Chief of Schools

 

Position: Chief of Schools

Location: Colorado, with proximity to Colorado Schools Fund’s Denver office  

Reports to: Chief Executive Officer

Start: Spring or summer 2027, with flexibility to begin earlier for the right candidate

 

Overview

Colorado Schools Fund launched in Spring 2024 to support new, outstanding public charter schools and other innovative public school models that meet the needs of historically underserved students and aspirations of families across Colorado. 

Colorado Schools Fund’s driving belief is that every child deserves access to a public PK-12 education in schools that hold high expectations for them and set them up for long-term success. 

We are relentlessly focused on three things:

1. Engaging with communities: We engage deeply with communities to understand where there is a need for great new public options.
2. Finding great leaders: We seek out leaders who are developing plans to start or expand excellent public charter schools and other innovative public models.
3. Supporting great leaders: We partner with those leaders to provide funding and guidance towards accelerating outcomes, especially for students furthest from opportunity.

The Chief of Schools is a new and foundational leadership role, reporting to the Chief Executive Officer. Colorado Schools Fund has built strong investment, finance, and operational infrastructure. This role brings the complementary leadership we need next:  A senior leader to build and lead the academic and school-quality side of our work. 

The Chief of Schools will build and lead Colorado Schools Fund’s academic and leadership strategy across the portfolio, set clear standards for school quality, and develop the coaching strategy that helps high-potential schools achieve top-tier performance. This leader will also have the opportunity to craft Colorado Schools Fund’s school-facing approach. The ideal candidate will bring the credibility of having delivered for students, plus the expertise to allocate resources and support with an investor’s eye to drive academic gains. 

The majority of schools Colorado Schools Fund supports are public charter schools, and thus this role will primarily be focused on helping those schools reach and hold top-tier academic performance. We have supported 15 new or expanding public schools to date across a range of school models – from language immersion to outdoor learning to project-based to career pathways high schools – with a goal of supporting 25 schools by 2028. We are a lean and senior team where leaders move fluidly between high-level strategy and hands-on execution.

 

Core Responsibilities

ACADEMIC AND LEADERSHIP STRATEGY ACROSS THE PORTFOLIO

Portfolio Ownership and Outcomes

• Build and lead Colorado Schools Fund’s academic and leadership strategy across the portfolio:  Further define what excellence looks like, know where each school stands, and direct the support that moves outcomes.
• Hold accountability for our portfolio outcome goals, including the goal that two-thirds of portfolio schools reach top-tier performance.
• Lead portfolio relationships and engagement through school visits, leader check-ins and coaching, annual reviews, and spring planning, building the trust that enables us to provide targeted support where needed.
• Serve as the primary point of contact for the Legacy Fellowship, coordinating communication and collaboration between the fellowship and the organization.

Evaluation and Diligence 

• Lead the school quality and leadership diligence process alongside our operations and finance leadership: Assess leader strength and readiness, and evaluate a school’s opening path and family demand from the academic and leadership side.

SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT AND LEADERSHIP COACHING

Coaching Strategy and Supports

• Develop and lead a strategy to drive school improvement, starting with Colorado Schools Fund’s portfolio and pipeline, with an opportunity to build a broader strategy for expanded impact. 
• Take ownership of and scale our 2026-27 school-improvement pilot. 
• Provide leadership coaching and academic support to schools in the sourcing pipeline and school leaders growing toward an executive director role and toward replication or network growth.
• Recruit, manage, and norm a roster of exceptional coaches, keep multiple coaching engagements aligned, and broker and manage the academic consultant pool.

SECTOR ENGAGEMENT AND TEAM LEADERSHIP

Leadership and External Voice

• Coordinate closely with Colorado Schools Fund’s operations/finance and advocacy leads.
• Co-own our academic narrative with the Chief Executive Officer, and provide academic expertise for community engagement, funder conversations, and board and school visits.
• Contribute academic expertise to our advocacy and policy work.

 

Preferred Skills and Qualifications

Leading Schools Towards Outstanding Outcomes 

• You have led a public charter school or served in a senior academic or schools management role at a network or school district. You have a demonstrated track record of driving to exceptional student outcomes under your leadership.
• You have ideally held a role where you directly coached school leaders or executive directors, and you have a track record of building strong relationships to influence change (especially ideal if outside of a direct reporting relationship, which will most closely mirror this role). 
• You have a high bar. You balance openness to promising new approaches with rigorous standards for school quality.
• You have a deep understanding of instructional content and how we learn, including the science of reading and early-literacy systems, and in building instructional systems that improve reading and math outcomes.
• You have fluency with data and assessment frameworks and the judgment to know what the data is telling you.

Mission-Driven 

• You have a deep, demonstrated commitment to Colorado Schools Fund’s mission of expanding educational opportunity for historically underserved Colorado students and a career that reflects this prioritization in your own work. 
• You are open to working across a wide variety of school models, including language immersion, project-based learning, Classical, Montessori, career-pathways high schools, college prep, etc. 
• You are open to working in a wide variety of contexts, from rural/remote to suburban to urban areas across Colorado.

Entrepreneurial Orientation  

• You will be comfortable on a lean, senior team, moving between strategy and hands-on execution with a spirit of everyone rolling up their sleeves.  
• You either bring or are willing to build an investor mindset to the work – you can allocate resources strategically to build stronger schools. Familiarity with venture philanthropy or charter funder model valued.

Compensation and Benefits

The salary for this role is $215,000 annually. Colorado Schools Fund offers a very competitive package of benefits, including health, life, disability, and dental insurance coverage; vacation, holidays, and parental leave; and 401(k) retirement benefits.

 

How to Apply

Interested and qualified applicants should apply here. Note: the priority application deadline for this position is November 16, 2026. We do not guarantee review of applications submitted after this date. We anticipate the interview process to occur in late 2026 and early 2027 with a spring 2027 start (with flexibility for the right candidate).

Colorado Schools Fund is an equal opportunity employer and encourages candidates of all backgrounds to apply.