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Job Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree and teaching certification preferred (Associates degree has to be accompanied with experience.)
- Strong communication and ability to build and maintain relationships with teachers, parents, students and the Coop School community
- Experience with library systems and teaching students required. Grant writing experience a positive.
- Flexible, able to work autonomously as well as take directions as needed
- Passionate, organized, collaborative, and flexible.
- American passport is a positive, but an American travel visa is a requirement for most travel paths to the RMI. Coop helps with paperwork.
Job Benefits
- Paid flight to RMI at start of contract. Paid return flight at end of contract.
- Housing: 1 bedroom furnished apartments with kitchen, living room, and bathroom
- $100 (pre-tax) utilities support
- 40% off tuition for employee children
Company Description
Majuro Cooperative School was founded in 1975 by a small group of concerned parents who wanted to provide their children with a high-quality education. Co-op was first accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges in March 1994. In April 1997, the school was awarded a 3-year extension of its term of accreditation. It was revisited again in March of 2000, obtaining another 3-year term of accreditation, which was subsequently extended for an additional two years through 2005, and then again through 2007. In July of 2007 the school was accredited for three years through to the summer of 2010. In 2010 the school was given a six year accreditation by WASC. A six year accreditation was obtained by the school in 2016 with brief visits before 2022. Delayed by the pandemic, in 2023 Coop recently received a new 6 year accreditation with a planned mid-cycle visit in 2026.
Our Student Population
The school has grown significantly since its early days as a one teacher school with a single classroom. There are currently 370 students (about half boys and half girls) enrolled at Co-op, representing diverse cultural and socio-economic backgrounds. The current ethnic/nationality makeup of the student body is very similar to what it was in the late 1990s. This is reflective of the fact that a consistently large number of Marshallese parents have chosen to send their children to Majuro Cooperative School because of its remarkable academic record.
The large percentage of Marshallese attending Co-op means that English is a second language for the majority of students. For the vast majority of Co-op students, even those who have one parent who is a first language English speaker, the language that they use with their family and friends is Marshallese, and English is used only at school. The need for strong English skills underlies the school’s policy of starting English language instruction from the earliest grades in an effort to develop fluency in written and oral English among the students.
A significant challenge for the Marshall Islands is its transition from a rural, largely subsistence way of life to a highly urban, cash economy. Today, with more than 2/3 of the population living in the two major urban centers, cultural norms through the extended family system that governed the society for generations are breaking down.
Job Description
Under the supervision the Principal, the teacher is responsible for providing an educational atmosphere where students have the opportunity to meet or exceed academic expectations. The Co-op teacher’s primary role is to prepare students for higher learning and purposeful membership in society. Coop focuses on the whole student and expect students to grow not only academically, but also emotionally through the school year.
Reports to: Principals
Goals: The School Librarian/Media Specialist will:
1.) Instill a love of learning and literature in all students and ensure equitable access to information and leisure reading materials.
2.) Ensure that all students are effective users of ideas and information.
3.) Empower students to be critical thinkers, enthusiastic readers, skillful researchers and ethical users of information.
4.) Collaborate with classroom teachers and specialists to design and implement lessons and units of instruction and help assess student learning and instructional effectiveness.
5.) Provide leadership and expertise necessary to ensure that the school library program is aligned with the mission, goals and objectives of the school and is viewed as an integral part of the learning/instructional program.
School Librarian/Media Specialist Duties include:
• Provide a library media program and resources that meet and support the informational, curricular and leisure reading interests of students and faculty.
• Promote literacy and the enjoyment of reading and listening to printed and spoken word.
• Provide for the organization, circulation and maintenance of resources for effective use.
• Consult with students and faculty regarding their needs and interests in relation to the selection and utilization of materials and equipment.
• Plan with teachers as cooperative partners to integrate curriculum content with resource use and informational literacy skills.
• Use direct, formal instruction and indirect, informal instruction to teach specific skills needed for use of the library/media center and technology with students and staff.
• Coordinate information retrieval for students and faculty through print, audiovisual and online sources.
• Implement policies for effective use of technology through the organization of facilities and equipment.
• Maintain an inventory of books, computers, equipment, audiovisual materials and computer software.
• Prepare past due notices for outstanding items.
• Manage the library/media budget.
Teacher one (1) after school activity once a week from 3:30-4:30
Grant Writer duties include:
• Understand the school’s funding history and current grants.
• Continue any ongoing grant writing or reporting projects from the time of hire.
• Collaborate with school administrators to determine areas of need for the school.
• Perform prospect research on foundations and corporations to evaluate sources for corporate and foundation grants.
• Responsible for conducting the full range of activities required to prepare, submit, and manage grant proposals to foundation and corporate sources.
• Work with finance officer and other administration to gather information necessary to report to corporate/foundation funders on current grant programs.
• Comply with all grant reporting as required by foundation/corporate donors.
• Maintain current records as digital and/or paper files, including grant tracking and reporting.
• Manage simultaneous grants under tight deadlines.
• Write and present a monthly progress report at Co-op Board meetings.
• Assist with other fundraising projects as requested.
Additional Expectations:
• School Librarian and Media Specialist are to be on campus and available for consultation with parents, students, and staff between the hours of 7:45 and 4:00, daily. (This does not include a 30 minute duty free lunch period.)
• Attend school events and functions throughout the school year (Halloween Carnival, Holiday Show, Graduation and Talent Show are some of these events)
• Attend monthly staff meetings, monthly/quarterly PTA meetings, Team Planning Time (TPT) meetings and participate in at least one committee for school improvement
• Participation and support in the WASC accreditation process
• Ensure all certification paperwork is completed and submitted in a timely manner