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The Little School San Francisco, CA Finance Director
OVERVIEW
The Little School is a nationally recognized, relationship-based, inclusive preschool program committed to providing individualized, quality education to young children. The Little School offers a variety of classes starting with a part-time or full time program for 2-year-olds and continuing up to a highly regarded TK Program. The Little School community includes exceptional teachers, a hands-on administrative team and a very active parent community. We are looking for an experienced Finance Director to join our team of committed educators and administrative staff part-time. This is a great position for someone who wants to use their accounting and finance skills in an environment where they will feel like they are truly making a difference.
THE OPPORTUNITY: The Finance Director at The Little School will be responsible for ensuring the overall financial health of the school. This person will be supporting the Executive Director (ED) and supervising the Business Operations Manager (BOM) with all financial aspects of the school, both short and long term.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:
The Finance Director reports to the Executive Director and is responsible for ensuring the overall financial health of the school including (but not limited to):
● Partnering with the Executive Director and advising on needs and opportunities with regard to finances, investments, budget preparation, risk management, government and legal issues, and human resources.
● In collaboration with the Executive Director, Board, and administration, developing and implementing long-range financial strategic plans and models to support school initiatives.
● Guiding the preparation of the annual operating budget and managing the budget upon its approval by the board.
● Attending Finance and Board Meetings and providing timely, accurate, and concise financial reporting, including but not limited to: Budget vs. actual performance on a monthly basis, benchmarking and trend analyses, analyses of special projects and school initiatives
● Overseeing and completing all fiscal reporting activities required for an annual audit and the preparation of the Form 990
● Overseeing and completing the following key business office functions in collaboration with the Business Operations Manager
○ Human Resources: employee benefits and salary administration, including payroll preparation and tracking Paid Time Off (PTO).
○ Discounted Tuition: analyzing and awarding discounted tuition based on school criteria.
- ○ Tuition reconciliation, including the allocation of discounted tuition as awarded.
- ○ Reconciliation of bank and credit card accounts
- ○ Purchasing and Accounts Payable
- ○ Endowment and Investment Accounting
- ○ Fundraising accounting and reconciliations
- ○ Depreciation Accounting
- ○ Month and Year End Close and Review
- ○ Collaborating with colleagues to ensure strong interdepartmental communication and internal controls, and in particular for facilities maintenance, admissions and re-enrollment, discounted tuition, purchasing, and accounts payable.
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
Minimum five years of experience in finance and/or accounting in a role with broad responsibilities.
Experience working with schools or other 501 (c) 3 organizations is preferred.
Experience with executing audits is preferred.
CPA license or equivalent accounting experience is highly desired.
Familiar with QuickBooks, Excel, PowerPoint, Word, Google Suite. Comfortable learning
new software systems.
Experience in budgeting and compiling statistics.
Experience with financial modeling and planning.
Enjoys collaborating, change, and new challenges.
Ability to exercise professional judgment in problem solving, use discretion, and maintain
confidentiality.
Organized and able to work independently, prioritize efficiently, and effectively manage
interruptions and time.
WORK SCHEDULE AND BENEFITS:
Flexible part time (50%) schedule, 12 months of the year including paid vacations as specified in personnel policies. Medical, Dental, Vision, retirement, professional development, and child enrollment at the school (subject to application deadlines) are also offered.
BENEFITS & COMPENSATION:
The compensation range for this position is $75K-85K and is competitive and commensurate with similar roles and levels of experience. This part time position comes with benefits, including dental insurance, health insurance, paid time off, professional development, retirement plan, and vision insurance.
TO APPLY
Interested candidates should send a cover letter and resume to Executive Director Kaile Thomas at staffapplicants@littleschool.org. Please write “Application for Finance Director” in the title of the email.
MORE ABOUT THE LITTLE SCHOOL
Philosophy
At The Little School, we focus on the development of the whole child. We celebrate an individual’s strengths, encourage interests and support challenges. We believe that strong positive relationships and a robust, supportive community, where everyone feels respected and included, are the keys to a successful learning environment.
The pillars responsible for bringing our philosophy to life include:
● Quality Early Childhood Education. Early Childhood Education principles and best practices are the foundation of The Little School. Upon this foundation, the school has created its own inclusive, relationship-based approach. This approach has received local and national attention; has been taught in local and national conferences, workshops and consulting engagements; and has been documented in a training film: “Relationships: The Key to Teaching and Learning in the Early Years” and a book “Including One, Including All: A Relationship-Based Guide to Inclusion”.
● Inclusion. The Little School is committed to serving children with diverse developmental profiles including children with identified special needs. A range of children with unique strengths, challenges and interests both strengthens the social competence and empathy of every child in the school and encourages teachers to develop teaching strategies and learning tools that benefit every child.
● Diversity. The Little School strives to create a community with racial, ethnic, socio-economic and family-structure diversity as well as a range of life experiences and abilities. This rich assortment of families creates the potential for each individual member to stretch their cultural competence and communicate in new ways.
● Excellent Teachers. The school is fortunate to have an outstanding and tenured team of teachers. The success and long tenure of our teachers (approximately one-third have tenure of greater than 15 years and one-third 6-15 years) is due to the individuals themselves, to the school’s commitment to professional development and guidance, to teacher involvement in the program’s development, and to the structure of the teacher work week (e.g. 5-7 hours per week off the floor to support the program, children and families).
● Parent – Teacher – School Partnership. Parents at The Little School are actively engaged in the school community. Parents, teachers and administrators collaborate to support each child and the community as a whole. It is a culture of caring and contribution. Each member of the community assists where possible, whether chaperoning a field trip, attending a family share day, participating on a volunteer committee or serving as a Trustee. Parents also come together for Parent Education events focused on topics central to early childhood and The Little School’s core tenets.
