How to hire a school director

How to hire a school director, step by step

Here's a step-by-step school director hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write a school director job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new school director
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a school director do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   The school director hiring process starts by determining what type of worker you actually need. Certain roles might require a full-time employee, whereas part-time workers or contractors can do others.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

   No

   A school director's background is also an important factor in determining whether they'll be a good fit for the position. For example, school directors from different industries or fields will have radically different experiences and will bring different viewpoints to the role. You also need to consider the candidate's previous level of experience to make sure they'll be comfortable with the job's level of seniority.

   This list presents school director salaries for various positions.

   Type of School Director	Description	Hourly rate
   School Director	Elementary, middle, and high school principals manage all school operations, including daily school activities. They coordinate curricula, oversee teachers and other school staff, and provide a safe and productive learning environment for students.	$22-48
   Vice Principal	A vice-principal works as an assistant educational administrator whose primary responsibility is to assist the school's principal with daily school administrative tasks, such as certifying and hiring teachers and school staff. In addition to these tasks, a vice-principal conducts parent interviews and serves as mentors and counselors to students... Show more	$30-58
   Principal	A principal is responsible for maintaining the orderliness of the school premises and supervising school operations, enforcing strict safety standards, and reiterating regulatory procedures. Principals' duties also include managing and monitoring school budget and expenses, improving security plans, conducting regular meetings and sharing updates with teachers and other school personnel, creating reports for school funding, and setting academic goals for everyone's compliance... Show more	$33-86

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Professional Development
   • K-12
   • Curriculum Development
   • Social Work
   • Kids
   • Math
   • Public Schools
   • Develop Strong Relationships
   • Classroom Management
   • PowerPoint
   • Financial Aid
   • DOE
   • Payroll
   • Child Care

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Lead project management team in development/execution of conferences and enduring CME -accredite programs.
   • Improve student performance on district and statewide achievement tests in language arts literacy, mathematics, and science.
   • Launch several new programs: pre-K, physical education, drama, and reading.
   • Plan, organize, and administer a school for home teach students in grades kindergarten through high school.
   • Create math curriculum, develop teacher/room/subject/student schedules.
   • Supervise, develop and implement preschool and kindergarten before and after school program.

   More school director duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in the school director job description is a good way to get more applicants. A school director salary can be affected by several factors, such as the location of the job, the level of experience, education, certifications, and the employer's prestige.

   For example, the average salary for a school director in Kansas may be lower than in Oregon, and an entry-level engineer typically earns less than a senior-level school director. Additionally, a school director with lots of experience in the field may command a higher salary as a result.

   Average school director salary

   $68,563yearly

   $32.96 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level school director salary

   $46,000 yearly salary

   Updated December 11, 2025

   Average school director salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	California	$95,745	$46
   2	Washington	$81,920	$39
   3	New Jersey	$78,088	$38
   4	Connecticut	$74,851	$36
   5	Minnesota	$74,552	$36
   6	Massachusetts	$74,142	$36
   7	New York	$73,325	$35
   8	Illinois	$73,259	$35
   9	Maryland	$73,126	$35
   10	Indiana	$72,523	$35
   11	District of Columbia	$70,354	$34
   12	Ohio	$68,057	$33
   13	Rhode Island	$66,182	$32
   14	Virginia	$64,527	$31
   15	Colorado	$63,380	$30
   16	New Mexico	$61,641	$30
   17	Wisconsin	$61,407	$30
   18	Utah	$61,145	$29
   19	Georgia	$58,630	$28
   20	Oklahoma	$56,719	$27

   Average school director salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	Learning Care Group	$88,413	$42.51	153
   2	Archdiocese of Omaha	$83,493	$40.14
   3	Associated Recreation Council	$79,444	$38.19	6
   4	The Manhattan Club	$76,792	$36.92
   5	Alliance College-Ready Public Schools	$76,596	$36.83
   6	Lycée Français de Chicago	$76,548	$36.80
   7	Yale University	$75,517	$36.31	7
   8	St. HOPE	$72,165	$34.69	3
   9	The Meadowbrook School	$71,794	$34.52	2
   10	Emory Healthcare	$71,689	$34.47	17
   11	Manhattan Youth	$69,431	$33.38	1
   12	International School of Arizona	$68,667	$33.01	4
   13	BKF Engineers	$68,614	$32.99
   14	Sunbeam Family Services	$67,659	$32.53	1
   15	American Montessori Society	$67,234	$32.32
   16	Merakey	$65,638	$31.56
   17	Kaplan	$65,602	$31.54	7
   18	Emory University	$65,567	$31.52	12
   19	Archdiocese of Philadelphia	$65,292	$31.39	22
   20	New Story	$65,047	$31.27	2

4. Writing a school director job description

   A job description for a school director role includes a summary of the job's main responsibilities, required skills, and preferred background experience. Including a salary range can also go a long way in attracting more candidates to apply, and showing the first name of the hiring manager can also make applicants more comfortable. As an example, here's a school director job description:

   School director job description example

   The Community School Director is hired by Westhab Inc. in consultation with the principal and the School Leadership Team (SLT). This position will play an integral part of the holistic approach towards improving academic performance of Community School students by developing and cultivating partnerships among principals, parents, teachers and other community based organizations (CBOs). Proof of COVID-19 vaccinations.

   DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES:

   The following are conducted in collaboration with the principal and SLT:

   • Serve as an advisor to the principal, providing leadership for coordinating the work of different partners within the school, and aligning the work of partners with the school faculty.
   • Work with school leadership to maintain a focus on results and track progress
   • Organize and oversee assets and needs assessments and seek input from teachers, school staff, parents and students to determine ongoing needs of students and families.
   • Serve as a point person for agencies and programs interested in partnering with the school, and help to broker new partnerships that are aligned with school goals and needs.
   • Develop strong relationships with teachers, parents and students.
   • Work with the Parent Coordinator to ensure that families have meaningful opportunities to participate in the school.
   • Identify high need students, coordinate with teachers to target interventions, and track and monitor impact of interventions.
   • Build relationships and mechanisms to effectively link the school day to expanded learning opportunities.
   • Assist with data collection, research and prepare relevant data to bring to meetings.
   • Facilitates alliances and partnerships with City agencies and non-profit partners to establish a continuum of services for students.
   • Provide training and technical assistance to ensure cultural and linguistic appropriateness of services, programs and communication efforts.
   • Assist school and partner agencies with resource management and development, including fund development and grant maintenance.
   • Coordinate the allocation of space for student and family support services, and for special events.

   EXPERIENCE AND EDUCATION REQUIREMENTS:

   Master’s Degree in Education, Social work or related field. Experience in working with school aged youth, educators, families and communities from a wide range of cultural, social and economic backgrounds. Experience working in school based settings, with knowledge about tenants of community organizing, student support services, and youth development theories. Ability to work collaboratively, with strong relationship building skills. DOE fingerprinting and background clearances. Bilingual in Spanish preferred. Valid driver’s license and vehicle a plus.

   AGENCY PROFILE & EMPLOYEE EXPECTATIONS:

   Westhab is the premier organization of our kind in our region, providing housing and supportive services for more than 10,000 of the most vulnerable members of our community each year. We are staffed by an extraordinary group of hard working professionals that are fully committed to our mission - Building Communities. Changing Lives. Working at Westhab is not easy. Our expectations for all staff are high. We believe that the people and the cmmunities that we have the privilege to serve deserve our very best every day. We are results-driven organization that focuses on empowerment and impact. If you want to apply for this opportunity, it should only be because you feel ready for the challenges and expectations that come with joining this kind of team. (EOE)

   OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION (OSHA):

   The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) ensures safe and healthful working conditions to workers by setting and enforcing standards and by providing training, outreach, education and assistance. Westhab complies with all applicable OSHA standards, rules and regulations in addition to keeping our workplaces free of serious recognized hazards.

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   There are a few common ways to find school directors for your business:

   • Promoting internally or recruiting from your existing workforce.
   • Ask for referrals from friends, family members, and current employees.
   • Attend job fairs at local colleges to meet candidates with the right educational background.
   • Use social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter to recruit passive job-seekers.

   To find school director candidates, you can consider the following options:

   • Post your job opening on Zippia or other job search websites.
   • Use niche websites that focus on engineering and technology jobs, such as k12jobspot, learn4good, serious teachers, teachingjobs.com.
   • Post your job on free job posting websites.

6. Interview candidates

   To successfully recruit school directors, your first interview needs to engage with candidates to learn about their interest in the role and experience in the field. You can go into more detail about the company, the role, and the responsibilities during follow-up interviews.

   It's also good to ask about candidates' unique skills and talents to see if they match your ideal candidate profile. If you think a candidate is good enough for the next step, you can move on to the technical interview.

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new school director

   Once you've found the school director candidate you'd like to hire, it's time to write an offer letter. This should include an explicit job offer that includes the salary and the details of any other perks. Qualified candidates might be looking at multiple positions, so your offer must be competitive if you like the candidate. Also, be prepared for a negotiation stage, as candidates may way want to tweak the details of your initial offer. Once you've settled on these details, you can draft a contract to formalize your agreement.

   It's also good etiquette to follow up with applicants who don't get the job by sending them an email letting them know that the position has been filled.

   To prepare for the new employee's start date, you can create an onboarding schedule and complete any necessary paperwork, such as employee action forms and onboarding documents like I-9 forms, benefits enrollment, and federal and state tax forms. Human Resources should also ensure that a new employee file is created.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

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