Sixth Grade | Seventh Grade | Eighth Grade
Sixth Grade
Kevin McDonald
Mr. McDonald was born and raised in Santa Rosa. He graduated from Carleton College in Minnesota where he played on the soccer team and worked in the arboretum. After college Kevin spent four years in Tokyo teaching English, studying Japanese, and learning karate. He then returned to California, where he has been teaching for twenty years, most recently at the French-American School in Santa Rosa and Terra Linda High School in San Rafael. Kevin holds a multiple-subject credential and single-subject credentials in science and math. He believes that the key to teaching is making connections to the real world, whether it is wildlife conservation, economics, or sports statistics. Kevin still plays soccer, and on the weekends he enjoys attending concerts and art shows with his wife. He has been to six of the seven continents, and he plans on adding Antarctica to the list in the near future.
Seventh Grade
Rick Betz holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Creative Writing/Literature from UC Santa Cruz and a Masters Degree in Education. He joined the Novato Charter School in 2003.
Eighth Grade
Mr. Kinney holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California Santa Barbara and a teaching credential from Dominican University of California. Both as an educator and a parent, Mr. Kinney has been involved in education reform through his work with innovative charter schools.
Mr. Kinney specializes in teaching science and he is credentialed in both Physics and Biology/Life Sciences. He has been teaching at NCS since 2007.
