What Tasks Does A Preschool Director Do?

You might have been wearing all the “hats” of owner, director, and teacher, but now that you’ve hired a teacher, what tasks does a preschool director do all day?

The teacher spends her day teaching, but there is still plenty left for you to do.

When You First Start Your Preschool…

When you first start out as a preschool owner, especially if you have never taught preschool before and/or you have never hired anyone before, you would be wise to do it all. Covering all the roles of owner, director, and teacher can be exhausting, but doing the teaching yourself, at least for the first year, will give you the experience of what to expect from a teacher.

You may choose to hire a co-teacher so that you can learn together with the intention of turning the teaching job over to them when the next school year starts. But doing the teaching yourself or with a co-teacher will help you know what the teacher is experiencing in the classroom so that you will be better able to support them as the director.

Let Your Teacher Teach

When you do hire a teacher, let your teacher teach. When you go through the hiring process you will choose someone to work with who shares your educational philosophy so you will have the freedom to step back from the day to day management of the classroom and leave that responsibility to your teacher. Be sure you have trained them well so they are well able to handle the teaching responsibilities, without you micromanaging them.

After you hire a teacher, the responsibilities in your preschool should be:

• Teacher—in charge of students, curriculum, classroom
• Director—in charge of preschool families, bringing in new families, supporting the teacher

Work with your teacher to assess the children at the beginning of the year (or when they join your preschool family) and then trust your teacher to get them from where they are to where they need to be at the end of the school year.

What Does The Preschool Director Do?

As the preschool director your new role is to ensure the teacher has a great experience, keep the preschool parents happy, and enroll new students. These are the tasks you will be doing each day:

• Talking to and/or texting your preschool parents
• Talking to and/or texting new families about tours
• Getting new students registered into the school
• Supporting the students who are currently enrolled
• Supporting your teacher
• Overseeing student assessments
• Overseeing curriculum purchases/changes to the curriculum
• Helping to plan events and field trips

Even with someone else in the teacher role, the preschool director will still have plenty to do.