Education Coordinator

Summary

Lower Sioux envisions a continuum of vibrant, culturally grounded educational opportunities for children birth to post-secondary school that promotes their personal well-being as well as the well-being of the Community. This vision aligns with the tribe’s long-range Strategic Plan and Life-Long Learning Goal and builds on our recent language and early childhood education accomplishments. To build this effective, culturally grounded educational pathway for our children, Lower Sioux seeks to establish its first ever Tribal Education Department.

In addition to staffing the Education Committee, the new Tribal Education Department will fulfill two objectives over the next two years:

• Objective 1) Develop and launch a system for gathering and tracking pre-K to post-secondary data to support the educational success for all members, ages birth to 25 years.
• Objective 2) Develop a long-range strategic educational plan to sustainably expand culturally specific educational opportunities at Lower Sioux.

The 1.0 FTE Education Coordinator will play a critical role in this new initiative. In addition to assisting the Educational Committee, which meets, twice per month, the Education Coordinator will develop a pro-active educational database tracking and guidance system for children ages birth to 25 years. In addition, the Coordinator will assist an Educational Consultant to develop a community-based long-range educational plan for the Community. When complete, this plan be a practical three-to-five year guide that integrates the best of indigenous models and practices to support our youth and our community through education.

This is a 22-month grant-funded position, with the potential for renewal.

Duties

• Serve as staff liaison to the Education Committee, with duties including but not limited to:
  • Collect data of all children and higher education students of Lower Sioux Indian Community
  • Maintain a list of pre-, grade-, middle- and high-school students/parents/schools
  • Manage higher education student application processing and tracking, including providing counseling and career guidance as possible
  • Process requests for school lunches; assists parents to complete the free and reduced lunch form
  • Facilitate school supply distribution annually
  • Assists in planning events (e.g. graduation banquet, teacher education days and back-to-school nights)
  • Works with Indian Education staff from area Schools (e.g. Redwood Area Schools, Cedar Mountain)
  • Tracks student achievements to highlight successes within the community
  • Works with tutor and GED teachers/schedules
  • Prepares Education Committee agendas and sets up meetings with students and stakeholders
  • Presents information at meetings (Community, Education Committee, Elders, etc.)
  • Collaborates with other Lower Sioux departments, including Enrollment, Health and Recreation, on events and activities for children, adults and employees (e.g. school breaks, summer work program, health fair, employee benefit fair, etc.)
• Analyze data gaps and educational monitoring opportunities and establish a pro-active educational database tracking system for the Community, with the goal of improved monitoring and increased connections and opportunities for students ages birth to 25 years.
• Identify opportunities to expand and strengthen current educational initiatives, such as the new Dakota Immersion early childhood school, the mentoring project, and/or existing youth recreation and nutrition activities.
• Support and assist the Educational Consultant working with the Community to develop a long-range educational plan, including helping identify and procure funding opportunities to implement the plan.
• Other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

• Must pass a background check.
• Hold a minimum of an A.A. degree.
• Have at least three years’ experience working in educational, administrative, and/or database management setting.
• Computer experience, including word processing, databases, spreadsheet and file management.
• Commitment to and interest in Dakota language and education.
• Ability to navigate in a positive and respectful way throughout LSIC.
• Knowledge of the Lower Sioux Indian Community.
• Valid driver’s license.
• Ability to travel within 100 miles outside LSIC.

Disclaimer

This is not necessarily an exhaustive list of all the responsibilities, skills, duties, requirements, efforts or working conditions associated with the job. While this is intended to be an accurate reflection of the current job, management and Community Tribal Council reserves the right to revise the job or to require that other or different tasks be performed when circumstances change (e.g. emergencies, changes in personnel, workload, rush jobs or technical developments).