|
|
 |
 About Us> Mission • History • Faculty & Staff • Employment
Louis O'Prussack - Director, Spring Street International School BA, Classics, Oberlin College MA, Educational Leadership, Columbia University Louis O’Prussack is the new Director of SSIS. Louis officially joined the school on July 1, 2008. A teacher and administrator for over 18 years, Louis O’Prussack has lived throughout the U.S. and, for a time, abroad in France. For the last 16 years, he has been Assistant Head of School at a small, college preparatory boarding-day school in Ojai, California. The Besant Hill School has a strong focus on creative expression and Louis taught mathematics and physics, in addition to his administrative duties. He and his wife Jennifer are very excited to be moving back to the Northwest, and to be bringing their two young children, Caeden and Aiyana to a place that they love. The whole family is looking forward with great anticipation to living in a place where the word community has real depth and meaning behind it, and where integrity, understanding, and compassion are a vital part of the fabric of the community. A graduate of Oberlin College with a B.A. in Classics, Louis briefly attended medical school, studied mathematics at the University of Washington for 15 months, and recently received his M.A. in Educational Leadership at Columbia University. His most enriching moments continue to take place in the classroom with students, and he looks forward to continuing to teach in addition to his other responsibilities as Director of Spring Street International School.
Peg Hope – College Counselor, Latin, Language Arts, Mathematics, World Religions BA, World Religions, Lawrence University (magna cum laude) Peg is the founder of Spring Street School and served as Director for its first nine years. Peg’s teaching has covered many areas of the middle and high school curriculum and she plays a major role in Spring Street’s international travel study program. She served as Department Head for Language Arts and Math at the Stanford High School in Redmond, Washington, where she also had primary responsibilities for college preparatory program, staff training, curriculum development, and diagnostic and vocational testing. She currently serves on the board of the San Juan Nature Institute.
Ted Hope -- Social Studies, Overseas Travel Coordinator, Director/Institute for Village Studies MA, International Politics/History, University of Wisconsin BA, Asian Studies/Political Science (cum laude), Lawrence University Ted began teaching at Spring Street School in 1995 as a founding faculty member. He has taught a wide variety of social studies, college preparatory and language arts classes over the past 30 years. He was the Executive Director of the Stanford Middle and High Schools in Redmond, Washington, for 10 years, and has held positions on a wide variety of boards including the San Juan Schools Foundation Board and the Board of Directors at the Whale Museum in Friday Harbor. Ted directs our high school annual travel study trips to South and Southeast Asia.
Del Guenther -- Middle School Mathematics and Science B.S. Biology (honors) S.U.N.Y.- Brockport, New York M.A. Zoology University of South Florida, Tampa, FL. Del grew up in eastern Washington. His first teaching experience was at an inner city middle school in Rochester, N.Y. Next he taught math and science workshops for teachers as Peace Corps Volunteer in Peru. He has also taught at Columbia school in Hunters, WA. and 3 years teaching in Australia, including one year as an exchange teacher. He was a graduate teaching assistant at the University of South Florida. He taught for 25 years in the Central Valley School District in Spokane, Wash. He taught both high school and middle school. In 2002 he was chosen to part of the founding faculty of Summit School, a choice school where he was in charge of science instruction. He has been a part of the Washington State Science Assessment Leadership team since 2001. Del has taught at Spring Street International School since 2007.
Grisha Krivchenia --Music and Humanities BM (composition) Oberlin College Grisha Krivchenia, is a composer and multi-instrumentalist who has recently settled down on San Juan Island. He completed his training at Oberlin Conservatory, where he studied piano with Sedmara Rutstein and composition with Lewis Nielson and Jeffrey Mumford. Several professional ensembles have performed his works, including Arraymusic (Toronto) and the Cleveland Chamber Symphony. This year, he finished a commission for the Blue Rose Trio (Los Angeles). He also teaches piano lessons in Friday Harbor and performs regularly on the island. Grisha comes to Spring Street with five summers of experience teaching at gifted education programs at Duke and Stanford. He is delighted to be helping start the Community Recording Studio at SSIS, which will be available to all of San Juan Island's young musicians.
John Phillips – High School Physical Science and Math BA Chemistry, Western Maryland College Ph.D. Chemistry, Purdue University Dr. John Phillips has both a BA (Western Maryland College) and a PhD (Purdue University) in Chemistry. He is a veteran teacher with over thirty years of both college and high school science teaching experience. Because of his passion for teaching and technology, he has also worked extensively in the integration of technology in K-12 classrooms, serving most recently as the Director of Educational Technology at Forest Ridge School in Bellevue, Washington, where he directed the school’s 1:1 laptop program. Dr. Phillips is also a co-author of a popular high school chemistry textbook: Chemistry: Concepts and Applications, McGraw-Hill, 2008. He is delighted to be joining the faculty at Spring Street International School. He adds: “I have three lovely daughters. The oldest, Beth, is currently a Peace Corps volunteer in Uganda, where she works in an agricultural community as a youth HIV/AIDS educator; next is Kate, a 2008 graduate of Lewis & Clark College., who will head to Thailand in September to teach English on a Fulbright scholarship for the next year; and last, but not least, Maddy, who is a 2008 high school graduate and is headed to the University of Redlands in southern California for college, where she hopes to major in ethnic studies and Spanish, as well as play for the soccer and lacrosse teams. I love the outdoors, and given my new location, am in the market for a kayak. I am also an avid bicyclist, who after years of Seattle/Bellevue car traffic, is contemplating being “car-free” on the island. I’m also into applied microbiology, as I am a serious hobby baker (sourdough is a specialty), and a home brewer. I love yeast!”
Heather June – High School English Language Arts BA Philosophy - University of Colorado at Boulder MA English - Wester Washington University MA Education - Seattle Pacific University People and their stories fascinate Heather. By the third grade, she was voraciously collecting detail and writing it down. A great fan of the creative power of the word, she believes that story is a key to our survival and ability to thrive in this era of accelerated change. Heather writes both fiction and non-fiction, and holds master’s degrees in English (from Western Washington University) and in Education (from Seattle Pacific University). She got her BA in Philosophy from University of Colorado at Boulder. She loves gardening in the islands, hiking, camping, and snowboarding in the mountains, and singing around a campfire. Nature fuels her spirit. A former gymnast, she enjoys the kinesthetic learning of acrobatics and dance. When teaching, Heather asks questions that generate awareness not only of what we are thinking, but also of how we are thinking. She looks forward with great pleasure to teaching high school students and Spring Street International School. Her son, Jed Lewis, will enter the 7th grade at SSIS.
Olga Donoro – Spanish BA Geography and History - University of Cadiz MA History - Univeristy of Cadiz Olga comes to us directly from Spain, where she is a Ph.D. Candidate (Medicine) at the University of Cadiz (Spain). She has a M.A. (History) from the University of Cadiz (Spain); her thesis was called: Demographic Structures of Puerto Real (Cadiz) in the Reign of Isabel II of Spain (summa cum laude). It was published as a book in 2002 by the University of Cadiz with the title Puerto Real in the XIX century. She also has a B.A. in Geography and History, University of Cadiz (Spain), where she studied the demographical and social bases of development. Olga started to teach Spanish as a foreign language in 1998 in Gadir, an International School for learning Spanish in Cadiz (Spain). Between 1999-2001 Olga was instructor at the University of Cadiz of History of European Population (XIX-XX) and Social and Political History (XIX-XX). From 2006 to 2008, May, she worked as instructor of Spanish as a foreign language in K2 Internacional in Cadiz (Spain), accredited center of the Instituto Cervantes. In addition, during this time she was head of studies, coordinator of activities, designer of programs and materials for teaching, instructor of teachers of Spanish, and examiner in DELE exams (Official Diploma in Spanish as a Foreign Language) of the Instituto Cervantes.
Merideth Block – Middle School Humanities BA Human Development and Social Relations - Earlham College MA Education - Chapman University Merideth “Meri” Block has been teaching in some form or another since 1994. She attended Earlham College and received her BA in Human Development and Social Relations. After working several years as a psychiatric social worker, she moved with her husband, Erik, to Japan to teach English. While there, she discovered that she preferred teaching to social work. They moved to Monterey, California in 2000, when she began teaching 7th grade English at Brownell Academy in Gilroy, CA. While teaching full time, she completed her credential and went on to complete her Master of Arts in Education from Chapman University. After another two year sojourn in Tokyo learning Japanese, and discovering that she is no housewife, she came back to California where she taught Humanities to sixth and seventh graders at Gideon Hausner Jewish Day School from 2005 through 2008.
Michael Balise - Technology PhD, Geophysics, University of Washington BS, Atmospheric Science, University of Washington BSFR, Forest Science, University of Washington Michael started teaching at Spring Street International School in 1999, and has taught classes here ranging from middle school science to AP calculus. He also teaches at Skagit Valley College, and has taught as far away as Antarctica. He is currently maintaining the SSIS computer network and helping with information technology. His other interests include kayaking, climbing up mountains, skiing down mountains, and carpentry. Michael's two sons Jamie and Jonathan both graduated from SSIS and he is very proud of them! His wife Magda works on the island as a kayak guide and graphic artist.
Eric Kessler, Adjunct Faculty - Experiential Education Coordinator
Administrative Staff Jerome Riley, Director of Operations BA, Communication Arts, Fordham University Teaching Certification, Secondary, State University of New York Jerry joined SSIS after a successful career in marketing and sales in the publishing and graphic arts industry. He has served in a variety of management positions, including Director of Marketing for Atex Publishing Systems, an Eastman Kodak Co. and as Sales Director and National Accounts Director for various companies in the publishing sector. Jerry taught English briefly in New York public schools and combines an educational background with a varied business career. Jerry is responsible for recruiting, fund raising, administrative management and financial oversight.
|
|
|