Job Description

School Administrator

Whidbey Island Waldorf School is seeking an experienced, thoughtful, and collaborative School Administrator to help steward the organizational life of our school.

Located on South Whidbey Island in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, WIWS is an established Waldorf school serving children from early childhood through eighth grade. The Administrator works closely with faculty, pedagogical leadership, staff, and the Board to support a healthy, sustainable school community and create the organizational conditions in which Waldorf education can flourish.

This is a broad and dynamic leadership role for someone who enjoys both people and systems: someone who can see the whole organization while also attending to the practical work that keeps a small independent school running well.

The Role

The Administrator provides leadership and oversight across the non-pedagogical operations of the school, including:

• Finance & business operations — budgeting, financial oversight, payroll and business systems, contracts, insurance, and financial planning.
• Human resources — hiring and onboarding, employment agreements, benefits, personnel policies and records, and support for healthy employment practices.
• Enrollment & admissions — overseeing enrollment and re-enrollment systems, tuition contracts and tuition adjustment, and supporting prospective and current families throughout their relationship with the school.
• Development & fundraising — annual giving, fundraising initiatives and events, grant writing, donor stewardship, and cultivating relationships with supporters of the school.
• Marketing & outreach — strengthening the school's visibility on Whidbey Island and beyond through community relationships, enrollment events, digital and print communications, and outreach.
• Compliance & licensing — maintaining required school approvals, childcare licensing, reporting, inspections, certifications, and relationships with relevant agencies.
• School operations & facilities — supporting the smooth daily functioning of the campus, facilities, safety systems, emergency preparedness, programs, and administrative infrastructure.
• Community relations & communication — fostering clear and healthy communication among families, employees, volunteers, school leadership, and the broader community.
• Records & administrative systems — maintaining effective systems for student, personnel, enrollment, financial, donor, and institutional records.
• Institutional development — participating in strategic planning, strengthening organizational systems, supporting long-term sustainability, and helping turn the school's priorities into action.
• Waldorf and professional relationships — maintaining relationships with AWSNA, regional Waldorf schools, professional organizations, community partners, and other resources that strengthen the school.

The Administrator also works closely with faculty and school leadership around the annual calendar, school events, parent education, professional development, special programs, and other aspects of school life where administration and pedagogy meet.

Who We Are Looking For

We are looking for someone who is organized without being rigid, confident without needing to control, and able to bring clarity to a complex environment.

A successful Administrator will be able to move comfortably between strategic and practical work. On any given week, this might mean thinking about the school's long-term financial sustainability, meeting with a prospective family, working through an HR question, preparing a grant application, reviewing enrollment, solving an operational problem, or helping organize a community event.

The ability to prioritize is essential. Small schools contain more possibilities than any one person can accomplish, and this position requires good judgment about what needs attention now, what can wait, what can be delegated, and what can be simplified.

Strong candidates will bring:

• Experience in school administration, nonprofit management, organizational leadership, business operations, or a related field.
• Comfort with budgets, financial information, administrative systems, and technology.
• Experience with or understanding of human resources and personnel administration.
• Strong organizational skills and the ability to manage multiple areas of responsibility.
• Excellent written and verbal communication.
• Warmth and professionalism in working with families, employees, donors, volunteers, community partners, and outside organizations.
• Sound judgment, discretion, initiative, and an ability to navigate challenging conversations constructively.
• The ability to build effective systems while remaining flexible and responsive to the life of the school.
• A collaborative leadership style and genuine interest in working within a community-centered organization.

A bachelor's degree is required. Experience in independent schools, nonprofit organizations, fundraising and development, finance, HR, or educational administration is highly valued.

Experience with Waldorf education is a plus, but we also welcome candidates who are new to Waldorf education and sincerely interested in learning. Familiarity with Waldorf education, anthroposophy, or collaborative forms of school leadership would be especially valuable.

About Whidbey Island Waldorf School

For more than four decades, Whidbey Island Waldorf School has offered children an education rooted in imagination, relationship, artistic experience, intellectual curiosity, and a deep connection with the natural world.

Our school is located within a 100-acre forest preserve on the grounds of the Whidbey Institute in Clinton, Washington. We are a small school by design, where relationships matter and where administrators, teachers, families, volunteers, and community members all contribute to the life of the school.

We are seeking an Administrator who is excited not simply to manage an organization, but to help steward a living school community through its next chapter.

Benefits

100% Tuition Remission, health insurance.

Non-Discrimination

WIWS is an equal opportunity employer. WIWS does not discriminate against any employee or job applicant because of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, gender, physical or mental disability, or age.

How to Apply

Please send your letter of intent, resume and three professional references to wiws-hiring@wiws.org.

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