Year: 2021

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Global Village School is looking for an Office Manager

GVS provides children with a personalized, enlivening, holistic education that prepares them to be global citizens. We have grown significantly, and some of our staff are nearing retirement. We’re looking for capable, committed, enthusiastic people who want to be a part of the  Global Village mission.

The office operations are the foundation for all that we do. The office manager is responsible for ensuring that office operations run smoothly, efficiently, and accurately, conveying a sense of high-quality service to our families. Hours vary seasonally, depending on how busy the office is – averages 28 hours per week, Monday through Thursday, with occasional Fridays during peak times. We will consider local and remote applicants.  

Knowledge, Skills, & Abilities:

Organization

  • Excellent analytical, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills, with an ability to take the initiative when a problem is spotted and ask for guidance if needed.
  • Strong time-management, planning, and prioritizing skills.
  • Strong organizational and records management skills, with a sound mind for systems.
  • Must be very detail-oriented and able to switch gears quickly!

Communication

  • Strong written and oral communication skills, good listening skills.
  • Diplomacy: wisely and fairly handle issues as they arise and advise office staff on how to do so.

Management

  • Supervise employees effectively, in a collaborative and supportive manner, while ensuring that they do their tasks correctly.
  • Methodically organize and oversee training of new employees.
  • Ability to make good decisions, ask for support when needed, and discern when requesting an exception to policy is in order.

Commitment

  • Commitment to the vision of Global Village School.
  • Commitment to following the policies and procedures and ensuring that the office staff carries them out.
  • Commitment to being flexible and willing to take and act on advice.
  • Commitment to communicating proactively and constructively when challenges arise.

Technology

  • Strong knowledge of technology, personal computers, and software, including using email, the internet, Microsoft Office software (Word, Excel, and Outlook), and Google Drive (online, shared spreadsheets).
  • Familiarity with data entry.
  • Ability to operate and troubleshoot standard office equipment (computer and multi-function printer/copier/fax machine).
  • General ability to learn new systems primarily by using help files and tutorials.

Personal/Professional

  • Personality traits include trustworthiness, dependability, flexibility, truthfulness, self-awareness, and productivity.
  • Acts in a professional manner when interacting with staff, students, parents, and the public.
  • Follows oral and written instructions. 
  • Works independently with minimal supervision and is comfortable taking responsibility and asking questions as needed.

Minimum Qualifications:  Applicants must have education, training, and experience demonstrating competence in each of the following areas. 

  1. Associate degree or equivalent. 
  2. At least one year of previous office management experience OR three years of administrative office experience.
  3. Provides own transportation and has adequate insurance as required by law.

Preferred Qualifications: 

  1. Bachelor’s degree.
  2. At least two years of previous office management experience
  3. Job or volunteer experience with progressive organizations and causes.
  4. Experience with homeschooling or alternative education.

Unfortunately, we are unable to accept international applicants unless they have a U.S. residence.  

How to Apply, Timeline, and Pay:

  Please follow this link to learn more and apply – you will be required to submit a cover letter!: Indeed Office Manager Job Description. No phone calls, please!
We will contact qualified candidates to set up the next step.   The application process will close when our staffing needs have been met, and may close without advance notice.


​ Pay starts at $19-20/hr. Some benefits may be available.

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Start an Alternative Course Registration Now Open

Registration for the Fall Start an Educational Alternative Course is Now Open!
As we have all noticed, educational alternatives have become crucial in the wake of the pandemic. Not only that, but it looks like the Education revolution, AERO’s mission, has just happened. With two billion people around the world now realizing that they are not forced to go to their assigned school, anything is possible! Also, many parents, sitting with their children, have discovered that listening to the classroom teacher drone on is deadly boring! And many have also discovered their their children are natural learners and quite creative and entrepreneurial.


That’s why this year’s Start Your Own Alternative course may be the most important one we have ever had. There has never been a greater need to offer real learner-centered educational alternatives in our communities and online.


As usual, the course is limited to 25 registrants. We will take them step by step through the process they need to start their own alternative. We will use a dedicated course website which has videos, articles, books to download, audio interviews, etc. They key is that the course is interactive. As people post their visions and reactions to the course resources, all members can post their responses to all. We will also be joined again by long-time Albany Free School staff member and director Chris Mercogliano, as well as North Star co-founder Ken Danford and several other resource people.


When we reach 25 registrants, registration is closed for the year. You can join this week at a 20% discount or become a sustainer and save 40%. The course used to be named “School Starters,” but we realized that many people wanted to start other kinds of alternatives in their communities such as homeschool resource centers, often called micro-schools, mini-schools or even pandemic pods.
Here is a link where you can read more, see a map of some of the over 100 of the alternatives that AERO has helped to start. You still have the option of graduate credit from Antioch University New England.


Register HERE
Become a $50 sustainer HERE

Other Ways to Register for the Start an Educational Alternative Course
As you read Sunday (and below), the Start an Alternative Course is now open for registration. Here is a way you can save even more, by monthly $50 sustainer payments. Last year most registrants did that. We know things are still tight for many people in this COVID age.
You can register as a $50 sustainer here. Just select $50 from the drop down menu. Contact us directly if you need a special arrangement)

Feedback From Previous Course Attendees

  • Every post I make in this course I say something about how grateful I am to be taking this course. I am going to say it again and keep saying it because the information in this course is just amazing.
  • I very much enjoyed connecting with progressive education folks from all over the world. It was inspiring. Learning about other people’s cultures and struggles within those cultures was enlightening. I also enjoyed going through all the information that you and Jerry have collected over the years. I learned about many different schools and their many different journeys. Great stuff
  • Things are going great! I just had my third monthly informational meet and 15 people showed up…..It’s great to know that there are all these people out there working toward similar goals!
  • The highlight of the course for me has been connecting with you and Jerry, as well as others from around the world, however mostly yourself and Jerry… to learn more about what you have both created and how you have gone about it… and the feedback you have both given to me. It’s given me great peace of mind that we ARE on the right track with the project and has helped me to project into the future to see what it is we yet need to do… we have a pathway, and a solid direction forward.
  • One big lesson for me in the course has been to trust my intuition even more… to allow myself to be guided by what feels right in terms of steps, rather than still seeking a formula to building community and the project.
  • I loved being able to share ideas with so many others, especially those in other countries. I particularly like the section on building community and a few of the discussions that took off and got more in depth. I also loved that we started by thinking about “non-negotiables.”
  • I feel the highlight of the course was getting clear on my vision and listening to others experience about their process. It was wonderful to learn about all the school owners that have come before me and realize that I am not alone in this process. I also learned more fun ideas for fundraising. Now I have greater insight into what areas of my project require more realistic attention.
  • I really enjoyed the School Starters Course and feel like I gained a lot of valuable information. It was a good opportunity to see the path others have laid on the route to starting new and innovative programs. I especially enjoyed the first few topics as we were focusing on the reasons that people have chosen to start alternatives. It was reassuring, as someone who has already started a small program, to hear that a constantly evolving program is the norm for an alternative learning environment. I started my program two years ago and here in the infancy of the program have always felt like I was trudging this road on my own. I signed up for this course not so much to gain direction for what I need to do but I think to gain reassurance that I was not the only one out here seeing the need for change. I learned that there is support out there for when you have questions and that was really important to me. I really enjoyed the reading materials provided and gained such valuable insight into the value of democratic education. 

Register HERE
Become a $50 sustainer HERE

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Surprising Words By a School Superintendent

Sent to AERO by the Fadels:

Teresa Thayer Snyder was superintendent of the Voorheesville district in upstate New York. She wrote this wise and insightful essay on her Facebook page.


Dear Friends and Colleagues:


I am writing today about the children of this pandemic. After a lifetime of working among the young, I feel compelled to address the concerns that are being expressed by so many of my peers about the deficits the children will demonstrate when they finally return to school. My goodness, what a disconcerting thing to be concerned about in the face of a pandemic which is affecting millions of people around the country and the world. It speaks to one of my biggest fears for the children when they return. In our determination to “catch them up,” I fear that we will lose who they are and what they have learned during this unprecedented era. What on earth are we trying to catch them up on? The models no longer apply, the benchmarks are no longer valid, the trend analyses have been interrupted. We must not forget that those arbitrary measures were established by people, not ordained by God. We can make those invalid measures as obsolete as a crank up telephone! They simply do not apply. 


When the children return to school, they will have returned with a new history that we will need to help them identify and make sense of. When the children return to school, we will need to listen to them. Let their stories be told. They have endured a year that has no parallel in modern times. There is no assessment that applies to who they are or what they have learned. Remember, their brains did not go into hibernation during this year. Their brains may not have been focused on traditional school material, but they did not stop either. Their brains may have been focused on where their next meal is coming from, or how to care for a younger sibling, or how to deal with missing grandma, or how it feels to have to surrender a beloved pet, or how to deal with death. Our job is to welcome them back and help them write that history.


I sincerely plead with my colleagues, to surrender the artificial constructs that measure achievement and greet the children where they are, not where we think they “should be.” Greet them with art supplies and writing materials, and music and dance and so many other avenues to help them express what has happened to them in their lives during this horrific year. Greet them with stories and books that will help them make sense of an upside-down world. They missed you. They did not miss the test prep. They did not miss the worksheets. They did not miss the reading groups. They did not miss the homework. They missed you.
Resist the pressure from whatever ‘powers that be’ who are in a hurry to “fix” kids and make up for the “lost” time. The time was not lost, it was invested in surviving an historic period of time in their lives—in our lives. The children do not need to be fixed. They are not broken. They need to be heard. They need be given as many tools as we can provide to nurture resilience and help them adjust to a post pandemic world.


Being a teacher is an essential connection between what is and what can be. Please, let what can be demonstrate that our children have so much to share about the world they live in and in helping them make sense of what, for all of us has been unimaginable. This will help them– and us– achieve a lot more than can be measured by any assessment tool ever devised. Peace to all who work with the children!