Lead Educator- Upper Elementary

Livewell Leadership Academy; Pleasanton (CA); On-site; USD 90,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

Livewell Leadership Academy in Pleasanton, CA seeks a Lead Educator for a studio of twelve or fewer students in grades 3-8. You design experiences, lead daily literacy and project-based learning, and own the studio's outcomes.

This full-time in-studio role emphasizes independence, planning, and proactive family communication. Compensation includes an annual base of $90,000–$100,000 with potential bonus up to $20,000; benefits are private. Relocation not provided.

Qualifications

• Three or more years independently leading a full-day, multi-subject classroom or program for upper elementary and middle school age students, with direct responsibility for planning instruction and tracking student outcomes against defined objectives.
• Homeschool or self-directed instruction is valued, but on its own does not meet this bar unless paired with experience leading or managing a classroom or program within an outside structure, where you were accountable to someone other than yourself for outcomes.
• Experience leading or facilitating in a private, independent, alternative, or non-traditional learning environment preferred.
• Experience designing and executing structured academic programs including project-based, interdisciplinary, or inquiry-based learning, with evidence of scaffolding instruction toward specific objectives and identifying learning gaps before they become problems.

Skills

Leadership

Curriculum planning

Project-based learning

Studio management

Job description

Nothing about this role was adapted from a traditional classroom. It was built around a different belief: that children think better when they are doing real things, not memorizing what someone else decided mattered. That belief shapes everything here, on purpose, down to the smallest detail.

Livewell is a private learning community in Pleasanton serving children from PreK through 12th grade across two studio locations. This role leads our upper studio, a blended-age environment of twelve or fewer children in grades 3 through 8. We want the children here to run their own projects, garden, cook, learn survival skills, and do real math every day, because we teach them how to think rather than what to think. What we are building toward is children who can reason for themselves and lead without being told to. A guide leads each studio across the entire day and designs the experiences that carry a six week theme.

We are looking for one of those guides.

This is not a sit-behind-the-desk teaching role. It is active, present, and in the room every single day. You instruct, lead, mentor, and build alongside the children in your care.

ONE IMPORTANT NOTE BEFORE YOU CONTINUE

We pay attention to detail. We are looking for someone who does too:

THE ROLE

This is not a support position. It is not a co-teaching role. It is not a place to show up and follow someone else's plan.

The Lead Educator owns their studio completely, independently, and excellently. Every single day.

Structured academic programs including daily literacy and language arts instruction, Socratic seminars, interdisciplinary project-based learning, life skills, art, gardening, cooking, survival skills, entrepreneurship, and passion projects. Every six-week session is built around a unifying theme. You design the experiences that bring that theme to life across every day of programming.

You own this program fully. A part time enrichment guide supports the studio and reports to you. A Program Accountability Coach works alongside you throughout the year, invested in your growth and Livewell's standard. You are supported. You are not alone. But this is yours.

You are with up to only 12 children (all different ages and grade levels) all day long. You have 40% teaching time, 60% planning, follow-up, administrative and studio director duties.

Yes, this role wears many hats. That is not a warning. It is the point.

But here is what makes it possible: You are not managing a classroom of twenty six children. You are leading a studio of twelve or fewer children. You know every child's name, learning style, family context, and growth edge. You have the bandwidth to be excellent because the model was designed that way. This is not a regular classroom with lectured lessons and worksheets. You are responsible for making learning COME ALIVE. The children are excited to come along the journey you are creating for them... they are excited to learn.

You run the studio from open to close. You manage and implement systems: cleaning, supplies, admin, technology, groceries. You communicate with families proactively. You document with precision. You build strong relationships.

You plan entire sessions in advance, in daily detail, so the program runs with continuity and purpose whether or not anyone is looking over your shoulder. You don't write lessons the night or week before. Every thing is planned in advance- so your days are built on preparation...not design.

You create lessons on topics you may know nothing about, because this role demands curiosity, adaptability, and the willingness to learn alongside your students. You do not wait to be told what needs to happen. You see it, you handle it, and you own it.

WHAT YOU BUILD EVERY DAY

An environment where children feel challenged, seen, and genuinely growing, where projects are experiences rather than tasks, and where families trust you because your communication is proactive and your studio reflects the same standard every day. Families see it. Children absorb it. It must be excellent, always.

WHO YOU ARE

You are a driver. You love challenges. You hold yourself to a high standard in every area, how you show up, speak, and carry yourself in a room full of children and families. You are the standard children measure themselves against every day.

You have built things, programs, environments, experiences, that took real planning and follow-through that did not depend on anyone checking behind you. Organization is not something you were trained into. Disorder costs you something personally, so order is just how you keep things. You hold children to a high standard with warmth, because challenge and care are not opposites.

Alignment with a mission is not something you perform. You live it. You read this posting and felt something, because it described the standard you already hold yourself to.

VALUES ALIGNMENT

Livewell serves families who have chosen a private, values-aligned education because it reflects their convictions about how their children should be raised and taught. Our community is private and selective, built on the shared belief that parents are the primary authority in their child's life.

The right Lead Educator understands and respects that. Families at Livewell hold a wide range of personal beliefs, health philosophies, and convictions. The Lead Educator's role is to hold space for all of it with genuine respect and complete neutrality, never sharing personal opinions on politics, religion, health choices, or ideology with children or families.

If you lead with curiosity, respect parental authority, and can serve a diverse community of conviction-driven families without judgment, we want to hear from you. If that kind of neutrality feels limiting rather than liberating, this is not the right opportunity.

WHAT THIS ROLE IS NOT

If you have taught before, most of what you know will be of great value, but it will not map cleanly here. The structure, the rhythm, the way we define success for a child, none of it will look like what you are used to. Most people underestimate this until they are already inside it.

This does not run on a traditional school calendar. There is no unpaid summer off. Livewell operates year round, in sessions, with breaks and rest built directly into the calendar. There is a winter break, a spring break, and rest days between sessions. In Year One, that adds up to 28 scheduled paid days off, plus 5 unscheduled paid days off to use as you need them.

This role also costs differently than teaching usually has. The grading that eats your evenings, the weekend prep nobody accounts for, the supplies you end up buying yourself, none of that applies here. Your prep happens inside your paid day. Materials and resources are provided, not pulled from your own pocket. When you leave the studio, the day is closed. Nothing trails you home.

The compensation is real, and so is the care behind it, because a good guide is not someone you wear down and replace. That is not how we are built.

THE PRACTICAL DETAILS

Location: Pleasanton, California. Studio location provided after application process is complete.

Schedule: Monday through Friday. 8am to 5pm. Full time. In studio. Prep time is compensated. Work stays at work.

Calendar: Year-round with structured rest days, paid planning days, and specific professional development days built into the program calendar throughout the year.

Compensation: Annual $90,000-$100,000 base with performance-based bonus potential of up to $20,000 annually, evaluated across three review periods throughout the year.

Time Off: Five paid personal wellness days annually plus approx 28 scheduled rest days in Year One. Increases with time. Paid planning days built into the program calendar.

Benefits: Health benefits are not provided.

This is a Contractor Member invitation within a private ministry community, not a statutory employment offer. Candidates who advance in the process will receive full details about the nature of this relationship before any commitment is made.

Relocation support is not provided. Please confirm that you are local to the Pleasanton area.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Three or more years independently leading a full-day, multi-subject classroom or program for upper elementary and middle school age students, with direct responsibility for planning instruction and tracking student outcomes against defined objectives. This is a leadership role, not an assisting, tutoring, or single-subject role.
• Homeschool or self-directed instruction is valued, but on its own does not meet this bar unless paired with experience leading or managing a classroom or program within an outside structure, where you were accountable to someone other than yourself for outcomes.
• Experience leading or facilitating in a private, independent, alternative, or non-traditional learning environment preferred.
• Experience designing and executing structured academic programs including project-based, interdisciplinary, or inquiry-based learning, with evidence of scaffolding instruction toward specific objectives and identifying learning gaps before they become problems.