The Hill School Mission: The Hill School prepares young people from across the country and around the world for college, careers, and life. Within a family school environment and a rigorous liberal arts curriculum, we challenge our young people to work hard; think and reason; be fulfilled; serve the common good; and be prepared to lead as citizens of the world, uniquely guided by our motto, "Whatsoever Things Are True."

Position Summary

The Hill School seeks a highly skilled and experienced Grounds Manager to lead the stewardship of our historic and dynamic campus. This is a leadership role for an expert in horticulture, landscape design, and construction management who thrives on delivering excellence. The Grounds Manager will oversee the care, safety, and continual enhancement of the school's outdoor spaces, ensuring they reflect the highest standards of beauty, functionality, and sustainability.

The successful candidate will bring deep technical knowledge, proven project management ability, and a strong leadership presence to inspire and guide a dedicated team. this role requires a proactive professional with exceptional judgement the ability to manage complex projects, and a passion for creating and maintaining outdoor environments that enrich the campus community.

Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor, and supervise groundskeeping staff, setting high performance expectations and fostering professional growth.
• Conduct detailed inspections of campus landscapes and systems, developing innovative improvement plans aligned with best practices in grounds management.
• Direct and manage landscaping projects, such as planting trees and shrubs, installing and maintaining irrigation systems, and designing and implementing new outdoor features.
• Ensure the proper care and maintenance of all groundskeeping equipment, including lawn mowers, trimmers, and hand tools.
• Oversee the application of fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides, ensuring best practices in environmental stewardship and regulatory compliance.
• Monitor and maintain the cleanliness of the grounds, including trash removal, leaf blowing, and snow and ice removal during inclement weather.
• Collaborate with other departments, such as maintenance and facilities, to ensure the proper functioning of outdoor amenities and address any issues or repairs in a timely manner.
• Develop and manage the groundskeeping budget, including forecasting expenses, sourcing materials, and evaluating cost-saving opportunities.
• Stay current on industry innovations, sustainability practices and emerging technologies to continually elevate the school's outdoor spaces.

Qualifications

• Extensive professional experience in grounds management, landscaping, or horticulture leadership, preferably in a campus, institutional, or real estate setting.
• Advanced knowledge of horticulture, turf management, irrigation systems, pest control, and sustainable landscape practices.
• Proven success leading and motivating teams, with excellent organizational and project management skills.
• Strong ability to interpret blueprints, manage construction/ renovation projects, and apply modern landscape design principles.
• Proficiency with a wide range of groundskeeping equipment and systems.
• Expertise in safety standards, environmental regulations, and risk management.
• Ability to work independently and make sound decisions in a fast-paced environment.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills to effectively collaborate with staff, stakeholders, and external vendors.
• Flexibility to work evenings, weekends, and holidays as necessary.
• Degree or professional certification in horticulture, landscape management, or a related field strongly preferred.

In addition to the above qualifications, the candidate must: 

• Have  the ability to lift up to 75 pounds.
• Be able to perform the essential duties of the job which involve standing, crouching, sitting, bending, stretching, climbing, and crawling on a regular basis.
• Be able to work both indoors and outdoors in all weather conditions.
• Satisfy the vision requirements including close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and the ability to adjust focus in dimly lit areas. Reasonable accommodation may be considered if the essential functions of the role can be performed.

Attitude and Demeanor                                                                                                            

• Publicly support the mission and vision of The Hill School in a positive and professional manner.
• Work as a dynamic team member in a professional collaborative environment.
• Energetic and organized enough to thrive in an extremely fast-paced environment while collaborating with a growing team to produce great work.
• Ability to wear many hats, learn new things every day, and have the ability to switch from a variety of roles with ease and excitement.
• Communicate effectively with warmth, sensitivity, humor, and understanding as they deal with administrative colleagues, teachers, students, alumni, parents, faculty, staff, and program associates.
• Possess a "service attitude" - willingness to be flexible to meet the needs of the department and school.

About The Hill School

Since its founding in 1851 and for 168 years, The Hill School has provided a traditional liberal arts education to its students. Although The Hill’s curriculum continues to evolve, we have never strayed very far from a proven, rigorous blend of humanities, classics and modern languages, social sciences, mathematics, science, and the arts. For our students, we have prioritized broad knowledge in our steadfast belief that this comprehensive foundation best prepares students for “college, careers, and life.” The Hill School also has begun implementing an ambitious STEM curriculum, which includes one of the most extensive secondary school engineering programs in the nation. We have bolstered our fine arts programs with courses in digital media, video production, design technology, rapid prototyping and fabrication, and design thinking. And, we are offering pre-professional, co-curricular programs in business and entrepreneurship. Over the coming years, we will continue to affirm what we already do very well while honing curricular and co-curricular programs such as leadership training, service learning, experiential education, and interdisciplinary studies. We will find improve...d ways to teach all Hill students 21st century skills such as critical thinking and problem solving, collaboration and leading, agility and adaptability, initiative and entrepreneurship, effective oral and written communication, accessing and analyzing data, and curiosity and imagination. We are working with our Faculty and Staff to become both the most traditional and the most innovative boarding school in the country, simultaneously. The Hill was founded as The Family Boarding School and when you visit campus, you might note that we are still a bit traditional, despite our emphasis on innovation! We follow a dress code, our students regularly sit down with faculty members for family-style meals, we gather twice a week at Chapel for thoughtful reflection; many of our students study Latin and Greek; and we pride ourselves on a student-written Honor Code and demanding code of conduct. We enjoy historic and blossoming traditions such as 130-year-old athletics rivalries, revered a cappella vocal groups, school-wide service projects, community team-building events, small group meetings with caring faculty advisers, and a very special jump in the Dell pond after graduation! Over the next three to five years, the Hill School is set to achieve several accomplishments sure to leave their mark on the School’s history. The School’s Advancement Office is a 25 person-strong organization driven to achieve the goals set forth in the current “Strength of All” capital campaign which is entering its fourth year of the five- to seven-year campaign. The capital campaign will fund many efforts, including a significant increase in our financial aid and faculty compensation endowment. In 2018-2019, we expanded the seating capacity of our historic dining hall and completely renovated our food service and preparation areas used by our food service contractor, Sodexo. In 2019-2020, the School will construct the Quadrivium Center (a STEM facility) where our science, engineering, computer science and mathematics classes will be housed. The School has developed property adjacent to our main campus by recently erecting beautiful new homes for our faculty in our East Faculty Village. This Faculty Housing expansion is likely to continue with additional property available for housing construction to ensure The Hill School offers the very best of this important housing benefit to our residential faculty. One of our most ambitious goals is to be a driving force in the economic revitalization of Pottstown and our immediate neighborhood and through our Hobart’s Run Community Development program and participation in Pottstown CARES, we are finding traction in ways both small and large.

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