Facilities, and additional operations support roles
• Establishing an inclusive, welcoming environment and Center culture through value-inspired leadership for all employees
• Observing and resolving gaps, inefficiencies, and conflicts in the day-to-day operation
• Mediating issues with families and employees
• Providing proper resources for children and employees
• Collaboratively spearheading staff recruitment, hiring, training, benefit, and retention efforts.
• Leading child recruitment, acceptance, and retention efforts alongside the Family Success and Central Office teams
• Implementing policies and procedures to safeguard health and safety of families and employees in compliance with the state requirements (DHS/OCDEL) and NAEYC standards
• Establishing and reinforcing rules of behavior and compliance with procedures
• Ensuring adherence to all CHS policies, procedures, and governance standards
• Creating an effective system of reporting and progress tracking
• Maintaining clear and transparent communications with children, parents, and caregivers and formulating public communications to this audience on major events and issues
• Obtaining necessary approvals, licenses, and accreditations for the Center's operations alongside the Operations Director
• Managing the Center's local community outreach and relationships alongside the Communications Director and Enrollment Director
• Developing and fostering relationships with on-site partners
• Working closely with the Assistant Director to ensure consistent high-quality programming and on track operations
• Supporting the development of Center budget and ensuring that funding, contract, and reporting requirements are met fully
• Building and encouraging a positive and collaborative working environment, showing appreciation and unity of all employee contributions
• Collaborating with CHS Central Office to implement strategic plans and achieve comprehensive outcomes and established implementation goals

Qualification

• Bachelor's Degree or equivalent in Early Childhood Education, Family Relations/Child development, or related field. Master's Degree preferred
• 8 years of experience as an ECE teacher and leader
• Fluency in Spanish preferred
• Significant experience overseeing several operations/departments and workstreams, including leading teams with a successful record of spearheading initiatives
• Experience in creating, analyzing, and presenting outcome-related reporting to leadership
• Exceptional interpersonal skills including the ability to influence, lead, and educate large teams
• Demonstrated understanding of and ability to effectively work with low-income famili
• Ability to proactively identify problems and implement solutions
• Willingness to be held accountable and receive feedback
• Responsible, enthusiastic, and cares about working in a mission-focuses organization
• Comfortability with technology including MS Office Suite (Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint) and/or willingness to learn
• Commitment to the mission and values of CHS and MHS and demonstrated high degree of integrity as all
• CHS and MHS staff are considered to be role models for children
• US work authorization and successful completion of pre-employment background checks and clearances