Preschool Lead Teacher

Child-Parent Centers; Tucson (AZ); On-site; USD 44,000 - 46,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Paid leave and holidays

Health insurance options

Retirement plan

Job summary

Child-Parent Centers seeks a Lead Teacher for the Santa Rosa Child Development Center in Tucson, AZ. This full-time position runs Monday–Friday, 7:30am–4:30pm year-round with a bi-weekly salary of $1,698.40–$1,782.40.

The ideal candidate will deliver Languages of Learning, foster family engagement, and maintain a safe, nurturing classroom. Requires an associate degree in early childhood education or related field, one year of preschool experience, and Office 365 proficiency.

Qualifications

• Must be 18 years old.
• Associate degree in ECE or related field with at least 18 credits in ECE/child development.
• One year of documented preschool-age classroom experience.
• Proficiency using Office 365 (Outlook, Teams, OneDrive, Word, Excel, PowerPoint).
• Valid AZ driver’s license and clean driving record.
• Must read, write, and speak English.

Responsibilities

• Lead the classroom and implement Languages of Learning curriculum for 6.75 hours per day, four days per week.
• Conduct two parent conferences and two home visits during the program year.
• Plan learning experiences considering each child’s temperament, culture, language, and family collaboration.
• Maintain a healthy, safe classroom environment and supervise children at all times.
• Support families in extending learning at home and engage in parent‑teacher conferences.

Skills

Leadership

Teamwork

Communication

Education

Associate degree in ECE or related field

Bachelor’s or master’s in ECE or related field

Tools

Office 365

Job description

Position Overview

Lead Teacher – Santa Rosa Child Development Center, 1065 South 10th Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85701. 40 hours/week, Monday‑Friday, 7:30am‑4:30pm, year‑round. Salary bi‑weekly $1698.40–$1,782.40.

Job Summary

Child-Parent Centers (CPC) seeks professionals who share our values and principles for building trusting relationships with children, families, and colleagues. Successful candidates welcome individual differences, respect cultural and linguistic backgrounds, and are sensitive to current circumstances. Candidates display a commitment to teamwork, open communication, and are eager to work in a fast‑paced, high‑quality preschool environment.

Benefits

• Paid Leave: 26 paid holidays; 5 days paid vacation; 10 days paid vacation each year thereafter; 8 days paid personal leave first year, 8 days each year thereafter; up to 5 days paid sick leave each year.
• Insurance benefits: dental; Flexible Spending Accounts; Health Reimbursement Arrangements; Health Savings Accounts; PPO medical (3 plans); Vision; Supplemental Life coverage for self, spouse, and child ($25,000 basic life and accidental death and disability provided by employer).
• Retirement Plan: Agency contribution after years of services and hours eligibility; employee 401(k) deferral after eligibility is met.

Minimum Qualifications

• Must be 18 years of age.
• Associate degree from a recognized institution in early childhood education or related field, plus minimum 18 credits in early childhood education or child development coursework.
• One (1) year documented work experience with classroom‑based preschool‑aged children.
• Proficiency using Office 365 (Outlook, Teams, OneDrive, Word, Excel, PowerPoint).
• Valid Arizona driver’s license and excellent driving record.
• Current AZ Department of Public Safety Level One Fingerprint Clearance Card or will obtain prior to first day of work.
• Must read, write, and speak English.

Other Requirements (post‑hire)

• Proof of immunizations: MMR, Tdap, and clear Tuberculosis Self‑Assessment.
• Pass company‑paid physical exam prior to starting work.
• Pass criminal background check.
• Proof of right to work in the USA for I‑9.
• Current certification in First Aid/CPR for infants and children.
• Current Food Handler’s Certificate issued by Arizona Department of Health Services.

Competencies

• Leadership
• Supervision
• Coaching
• Accountability and Dependability
• Safety Focus
• Listening
• Creative and Innovative Thinking
• Building Relationships
• Teamwork
• Technology
• Self‑Management
• Adaptability and Flexibility
• Development and Continual Learning

Desired Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in early childhood education or closely related field.
• Two (2) years documented experience as a supervisor.
• Four (4) years’ experience working in a preschool center‑based classroom.
• Six (6) years’ work or volunteer experience with diverse socioeconomic or ethnic backgrounds or with Head Start.

Work Environment

• Indoor classroom – temperature controlled.
• Outdoor playground – exposure to hot and cold.
• Possible exposure to communicable illness, blood‑borne pathogens.
• Exposure to cleaning and sanitizing chemicals.

Physical Requirements

• Ability to see or hear and respond quickly to unsafe situations.
• Stooping, bending, reaching.
• Moving quickly around objects (run, jump, jog). Lift children (3-5 year old children) 19–50 lbs.
• Occasionally pick up and drop off supplies; push and pull furniture 20–50 lbs; lift ±50 lbs.

Duties and Responsibilities

Direct Services

• Implement the Languages of Learning curriculum a minimum of 6.75 hours per day, four days per week.
• Ensure and support the completion of at least two parent conferences and two home visits during the program year.
• Set learning goals and plan learning experiences by integrating knowledge of each child’s temperament, interests, gender, culture, language, learning approaches, understanding, misconceptions, and abilities and working collaboratively with families and specialists.
• Promote children’s active exploration, creativity, and development in all domains by designing indoor and outdoor environments based on knowledge of how children develop and learn, and their individual abilities.
• Build children’s pride in their cultures, families, and communities by ensuring that classroom learning centers and materials reflect children’s cultures and communities.
• Ensure that children are intellectually challenged by selecting, organizing, and using high‑quality materials and equipment and adapting the environment.
• Use information about children obtained through home visits, parent‑teacher conferences, and other parent‑staff interactions by incorporating this data into daily routines and interactions with children.
• Maintain a healthy physical environment by following health and safety procedures.
• Build children’s awareness of and ability to follow basic health and safety rules by providing opportunities for health and safety learning and supervising children at all times.
• Develop and implement the child supervision system, child count system, and active supervision implementation plan to ensure all children are supervised at all times.
• Support parents in extending children’s learning at home by providing newsletters, take‑home activities, home visits, and parent‑teacher conferences.
• Help children who are learning English by providing appropriate supports.
• Enhance children’s knowledge and language and literacy development by regularly reading books with children individually, in small groups, and in various settings.
• Encourage children’s emergent writing skills, their awareness of print, and the varied purposes for writing by providing and using a range of writing materials and environmental print.
• Support children’s interest in and awareness of numbers, counting, and problem solving by initiating counting games and activities and providing materials that link number concepts.
• Promote children’s understanding of size, shape, color, and directionality by engaging them in small and large‑motor activities that require sorting, matching, identifying patterns, grouping objects, and measuring.
• Build children’s ability to compare and talk about similarities and differences between objects by providing experiences with sorting, matching, patterns, grouping, and measurement.
• Assist children in understanding math and science concepts by embedding math and science experiences into everyday routines, music, movement, literacy, art, and play.
• Help children expand their knowledge of their bodies and the world around them by planning and implementing in‑depth exploration of topics in physical, life, and earth sciences.
• Encourage children’s use of scientific inquiry by offering experiences and opportunities to engage in questioning, predicting, investigating, and collecting and analyzing data.
• Expand children’s knowledge of nature, living things, and materials and processes by providing objects, tools, and experiences that enable them to observe and explore nature and scientific concepts.
• Facilitate children’s ability to listen to, interact with, and appreciate different types of music by providing individual and group experiences with singing, finger plays, creative movement, and musical instruments.
• Develop children’s imagination and creativity by providing child‑directed and teacher‑guided opportunities for them to express their thoughts, ideas, experiences and feelings through various media.
• Help children learn about themselves and others by designing and implementing meaningful experiences to explore similarities and differences between people.
• Align goals and approaches to support children’s progress by engaging with program staff, specialists, families, and staff in other learning settings who also serve the child.
• Offer families opportunities to increase their child observation skills by providing written and verbal information and encouraging participation in classroom and family education activities.
• Engage families as full partners in their own and their children’s development and learning by helping families develop and reach realistic and achievable long‑ and short‑term goals, engaging them in assessing their needs and strengths, and supporting them in taking actions to reach their goals.
• Strengthen parent‑child relationships by helping families recognize the satisfaction and value of engaging with their children and supporting their learning through daily, routine experiences in the home and community.
• Build families’ and children’s self‑esteem by drawing on their cultural strengths to influence child‑rearing skills and foster positive family interactions.
• Support families in addressing challenges such as mental illness, substance abuse, disabilities, and family violence by discussing issues and/or linking them to community resources.
• Individualize approaches to working with families by drawing on a sound understanding of family development issues and the unique needs of each family.

Supervision

• Supervise assigned staff by providing direction, input, and feedback using tools and resources provided in the agency’s performance planning, supervision and evaluation system.
• Provide a minimum of one supported supervision meeting per month to assigned staff.
• Use reflective practice supervision and coaching strategies with consistency and equity to create a learning environment that supports development while maintaining accountability for performance.
• Support and monitor assigned staff in professional achievement or personal growth through the professional development system.
• Identify self‑growth, development goals, and strategies for achievement with support and input from supervisor.
• Commit and participate in consistent and planned meetings with supervisor to further professional growth by seeking feedback, reflecting on and assessing own practice, and taking advantage of opportunities to improve skills and knowledge.

Record Keeping, Monitoring and Reporting

• Monitor child observation, screening, and assessment data to plan individualized experiences and small and large group activities.
• Provide accurate and timely data into child information systems (Smart Teach and/or ChildPlus) to support the agency’s program reports to local, state, and federal officials and funders.
• Monitor children’s progress per the goals developed by self and other staff and specialists, including those in IEPs, by observing and documenting children’s play, conversations, routines/schedules, and work samples and through conversations with families.
• Participate and support the completion of at least two parent conferences and two home visits during the program year to enhance teacher and parent understanding of children’s educational and developmental progress.
• Meet federal, state, and program documentation requirements by maintaining accurate, objective, complete, timely, and well‑organized child and family records.
• Responsible for reporting (including self‑reporting) any unsupervised child incidents to the supervisor and to those with a need to know.

Leadership, Management, and Teamwork

• Participate in center staff meetings and the planning of center activities, identifying emerging needs and initiating requests for additional assistance.
• Participate in transdisciplinary team within the agency to meet family needs and build the parent/child/teaching staff relationship.
• Identify children who may need referrals by reviewing child observation, screening, and assessment data in collaboration with the classroom team, specialists, and families.
• Broaden ability to accurately assess children’s development by seeking consultation to supplement own observation and planning and to determine when referral is needed.
• Lead planning transitions to or from home to toddler or preschool classrooms and/or other early education and care settings by engaging families, others in the program, and members of the community in planning.
• In the absence of the site supervisor, may act as the site supervisor and guide activities of the center team.
• Secure, train, and supervise classroom volunteers.
• Recruit and enroll eligible families.
• On a rotating basis with other teaching staff, act as bus monitor for applicable bus runs.

Responsibilities for All Child‑Parent Centers, Inc.

• Understand and model the agency’s vision, mission, and philosophy within the agency and the community.
• Demonstrate approachability, ownership, accountability, and lifelong learning.
• Use the agency’s communication and problem‑solving approach.
• Seek perspective of others.
• Identify emerging issues and contribute new knowledge.
• Work to de‑escalate when emotions and stakes are high.
• Maintain professional behavior and relationships with internal and external stakeholders.
• Use agency systems and technologies to accomplish work.
• Maintain a high level of attendance to support ongoing service delivery.
• Recognize children’s safety as the first responsibility of all staff and act swiftly to ensure no child is unsupervised.
• Implement agency policies and procedures for safeguarding confidential or sensitive information about employees and/or program participants and restrict access to documents.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Child‑Parent Centers, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer.