Job Description:

About Common Ground High School 

Common Ground High School is the nation’s longest-running environmental charter high school, founded in 1997. Our 230 students form an inclusive, powerful community of learners and leaders. These students benefit from a unique learning environment: an urban farm and 20-acre site, home to state of the art school facilities, adjacent to West Rock Ridge State Park, and located in the City of New Haven. We strive to create a learning environment grounded in foundational building blocks: rigor, responsive relationships, relevance that’s rooted in the local community and environment, and real roles & rights. Common Ground’s graduation rate consistently surpasses the state average, and between 97 and 100% of our students are accepted to college each year. 

Common Ground High School is part of a community nonprofit organization that also operates an urban farm and community environmental education center. As a whole, Common Ground is a center for learning and leadership, inviting people across ages and identities to connect to their urban environment, build community, grow into their full potential, and contribute to a just and sustainable world. We work toward this mission through active, authentic learning rooted in justice and our environment: a farm, in a forest, in a city. 

About the Position

We are seeking an experienced, compassionate, and well-organized educator to join our team as a Special Education Teacher.

Candidates should possess a CT Teacher License (165) .

This position is represented by our Collective Bargaining Agreement with UAW local 2110. Salary for this position is on Scale IV or V depending on qualifications. ($52,100 - $76,875) Placement on that salary scale will take prior, relevant work experience in consideration. 

The Special Education Teacher will: 

• Collaborate with Common Ground’s talented team of Special Educators and Support Educators on the delivery of Special Education services to students with Individualized Education Plans (IEPs)

• Support General Education Teachers in delivering instruction utilizing accommodations and modifications to meet the learning needs of students with IEPs

• Participate in grade-level planning meetings that address students’ academic and social-emotional needs

• Teach a guidance (advisory) group.

We are looking for candidates who demonstrate some or all of the following:

• A Master’s degree with three or more years of teaching experience in Special Education

• Exceptional organizational skills and demonstrated success with managing a caseload of students with IEPs: Writing IEPs, completing required reporting; managing documentation; and participating in PPTs.

• A track record of supporting students with IEPs to meet and exceed ambitious academic and life goals. 

• Knowledge of and experience coordinating targeted interventions in all content areas, including Math and English. 

• Experience co-teaching and/or collaborating with general education teachers and support staff to provide students with disabilities differentiated instruction, accommodations and modifications. 

• Ability to lead teach in a Resource Room to provide students with academic support, interventions, and instruction on building executive functioning skills. 

• A commitment to involving school families deeply in the educational process.

• Strong written and oral communication skills.

• Knowledge of trauma-informed instruction and possesses a belief that all students can learn and be successful. 

• A passion for our social justice mission and commitment to equitable and sustainable change

We are also excited to consider candidates who have:

• TESOL Certification or Cross-Endorsement

• Values and embraces collaboration, communication, and has capacity to work effectively within a team that includes multiple teachers and community partners.

• Experience working directly with racially, economically, academically diverse high school aged young people, and with low-income young people and people of color in particular. Knowledge about and passion for working for an organization that is committed to social justice, the dismantling of systems of oppression, and creating a just, equitable, and inclusive culture.

• Experience working with Google applications, online course management platforms, and other online learning tools.

Please submit your cover letter and resume through our ADP online portal or email them to applications@commongroundct.org Please specify the job you are applying for in the subject line of your email.

Equal Opportunity Employer 

Common Ground is particularly eager for candidates who can help us to fulfill our commitment to building a racially and culturally diverse faculty and staff. Common Ground has a commitment to examining the intersection of social, environmental, and food justice issues; how systems of oppression, including white privilege, impact the organization’s work; and how resistance to those systems can offer windows into a more sustainable society. 

Common Ground is committed to the recruitment and retention of staff that is reflective of the communities we work with. We strongly encourage applicants from people of color, immigrants, women, people with disabilities, members of the LGBTQ community, people whose native language is something other than English, and other underrepresented and historically marginalized groups. 

It has been the policy and will continue to be the strong commitment of the Common Ground and all contractors and subcontractors who do business with Common Ground to provide equal opportunities in employment to all qualified persons solely on the basis of job-related skills, ability and merit. Common Ground will continue to take Affirmative Action to ensure that applicants are employed and that employees are treated during employment without regard to their race, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, mental disorder (present or past history thereof) age, physical disability (but not limited to blindness), marital status, intellectual disability, sexual orientation, gender identity and criminal record. Such action includes, but is not limited to, employment, promotion, demotion or transfer; recruitment or recruitment advertising; layoff or termination; rates of pay or other forms of compensation, and selection for training, professional development, attendance at conferences or other opportunities for advancement. Common Ground, its contractors and subcontractors will continue to make good faith efforts to comply with all federal and state laws and policies which speak to equal employment opportunity. The principles of Affirmative Action are addressed in the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments of the United States Constitution, Civil Rights Act of 1866, 1870, 1871, Equal Pay Act of 1963, Title VI and VII of the 1964 United States Civil Rights Act, Presidential Executive Order 11246, amended by 11375, (Non-discrimination under federal contracts)< Act 1, Section 1 and 20 of the Connecticut Constitution, Governor Grasso’s Executive Order Number 11, Governor O’Neill’s Executive Order 9, the Connecticut Fair Employment Practices Law (Sec. 46a-60-69) of the Connecticut General Statutes, Connecticut Code of Fair Practices (46a-7081), Deprivation of Civil Rights (46a-58(a)(d)), Public Accommodations Law (46a-63-64),