News

Dear Charles Wright Community,

The Board of Trustees is excited to announce that we have named Rachel Rippl as the Interim Head of School through the remainder of the school year.

Rachel bleeds green. She has profound support amongst the faculty, staff, and families as she has proven her skills through her leadership, including a multi-year award-winning Middle School. Rachel has been preparing for this role for some time. This year she began participating in the National Association of Independent Schools Aspiring School Heads Fellowship program and is receiving support from the Board and mentorship from another Head of School. Rachel has an extensive understanding of our greater campus community and what is needed to move us forward at this critical time. We are confident that the school is in good hands this year. Thank you, Rachel, for showing up for CWA and our students time and time again. 

Last week, Rachel announced that Crysta Swarts-Gillison will be taking the role of Middle School Assistant Director.

Additionally, Rachel is pleased to announce that Laurel Webster is taking on the role of Interim Upper School Director through the end of the school year while continuing with some of her classes. Laurel began her career at CWA as a math teacher in 2005 and has served in multiple leadership roles, including Interim Upper School Director from 2018 to 2019. Rachel will email additional information to the community this afternoon about the Upper School staffing in light of this change. A search for a long-term Upper School Director will begin soon.

In a recent correspondence, the Board stated that families, faculty, and staff would be included in the long-term Head of School search. We look forward to a strong partnership with the CWA community as we work to fill this critical position of leadership. We continue to welcome feedbac​k as we work through these extraordinary circumstances and will have a more formal process of checking in with our community again this winter. We are thankful for your patience as we navigate the upcoming months. 

As we continue to grieve the loss of Chris Gorycki, we want to thank all who came out last Friday to celebrate his life and impact and all that he accomplished at CWA in three short months. It was a heartwarming day, and greatly appreciated by his family who spent all day on the campus that Chris came to love, including an evening on the sideline of the football field, jumping and cheering for the team who donned the initials “CG” on their helmets, and receiving hugs from each member of the volleyball team, who decorated a chair with balloons for their missing faithful cheerleader. To this lovely family, thank you for sharing Chris with us. His legacy will live on, as will his important place in our history. “Once a Tarrier, always a Tarrier.”

In Partnership,

The CWA Board of Trustees

Aimee Allen (P ‘19)

Drew Bamford ‘91

Adam Blakney ‘00 (P ‘33, ’32)

Dr. Guillermo Chacon (P ‘34, ‘11)

Wendy Cochran (P ‘31, ‘19, ‘17)

Emily Happy (P ‘32)

Hillary Hearn (P ‘38, ‘36)

Dr. David Hirschberg ‘80 (P ‘17)

Diane Hunt (P ‘06)

Christian Mattson (P ‘37, ‘35)

Toby Murray ‘71 (P ‘02, GP ‘38)

Ben Sclair ‘88 (P ‘24, ‘19, ‘17)

Nicole Stice (P ‘29, ‘27, ‘24)

Sarah Weyerhaeuser (P ‘11, ‘09, ‘07)

Trevor Will ‘93 (P ‘27, ‘24)

Dori Young (P ‘16, ‘14)

EXCELLENCE • COMPASSION • INTEGRITY • RESPECT • PERSEVERANCE