Harbor School Welcomes New Faculty

 Harbor School is pleased to announce the addition of two new faculty members to our campus for the start of the 2016-17 school year and the launch of a new K-8 Spanish program. Please welcome Russell Ray as our new K-8 Spanish Teacher and Todd Wooster as our Middle School English Teacher.

Russell Ray and our new K-8 Spanish Program
Russell Ray joins us as our new K-8 Spanish teacher, an expanded role from Harbor School’s previous Spanish language offering. With the uniting of Carpe Diem Primary and Harbor School in 2015, the Board of Trustees, along with our new Head of School, Mark McGough, are laying the foundation for a new approach to language instruction that begins as soon as children enter our school in Kindergarten and ends when they graduate 8th grade.

“I am thrilled that someone with Russell’s knowledge and experience has accepted this new position at our school. I am excited to work alongside him as we lay the foundation for a strong, dynamic K-8 Spanish program at our school.”    Mark McGough, Head of School

Russell Ray comes to Harbor School from The Bush School, a private independent school in Seattle, where he has served as the Chair of the K-12 World Languages Department and taught Kindergarten through 5th Grade. Prior to his work with The Bush School, Russell has taught pre-school through 3rd grade at Heritage Hall School in Oklahoma City and also taught Spanish at the University of Oklahoma. Russell is a Certified Master Teacher with the Oklahoma State Department of Education, a National Board Certified Teacher (World Languages Other than English) and in 2008 and 2009 was recognized as Teacher of the Year by the Oklahoma Foreign Language Teachers’ Association and the Southwest Conference on Language Teaching respectively.

Russell received his Bachelor of Arts in Spanish from the University of Central Oklahoma, and completed graduate work in Instructional Leadership and Curriculum at the University of Oklahoma. Russell and his family have lived on Vashon for the past 3 years where he has also served as a trustee on the Board for Vashon Center for the Arts.

Todd Wooster Joins Middle School Faculty
Harbor School is pleased to welcome Todd Wooster as our Middle School English teacher. Most recently, Todd has spent four years on the faculty at Seacrest Country Day School, an independent school in Naples, Florida, where he has also taught Middle School English for the past 2 years. Todd received his Bachelor of Art with a Major in English from Dartmouth College and is completing his Masters in English Studies from the Universite de Lyon 2 in France – his thesis is 20th Century American Poetry.

In the words of Steven E. Caruso, Middle School Head at Seacrest Country Day School, Todd “exudes the same energy whether he is teaching 8th grade literature, spearheading the organic garden, working with his advisory group or introducing French to 6th grade students.”

With close family residing on Vashon, Todd is pleased to return to the Pacific Northwest.