Dean of Engagement

Cleveland Metropolitan School District; United States; On-site; USD 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

The Dean of Engagement at Cleveland Metropolitan School District leads school culture initiatives, supports school leaders and staff, and promotes a warm, achievement-oriented environment designed to foster student growth and strong relationships with families.

The role emphasizes attendance, behavior, and academic success through collaborative coaching, partnerships with teachers, and targeted interventions. Evening and weekend family events are expected as part of regular duties.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree preferred; urban education experience valued.
• Minimum three years teaching or urban youth program experience.
• Experience with urban schools, families, and partners.
• Proven accountability for student progress against standards.
• Excellent communication with students and parents.
• High standards for student achievement and dedication.
• Ability to manage details, deadlines, and program evaluation.
• Collaborative team player with adaptability.
• Familiarity with project-based learning or 21st-century skills.

Responsibilities

• Focusing on school culture and values to transform schools into active learning centers.
• Plan and facilitate staff meetings/trainings.
• Supports collaborative student and teacher behaviors and actions as necessary.
• Ensure that students and staff understand and internalize the school’s mission and goals.
• Organize and lead school-wide culture-building activities.
• Passionate belief in the capacity of all children to learn and succeed with urgency.
• Collaborates with teachers to support student engagement in the classroom.
• Work with staff to establish and reinforce expectations/routines and test interventions.

Skills

Communication

Behavior management

Collaboration

Resilience

Data-driven

Education

Bachelor's degree

Job description

ABOUT CLEVELAND METROPOLITAN SCHOOL DISTRICT

The Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD) is Ohio's third-largest public school system, serving more than 35,000 students. CMSD strives to ensure that every child receives a high-quality education, regardless of the provider. To that end, CMSD lets families choose which District schools their children attend, with options that include STEM, the arts, single-gender education, International Baccalaureate, Montessori, and early college. Our schools have autonomy over human and financial resources in exchange for accountability for performance. The principal has primary responsibility and accountability for establishing their school as a high-quality, high-expectation academic center focusing on personalized instruction, professional support for teachers, and school-wide practices that lead to measurable results. CMSD ensures that students have access to technology and training to prepare them for the future. The District provides a free laptop or tablet for every student and connects every family that needs internet access. Graduating seniors leave commencement with not only a diploma but also a laptop. In our pursuit of a more fair, just, and good system of education, we strive to ensure that all of our learners, both scholars and educators, to be challenged with academically and intellectually complex tasks that are worthy of their efforts and provide them opportunities to demonstrate their best work.

BUILDING BRIGHTER FUTURES

The Cleveland Board of Education adopted the Building Brighter Futures (BBF) initiative on December 9, 2025. Building Brighter Futures is a strategic and data-driven plan shaped by more than a year of community engagement, information analysis, and thoughtful deliberation. The goal of this plan is to strengthen enrollment and ensure scholars attend a newer school building that offers more educational opportunities, including algebra in the eighth grade, more sports and extracurricular activities, and college credits and college and career pathways in high school. BBF is ensuring academic excellence so every CMSD scholar can thrive.

THE OPPORTUNITY

The Dean of Engagement leads and supports school-wide efforts to build and maintain a warm, positive, achievement-oriented school culture. In addition to students, the Dean of Engagement works closely with school leaders, staff members, students and parents to establish a pleasant and supportive school environment designed to support student growth. The individual helps teachers develop strong, mutually respectful relationships with students and families. The Dean of Engagement promotes student attendance, behavior and academic success through incentives and other celebrations. School leaders may ask the individual to focus on a particular group of students or a portfolio of staff members.

Responsibilities

• Focusing on school culture and values The commitment to play a key team role to transform schools into active learning centers, with a focus on student engagement, dramatic academic progress, and results
• Plan and facilitate staff meetings/trainings, including sessions focused on classroom management, parent involvement and school culture
• Supports strong, collaborative student and teacher behaviors and actions as necessary
• Ensure that students and staff understand and internalize the school’s mission and goals
• Organize and lead school-wide culture-building activities
• Passionate belief in the capacity of all children to learn and succeed and a sense of urgency about making that real for CMSD students
• Support the instructional and intervention coaching as it relates to SEL
• Instructional leadership, including knowledge of concrete methods for successfully raising student achievement as it relates to social emotional learning
• Collaborates with teachers who need support with student engagement in the classroom
• Collaborates with staff members to successfully establish and reinforce expectations/routines
• Lead the relentless pursuit of student achievement by improving culture, climate, relationships and atmosphere as it relates to social emotional learning.
• Partner with teachers to investigate and test interventions for struggling students (ex. individual goal-setting meetings, daily or weekly check-ins, daily or weekly parent phone calls/meetings, special incentive systems, etc.)
• Work closely with the PCIA as a thought partner to review the data of students who are in the Planning Center and support to transition them back to class effectively
• Organizing parent engagement activities
• Work effectively with students and families, and outside partners
• Support teachers to ensure that they make regular contact with parents
• Attend all school family events including weeknights and weekends as part of the regular job responsibilities

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree - preferred
• At least three years of teaching experience or other work in an environment with urban youth
• Experience working effectively with urban schools, students and families, and outside partners
• Personal sense of accountability around student academic progress, as measured by national and state benchmarks
• Strong behavior management and discipline skills
• Excellent communication skills, especially with students and parents
• Extremely high standards for student achievement
• Relentless dedication to doing “whatever it takes”
• Resilience and the ability to manage the details, deadlines and rigorous project evaluation required to meet Transformational goals
• Collaborative, team player
• Experience with project-based learning, or other 21st century skills-based academic programs??
• Firm grasp of state and district learning standards
• Education

EEO Statement

We believe that equity and inclusion at CMSD is an essential call to action, a catalyst to ensure value and appreciation among all our employees, so we may be fair and welcoming now and in the future. CMSD provides equal opportunities for employment, retention and advancement of all personnel by administering all terms and conditions of employment regardless of race, color, ethnicity, ancestry, national origin, sex, disability or genetic information, age, citizenship status, military status, sexual orientation or expression, socio-economic status, title, other dimensions of identity, or any other characteristic protected by law. The District’s Policy Prohibiting Discrimination, Discriminatory Harassment, and Sexual Harassment and the District’s Title IX grievance procedures, including information on how to report or file a complaint of discrimination, how to report or file a formal complaint of sexual harassment, and how the District will respond, may be accessed on the District’s Civil Rights Notices webpage, available at ClevelandMetroSchools.org/domain/105. The District’s Title IX Coordinator / Director of Equal Employment Opportunity may be reached at: 1111 Superior Avenue East, Suite 1800 Cleveland, Ohio 44114 (216)-838-0070 [e-mail] CMSD is committed to the recruitment and retention of top-notch employees with the determination and drive to create a positive and effective 21st century learning environment for our students. Our departmental goal is to provide personalized support and service to each employee, school, and department. We also strive to build a foundation of employee excellence through rigorous performance standards, staff development and a diverse and dedicated work force that supports the mission and goals of the district.