Faculty
Harry Weekes, Head of School, 11/12 Team
Raised on the East Coast until the ripe age of three, Harry moved to Idaho in 1971. He studied Environmental Science, Biology and Studio Art at Middlebury College, and earned his graduate degree in Life Science from the University of Maryland in College Park. After 20 years of teaching and researching topics ranging from how the built environment enhances learning to brain development, he continues his work as an aspiring adolescent anthropologist. Harry founded The Sage School in an effort to fully explore the ideas, methods, and philosophies embodied by the school, and because he believes that including adolescents is essential in creating real and positive change. He is curious about and interested in many things: writing, sketching, Biology, Ecology, watercolor, and agriculture. Harry has a wonderful wife, three children, a dog, two cats, chickens and a smattering of fish.
Chris McAvoy, 6/7 Team
Chris has been teaching for 15 years in independent and charter schools. He has worked to develop a brand new charter school, a Montessori middle school and an Expeditionary Learning curriculum, and he now looks forward to dedicating his energies to The Sage School. Chris worked with Harry at The Community School where long hours of conversations inspired the two to go further into developing an educational system for adolescents. Chris went to the University of Vermont for his undergraduate degree in psychology (with minors in sociology and political science) and completed a master's degree at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Virginia (Ginna) Caye Anderson, 6/7 Team
After graduating from The Community School in Sun Valley, ID, Ginna earned her BA in Psychology from the University of Washington in Seattle. She is passionate about psychology and sociology, Spanish (language, culture, and food), and creative expression through visual art, movement, and writing. She trains in Soo Bahk Do, and believes that one should always be a white belt in something. Always pursuing new challenges, Ginna's first crack at web design produced this website. Ultimately, she hopes to impart to her students her joy of learning, as well as to help guide them on their individual journeys toward adulthood.
Lexie Praggastis, 8/9 Team
Lexie is one of those lucky souls to be born and raised in the Wood River Valley. After graduating from The Community School, Lexie took on the Northeast while studying biochemistry at Colby College. Lexie is currently working toward her Masters in Chemical and Life Sciences at the University of Maryland in College Park. She brought her love of math and science to The Sage School in 2010, and has since been developing a Science Kitchen program that will pair her biochemistry skills with her uncanny ability to destroy perfectly good food! If you don't find Lexie in the kitchen or in the classroom, she'll be out on a river, a trail, or lost in the woods.
Bayard (Bags) Brokaw, 8/9 Team
Bags and his wife, Kerry, are returning to the Wood River Valley after a twenty-year chapter in New Hampshire and Maine. (Bags taught at the Community School when Harry was a senior.) Bags has been an educator for thirty years, having served in both independent and public schools as a history teacher and administrator. He has served as Middle School Director, Dean of Students, Academic Dean/College Counselor, and Head of School in a wide range of educational settings from a new Coalition of Essential Schools to a Waldorf elementary school to a "Maine town academy". Bags has a BA in History/Government and Legal Studies from Bowdoin College and an MA in International Studies from Denver University. He and Kerry have four children and Bags is thrilled to join Harry and The Sage School staff.
Amanda Poitevin, 11/12 Team
A native of Idaho Falls, Amanda graduated from Idaho Falls High School and earned a B.A. in history and French from Wellesley College. While in college, Amanda was an active member of Wellesley Energy and Environmental Defense and spent a semester abroad at the University of Paris IV- Sorbonne. Amanda has dabbled in teaching since high school and recently spent a year teaching beginning and intermediate English in Vladimir, Russia. Amanda enjoys playing the cello and harmonica, studying foreign languages, gardening, fly fishing, and doing detail-oriented crafts.
Nathan Kolar, Spanish and Writing
Nathan was born and raised in Wisconsin but left to attend Williams College in rural Massachusetts, where he met his wife Tenaya, a Hailey native. They migrated west to Santa Cruz, CA so Nathan could complete a Master's in Literature at UCSC. Now, with a two-year-old son in tow, they are thrilled to be settling in the Wood River Valley. Nathan learned Spanish while traveling and studying in Spain, Mexico, and Venezuela, and previously taught History and Literature to students ranging from seventh graders to undergraduates. Outside of school, Nathan is most likely to be found cooking, reading, playing guitar, or hiking in the wilderness.
