Additional Staff Roles and Responsibilities

Besides the teaching staff, additional peripheral staff will be needed to meet the needs of Christian Life Academy.  The following is a description of each position needed and their corresponding roles and responsibilities:

Accountant/Bookkeeper: An accountant will be needed to handle the finances of the school.  This person will also be responsible for overseeing the budget, making purchases (at the request of the Principal), maintaining records of all receipts and canceled checks, and tracking service hours for the families that must contribute through service rather than financial support.  Each year, the accountant, Principal, Honduran Director, and Rector will work together to develop an annual budget and operating plan based on the finances available to the school.

Sponsorship Coordinator: Every student attending Christian Life Academy will be sponsored by individuals or organizations.  It is of utmost importance that the sponsors are kept informed of the students and their progress.  Each student will be required to write letters to their sponsors as part of their English Language Arts curriculum.  The Sponsorship Coordinator will also send copies of the students’ grades to the sponsors so they can see how their sponsored child is doing in school.  It is the responsibility of the school to provide remedial help to any child that is struggling, and send regular updates to the sponsors about how the child is responding to any remedial help offered.  Sponsors have the right to know how their investment is making a difference in the life of their sponsored student.

Nurse: Since the school will be located close to the Christian Life Church, there will be a need to staff a full-time nurse at the church’s health clinic.  The nurse would be responsible for keeping all the students’ health records and being available to receive students who are sick or have other ailments.    The nurse will regularly check the height and weight of the children to monitor for malnutrition, work with the cafeteria staff to create healthy meals and snacks, and work with the teachers to demonstrate good hygiene practices to the students.  If the students are also part of the Compassion International program, the nurse would also be responsible for communicating with the CDI director about medications the students may need. Since the church’s clinic has been funded by churches in Switzerland and Puerto Rico, the nurse would also be responsible for communicating with the Christian Life Church Pastors about the school’s use of the clinic.

Facilities Manager: Any time there is a facility with a lot of children, there is also a high level of cleaning and maintenance needed.  The facilities manager will be a Honduran local who will be responsible for the general cleaning and maintenance of the school.

Cafeteria Manager: The students will be receiving breakfast, lunch, and at least one snack per day.  There will need to be a cafeteria manager who plans the monthly menus with the school nurse and helps to oversee the kitchen, prepare meals, and manage parent volunteers who need to complete service hours.  The parent volunteers will be responsible to help prepare the meals, wash dishes, deliver snack at recess, supervise the students, and keep the cafeteria clean.  Parents will be under the supervision and authority of the cafeteria manager.

Psychologist/Social Worker: All of the children attending Christian Life Academy will be coming from homes of poverty.  Most of these families are dysfunctional, with no father, or different men moving in and out of relationship with the mother.  Many of the neighborhoods are also crime and gang infested.  The children will be at high social risk, so having a psychologist or social worker on staff is essential.  Many of the children will need emotional healing as well as spiritual healing, and some may also be in situations of physical or sexual abuse.  Having some type of counselor on hand will be important to the healthy development of the whole child.

Human Resources Manager: Having Honduran staff requires a person who will oversee the rights and responsibilities of that staff.  The HR person will be responsible for ensuring that the staff receives their salary every two weeks, and that all their benefits and social responsibilities are paid, such as Social Security, RAP (retirement), INPREMA (union dues) and the 13^th and 14^th months, which are all rights for workers under Honduran law.  The HR person will also be part of the interview process for new hires, will maintain confidential employee files, and will monitor employee attendance, vacation, and maternity leave, if necessary.  If staff needs to be let go, the HR person will work with the Department of Labor to calculate severance pay.  Overall, the HR person will be responsible for making sure that Christian Life Academy is complying with all Honduran labor laws.

Administrative Assistant: The administrative assistant will have the most global role of all the employees.  She will be the first point of contact for parents or other visitors when they first enter the school.  The administrative assistant will answer the phone, write documents for both the principal and director, make copies for the teachers, and distribute notices to the teachers from the administration.  She will also create and maintain the confidential student files, making sure they have the required documents.  The administrative assistant will keep the attendance records, and call parents when a child has an unreported absence.  She will also be responsible for receiving the monthly contribution from the families, writing receipts for them, and reporting income received with the receipt copies to the Accountant.

Translator (English/Spanish): Since the students will be writing letters and receiving letters from their sponsors, a translator will be needed to translate the written correspondence until the students achieve a level of proficiency to read and write the letters entirely in English.