As part of the city budget adopted last fall, the Common Council approved the creation of a new director level position to champion early childhood education in Milwaukee.

The Office of Early Childhood Initiatives (OECI) Director is responsible for the establishment and operation of the new OECI and represents the City of Milwaukee’s interest in and commitment to ensuring that all Milwaukee children have equitable opportunities for their social, emotional, and intellectual development through access to high quality and research-based services and programs with a special focus on Milwaukee’s 4 Promise Zones.

The duties of the director will include working with an appointed Community Advisory Council to achieve these and other goals recommended by the city’s Early Education Task Force:

• • Improve quality child care practice, access, and support.
  • Strengthen and support a career path for early childhood educators, particularly among people of color.
  • Increase community commitment to support parent education regarding brain development and the importance of developmental screenings of children from birth to three years.
  • Develop policy and provide support to early childhood education initiatives and programs.

The Director will be in a position to create great change as we work to put in place a comprehensive and unified early childhood education approach that serves all children, and especially those children in targeted areas where we know there is a wide achievement gap.

The Director will be working to increase enrollment of children ages 0-3 in quality early education services and programs, informing parents and caregivers of opportunities (using communication strategies that reach families in targeted areas of the city), building trust, and inspiring action.

We urge qualified applicants to learn more about this position here — https://bit.ly/2O9Rm09 — and we ask any interested partners, stakeholders and organizations to help spread the word about this critical opening.