Chief Operations Officer - Moses Lake School District

The Moses Lake School District has a unique opportunity for a dynamic leader to join as their Chief Operations Officer. This newly created Cabinet-level position will play an instrumental role in managing and upgrading current operations (excluding educational operations), establishing visibility and confidence with stakeholders regarding financial decision making and ensuring that the school district is well positioned to meet short, medium and long-term challenges.  Since this is a new role, the newly hired incumbent will also play a key role in building out the role based on immediate and anticipated needs.

What you will be responsible for:

Reporting into the School Superintendent, this role is responsible for all day-to-day operations of non-educational activities within the school district - including Finance, Capital Management, Maintenance, Transportation, and Food Services.  Ultimately, this role will be responsible for the successful performance of up to 300 direct and indirect reports.

This role will also have ownership for ensuring that adequate operational and fiscal analytical and control tools exist.  In the case where they do not currently exist, this role will ensure that they are built and are capable of delivering timely, accurate and useful data.  Ultimately, these tools will support the District in being effective, efficient and transparent with its operations as well as making sound decisions that impact current and future operations.

Finally, this role will be instrumental in building trust and confidence with the District’s key stakeholders including the Board of Directors.  Through a combination of service delivery, continuous process improvements and clear communications, this role will ensure that the expectations of the community are understood and addressed.  Through effective leadership and performance management, the COO will manage, mentor and motivate the Operations teams to deliver their services to expected standards.

What you will be doing on a regular basis:                                        

Provide Strategic Leadership by:

• Working collaboratively with the Leadership Team to ensure that the District’s strategy is prioritized and turned into actionable steps and executed to expectations;
• Ensuring that all strategic goals have measures and institute tools, systems and process to ensure accountability and achievement;
• Developing and implementing continuous process improvement systems that ensure services are operating effectively and efficiently; and
• Instilling and reinforcing a culture of accountability within all functions.

Support Finance and Accounting by:

• Developing and delivering financial reporting to the Board of Directors and other Stakeholders including the District Leadership Team;
• Developing financial analysis tools and predictive models that will provide input into District activities such as budgeting and labor negotiations;
• Providing Leadership on all capital construction, bond, and special project work;
• Working with key internal and external partners to ensure that all compliance and regulatory requirements are met.
• Instilling and building a culture of financial discipline through upgrading existing processes, implementing data-driven decision making and predictive modeling; and
• Driving and improving the budget process and meeting all required local and state expectations including the generation and delivery of budgetary documents, reporting, and records.

Support Resource Management by:

• Partnering with Human Resources and providing analysis, support, and leadership to ensure effective contract and labor negotiations;
• Providing leadership, guidance, and management to all Operations functions including Transportation, Food Services, and Maintenance;
• Anticipating, mitigating and managing budgetary and operational impacts based on variables such as student enrollment, market cost trends and other demographic and regional factors;
• Sharing better practices and identifying opportunities for partnership with other area School Districts to improve services or existing operations;
• Pro-actively managing procurement processes and systems and protecting District financial and operational interests during contract and service agreement negotiations;
• Overseeing risk management activities; and
• Managing and maintaining District land acquisition and inventory activities.

Competencies you need to be successful:

Successful candidates should be able to demonstrate mastery of the following competencies:

Change Management:

The ability to demonstrate support for innovation and for changes needed to improve the organization’s effectiveness; initiating, sponsoring, and implementing organizational change; helping others to successfully manage organizational change.

Results Orientation:

The ability to focus on the desired result of one’s own or one’s unit’s work, setting challenging goals, focusing effort on the goals, and meeting or exceeding them.

Analytical Thinking:

The ability to tackle a problem by using a logical, systematic, sequential approach.

Strategic Analysis:

The ability to anticipate the implications and consequences of situations and take appropriate action to be prepared for possible contingencies.

Financial Acumen:

The ability to maintain and apply a broad understanding of financial management principles to ensure that complete and accurate data is available to make decisions that are fiscally sound and responsible.

Leadership and People Management:

The ability to take responsibility for one’s own or team’s performance, by setting clear goals and expectations, tracking progress against the goals, ensuring feedback, and addressing performance problems and issues promptly.

Communication:

The ability to ensure that information is passed on to others who should be kept informed.

Personal Credibility:

Demonstrated concern that one be perceived as responsible, reliable, and trustworthy.

Qualifications and experience you should have:

• MBA or equivalent level of education and work experience; Preferably with a focus on Finance and/or Operations;
• 5 years of Leadership experience in multiple departments including Finance, Accounting, Procurement, Resource Management, and Operations;
• Exposure to working in the public sector or another highly regulated environment where change can be challenging;
• Experience working with a represented work-force;
• Experience in delivering large scale projects with significant budgetary impact;
• Experience in supporting labor and contract negotiations including costing and impact analysis;
• Strong project management and service delivery experience; and
• Passion for making a positive impact within the K-12 Education space.

Interested? Apply and make sure to include:

• Current resume showing matching qualifications
• A letter of interest (500 words or less) that addresses the following 2 questions:
  • Explain the largest, most complicated project that you’ve led. Please outline how you approached the project from inception through delivery.
  • Why are you interested in this role?

Moses Lake School District Fast Facts:

— Serving a population of over 8500 students from grades K-12;

— 85% of graduates continue to post-secondary education;

— 15 Schools within the district;

— 430+ Teachers; and

— 700+ Support Staff and Administrators.

Learn more at:  www.mlsd161.org

About Moses Lake:

Located in Eastern Washington, Moses Lake is the largest city in Grant County, Washington.  The area’s economy has historically been based in agriculture, however, over the last decade, the economy has grown and diversified to include several manufacturing and technology facilities.  The area has a growing, diverse population base that benefits from the strong educational foundation that the School District delivers.  The climate is considered pleasant - warm summers, slightly cold winters and low rainfall.  Geographically, Moses Lake provides easy access to numerous outdoor activities as well as the urban areas of Seattle and Spokane.

EEO/Diversity Statement:

The Moses Lake School District #161 does not discriminate in any programs or activities on the basis of sex, race, creed, religion, color, national origin, age, veteran or military status, sexual orientation, gender expression or identity, disability, or the use of a trained dog guide or service animal and provides equal access to the Boy Scouts and other designated youth groups. Inquiries regarding compliance and/or grievance procedures may be directed to the school district’s Title IX, Affirmative Action, and Equal Opportunity officer, Barbara Shimek, 920 W. Ivy Avenue, Moses Lake, WA, 98837, 509.793.7725, Email: bshimek@mlsd.161.org OR Section 504/ADA Coordinator, Dave Balcom, 1042 W. Ivy Avenue, Moses Lake, WA 98837, 509.793.7699, Email: dbalcom@mlsd161.org.

Contact:

Aziz Chowdhury

419-481-0959

achowdhury@execrpo.com