Principal Jobs in Portland, OR

This job is open until July 8th, 2026. Applications will be reviewed as received. Portland Public Schools reserves the right to make a hiring decision at any point during the posting period.

Anticipated Hiring Timeline
To support an efficient selection process, candidates should be available to participate in the following:

• 
  Application Closing Date: July 8, 2026
  
• Interview with Senior Directors: July 9th - 10th, 2026
• Community Interview: July 14th, 2026
  
• Final Interview with the Superintendent (for selected finalists): July 15, 2026

Please ensure you are available for these dates prior to submitting your application, as we anticipate adhering to this interview timeline.

Vernon K-8

A comprehensive neighborhood K-8 school located in Northeast Portland, serving a diverse community. At Vernon, we believe every student deserves to be known, valued, challenged, and loved. In partnership with families and the community, we strive to create an inclusive, equitable, and engaging learning environment where students develop the knowledge, skills, and confidence to thrive as compassionate, critical thinkers and active contributors to their communities. Our staff is committed to fostering a culture of belonging where every student experiences rigorous, meaningful learning and strong relationships that support their academic, social, and emotional growth.

Vernon offers students a rich educational experience from kindergarten through eighth grade, including comprehensive core instruction, special education services, English Language Development, Talented and Gifted services, arts, music, physical education, library, world language, and a variety of middle school electives. Students also benefit from robust partnerships with organizations such as SUN School, Latino Network, POIC, which provide additional academic, enrichment, and social-emotional supports.Vernon serves approximately 521 students. The student population includes 54% White, 17% Multiracial, 14% Black/African American, 14% Hispanic/Latino, and 1% Asian students, creating a vibrant learning community where students benefit from diverse perspectives and experiences. Our diversity is one of our greatest strengths and is reflected in our commitment to equity, culturally responsive teaching, and ensuring every student has access to high-quality learning opportunities and a strong sense of belonging.

About this Role
School Principals of Portland Public Schools (PPS), serve as the key leaders, and core unit of change and success for each of our 81 Elementary, Middle, PK-8 and High school campuses, together serving more than 42,000 students in Portland, Oregon. Our Principals ensure that their schools fulfill PPS’s mission to provide rigorous, high-quality academic learning experiences that are inclusive and joyful for each of our students. PPS Principals work daily to disrupt racial inequities and create vibrant environments for every student to demonstrate excellence. They accomplish this by championing a shared vision for their schools, developing collective efficacy among teachers and staff, engaging the parent community, and centering student voice in key decision-making.

Key Responsibilities (REPRESENTATIVE DUTIES)

Develop and enact a shared vision, mission, and goals for the high-quality education, academic success, and well-being of each student.

• Develop and promote, collaboratively, an instructional vision informed by data and high expectations for all students.
• Build collective ownership among key stakeholders, including families, to achieve ambitious, academic and social outcomes.
• Ensure consistent learning expectations for every student, with differentiated pathways to achievement.
  Monitor and transparently share progress toward goals and outcomes throughout the year.

Enable intellectually rigorous, culturally responsive, and coherent systems of curriculum, instruction, and assessment.

• Ensure instructional practice that is intellectually challenging and culturally responsive, and promotes student academic success, love of learning, and healthy sense of self.
• Employ valid assessments that are consistent with knowledge of child learning and development and technical standards of learning.
• Enable continuous school improvement in partnership with staff, parents, and community members; build improvement plans and utilize information systems to track progress on school performance objectives and academic excellence indicators.
• Ensure equitable access to curriculum standards, programs, and materials regardless of race or achievement levels.
• Develop measurable goals for student growth; align with PPS Milestones and/or the PPS Equity Goals; collect baseline and progression data to identify and implement strategies for improvement. Identify implementation actions and regularly report on progress.

Cultivate an inclusive, caring, and supportive school climate and culture.

• Build and maintain a safe, caring, and healthy school environment that meets the academic, social, emotional, and physical needs of each student.
• Create and sustain a school environment in which each student is known, accepted and valued, trusted and respected, cared for, and encouraged to be an active and responsible member of the school community.
• Establish a school atmosphere that is non-bureaucratic, welcoming, upbeat, and solution-oriented.
• Manage a positive student behavior system; promote social justice; ensure student discipline is appropriate and equitable.

Build the collective efficacy of school personnel in critical pedagogy, leadership, and reflective inquiry

• Recruit, hire, support, develop, and retain effective, culturally responsive, and caring teachers and other professional staff.
• Plan for and manage staff turnover and succession, providing opportunities for effective induction and mentoring of new personnel.
• Build shared leadership teams which reflect diverse perspectives.
• Foster continuous improvement by providing professional development and communities of practice to strengthen employees’ knowledge and skills to achieve outcomes envisioned for each student.
• Deliver actionable, timely, and relevant feedback through valid, research-anchored systems of supervision, observation, and evaluation to support the development of teachers’ and staff members’ knowledge, skills, and practice.

Engage families and community in meaningful, reciprocal, and mutually beneficial ways to promote each student’s academic success and well-being

• Actively engage and advocate for historically underserved families of color, including those whose first language may not be English, as essential partners in their student’s education, school planning and decision-making.
• Enable regular and open two-way communication with families and the community about the school, students, needs, problems, and accomplishments.
• Maintain a presence in the community to understand its strengths and needs, develop productive relationships, and engage its resources for the school.+
• Manage school operations and equitably distribute resources to promote each student’s academic success and well-being
• Equitably distribute resources to students who have been historically marginalized due to their race, class, culture and language, gender and sexual orientation, and disability or special status.
• Supervise or delegate all school operations, including daily school activities, the development of class schedules, teacher and school support staff assignments, and extracurricular activity schedules.
• Manage and report on various school budgets and finances; ensure compliance with PPS procedures, policies and state and federal requirements.
• Strategically manage staff resources, assigning and scheduling teachers and staff to roles and responsibilities that optimize their professional capacity to address each student’s learning needs
• Be responsible, ethical, transparent, and accountable stewards of the school’s monetary and non-monetary resources, engaging in effective budgeting and accounting practices;

Other duties as assigned.

Competencies:

• Influencer: Ability to co-create and champion a shared vision of a racially equitable school
• Active Advocate: Engages partners from a strengths-based stance and connects genuinely, emotionally, and experientially to communities most impacted by disparities
• Instructional Strategist: Cultivates accountability for equitable academic excellence. Uses a wide array of qualitative and quantitative data to drive instructional improvement cycles and develops collective efficacy in critical pedagogy. Intentionally advocates for and allocates equitable human, instructional, and partnership resources through systems, policies, and practices.
• Accountable Reformer: Cultivates a culture of belonging, care, inclusion, fairness, and high expectations; and identifies, interrogates, and interrupts all instances of inequity, harm, or oppression through adaptive action
• Effective Communicator: Models transparency and intentionality; Leads with trust to co-construct a culture in a school that normalizes productively working through challenges in pursuit of shared equity goals
• Critically Conscious Practitioner: Models and practices strategic reflective inquiry

Expected Leadership Outcomes:

• Theory of action with evidence-based practices, measures of evidence of adult actions, and measure of evidence for students
• Measurable student learning goals and metrics are established; inequities in outcomes identified; and self-monitoring routines are actively used by staff to measure and monitor academic progress
• Measurable School Climate goals and metrics are established; Self-Monitoring Routines related to school climate are articulated and actively maintained by staff
• Person or Team Responsible are identified for key actions, with due dates for every specific strategy
• Stakeholder Engagement and Partnership are identified as part of each strategic and measurable goal; Successful Schools Survey consulted within plans
• Resource audits and staffing plans support school success

Knowledge of:

• Research-based instructional strategies and models for improving instructional practices for all students.
• K-12 Education public schools’ laws, policies and guidelines related to administration, curriculum and leadership.
• District labor organizations and collective bargaining agreements.

Minimum Qualifications:

A State of Oregon issued Administrative License is required at the time of appointment.

Experience:

• A minimum of two (2) years of successful school administrative leadership experience in an educational setting with demonstrated results in improving the academic performance of students required.
• Experience working in a richly diverse school community and environment and bilingual or multilingual skills are preferred.
• Experience working in a bilingual school environment is preferred.

Special Requirements:

Positions in this classification may require the use of a personal automobile and possession of a valid Class C Oregon driver’s license.

Work hours will routinely include on- and off-campus evening and weekend activities and meetings and district, school and student functions.

Working Conditions

The conditions herein are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Persons with certain disabilities may be capable of performing the essential duties of this class with or without reasonable accommodation, depending on the nature of the disability.

Work Environment: Work is performed primarily in an elementary, middle, K-8 and/or High School campus environment with extensive student, parent and public contact and frequent interruptions. Work hours will routinely include on- and off-campus evening and weekend activities, meetings and district, school and student functions.

Hazards: Potential conflict situations.

Physical Demands: Primary functions require sufficient physical ability and mobility to work in a school office and campus setting; dexterity of hands and fingers to operate a computer keyboard and other office equipment; sitting, standing and walking for extended periods of time; kneeling, bending at the waist; lifting, pushing, pulling and carrying school equipment, supplies and materials weighing up to 25 pounds; repetitive hand movement and fine coordination to use a computer keyboard; emotional stability to work effectively under pressure and to keep all aspects of the job under control; hearing and speaking to exchange information in person or on the telephone; seeing to read, prepare and assure the accuracy of documents.

Salary Range: $155,565 - $167,526

Portland Public Schools (PPS) offers several competitive and comprehensive benefit packages to employees. Fringe benefits include medical, dental, vision, prescription, life and disability insurance, employee assistance program, 403(b) retirement savings plan and various leave and professional development programs. Depending on the insurance option selected by the employee, there may be an employee contribution toward insurance.

Portland Public Schools is a public employer and participates in the Public Employees Retirement System (PERS/OPSRP). Eligible employees are required by statute to contribute 6% of salary on a pre-tax basis to OPSRP/IAP, after serving six months under a PERS employer.

For more information about additional benefits or compensation options by employee group, please visit our website at: https://www.pps.net/Page/1635