# Job Description: Preschool Director
### [Church Name] · Approved by SPRC [date] · Reviewed [date]

**Reports to:** [the pastor / preschool board] — name one supervisor
**Supervises:** preschool teachers and aides
**Classification:** [full-time / part-time] · [exempt / non-exempt]
**Hours:** [ ] per week, [school-year / year-round]
**Compensation:** [rate], reviewed annually

### Purpose

To lead a safe, developmentally sound, licensed early-childhood program that serves
families well and represents the church faithfully in the community.

### Core responsibilities — **FULL TIME (30–40 hrs)**

**Licensing and compliance**
- Maintain the program's licence in good standing; serve as the named point of
  contact for the licensing agency.
- Maintain required staff-to-child ratios at all times.
- Keep all required records: enrollment, immunization, emergency contacts, incident
  reports, staff files, training hours, and drills.
- Prepare for and respond to inspections; report any citation to the pastor and
  trustees **immediately**, not after it is resolved.

**Staff**
- Recruit, hire, train, schedule, and evaluate teachers and aides `[state who
  approves hiring — the church's SPRC, a preschool board, or the director within a
  budget]`.
- Ensure every staff member's background check, training hours, and credentials are
  current before their first day and continuously thereafter.
- Maintain substitute coverage that meets licensing standards.

**Program**
- Oversee curriculum and developmentally appropriate practice.
- Maintain the classroom environment, equipment, and supplies within budget.
- Handle enrollment, waiting lists, tuition billing, and family communication.

**Church relationship**
- Coordinate use of shared space with the church calendar — the single most common
  source of friction between a preschool and its host congregation.
- Report to [the pastor / council / preschool board] on a stated cycle.
- Work with trustees on facility, safety, and playground matters (¶2533).

### At **HALF TIME (15–20 hrs)** — what changes

Realistic only for a small part-day program. Compliance, staff records, and
licensing contact **do not reduce** — they are the same volume regardless of program
size, and a church halving the hours without moving that work has simply made it
happen after hours.

Move: tuition billing and enrollment administration to the church administrator;
curriculum oversight to a lead teacher; family communication shared with lead
teachers.

### At **QUARTER TIME (8–10 hrs)** — what changes

Be skeptical. A licensed program with a quarter-time director usually means either
the director is working unpaid hours or something is being missed — and what gets
missed is documentation, which is what licensing inspects.

If the program is genuinely tiny or license-exempt, the role becomes: licensing
contact, staff records, scheduling, and family communication, with a lead teacher
carrying the classroom and the administrator carrying billing. Write it that way,
and **check the hours against reality after one term** rather than after a year.

### Qualifications

- Meets your state's **director qualification standard** — this is set by licensing
  and is not negotiable; look it up before writing the posting.
- Early-childhood credential or degree as required by the state.
- Current CPR, first aid, and any state-mandated training.
- Administrative competence: records, budgets, schedules.

### Screening — required

Background check to the standard your state's licensing requires — which is often
more extensive than the church's ordinary check — before the first day, plus the
church's own Safe Gatherings-type training. State requirements are the floor, not
the ceiling.

### Working conditions

Program hours plus preparation; occasional evening events and parent meetings;
active work with young children.

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**This is a starting point, not legal advice.** Employment law varies by state, and your annual conference may have policies that go beyond the Discipline. Before you rely on anything here for a hiring, firing, or compensation decision, run it past your conference office or chancellor.

Paragraph references are to the 2020/2024 Book of Discipline. This document paraphrases; for the binding text, see the Discipline itself.

From Itineracy Commons — https://itineracy.app/commons/jobs/preschool-director/
Licensed CC BY 4.0. Adapt it freely; keep the attribution.
Last updated 2026-07-22.