Head-Royce School seeks a Dean of K-5 Students and Culture for the lower school division reporting to the Lower School Director. The Dean of Students and Culture is a key Leader responsible for fostering a positive, inclusive, and engaging environment where every student feels seen, valued, and supported. This role oversees student life, behavior systems, and community culture, ensuring alignment with the school's mission and values.
Student culture and community
Collaborate and steward a K-5 community culture grounded in belonging, identity affirmation, and restorative practices.
Serve as a visible, trusted, and joyful presence in the daily life of lower school.
Build and sustain structures (morning meetings, community agreements, assemblies) that reinforce shared values.
Collaborate with the K-8 Director of Equity and Community to ensure programming reflects the schools DEIB commitments from the very start of a student's journey at Head-Royce.
Coordinate and support affinity group work at the lower school level.
Support planning and logistics of Lower School assemblies and community events.
Behavior management and restorative practice
Take a proactive, relationship — centered approach to student behavior.
Overseas restorative practices and processes with students, families, and faculty when harm or conflict occurs.
Develop, model, and implement tiered support for student behavior management and intervention.
Document and track student incidents of harm and misalignment with stated expectations of behavior.
Respond to acute behavioral situations appropriately.
Develop and oversee systems and protocols for student behavior.
Maintain open communication with teachers and families in support of students needs.
Collaborate with counselors and teachers to design and implement lessons that foster a positive school culture and promote behavioral change.
Faculty engagement and education
Serve as a consistent point of contact for families navigating concerns about student behavior and patterns, and well-being
Collaborate with families to develop implement, and communicate behavioral support plans for their child
Co-design and facilitate parent/guardian education opportunities on such topics such as belonging, identity, and restorative practices In collaboration with K-8 directors and school counselors.
Oversee and support Lower School clubs and extracurricular programming.
Coordinate affinity group offerings and student identity exploration.
K-8 Continuity and transition
Collaborate actively with the middle school deans and middle school counselor to ensure continuity of support and culture across K-8 experience
Participate in transition planning for rising 6th graders, sharing student context Participate in transition planning for rising 6th graders, sharing student context and co-designing bridge programming.
Contribute to a coherent K-8 vision for community, belonging, and restorative practice.
Qualifications
Bachelor degree required; Masters degree preferred (in education, counseling, social work, school leadership, or a related field.)
Minimum 7 years of professional experience, working with elementary aged children in an educational setting.
Demonstrated commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging, and the ability to translate thatcommittment into daily practice.
Culturally responsive educator who honors and affirms the full range of student identities.
Strong collaborator who builds trusting relationships with students, families, and colleagues.
Excellent communicator in both written and verbal forms, especially in difficult conversations.
Organized, systems-minded, and ability to balance proactive programming with responsive support.
Experience building or shaping dean of students role.
Additional Qualifications (preferred, not required)
Experience with affinity group facilitation or identity-based programming.
Understanding and support of Head-Royce’s core values with strong emphasis on equity and community.
Background in socio-emotional learning (SEL) frameworks.
Prior experience in an independent school setting.
$145,000 - $160,000 a year
To Apply
Interested candidates are asked to submit a letter of interest as well as a current resume.
We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.
Head-Royce School Overview:
Located on a 22-acre campus in Oakland, California, Head-Royce (HRS) is a pre-eminent, co-educational, independent, K-12 day school with a 137-year history. Our mission is to inspire in our students a lifelong love of learning and pursuit of academic excellence, to promote understanding of and respect for diversity that makes our society strong and to encourage active and responsible global citizenship.
Head-Royce enrolls 900 students in the three separate divisions—Lower, Middle and Upper—and provides a dynamic, whole-child education to every student.
Please note - HRS is unable to provide immigration sponsorships such as H1B Visas.
Head Royce is an equal opportunity employer and makes employment decisions including but not limited to employment, training, promotion, demotion, transfer, leaves of absence and termination based on qualifications and without regard to protected status. We will not discriminate based on age, color, creed, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding or related medical conditions), gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, national origin or ancestry, race (including ...traits historically associated with race, such as hair texture and protective hairstyles), religion, registered domestic partner status, physical or mental disability, a medical condition including genetic characteristics, military or veteran status, reproductive health decision making or any other consideration made unlawful by federal, state or local laws Head-Royce School seeks to be a community in which every individual is treated with sensitivity, courtesy and respect.
