During the 2023-2024 school year, our school welcomed many new staff members, one of which is the new creative writing and freshman English teacher Babby Skowyra. Mrs. Skowyra came to Glacier Peak from Kamiak High School and has taught for 32 years. “Glacier Peak has been the wind in my sails. Everyday someone on the staff makes themselves available to me. Every day somebody stops in, somebody says, ‘how’s your day’ and means it, they have the best lean-in energy here and they’re the epidemy of team players,” Mrs. Skowyra said.  

Another new teacher is Glacier Peak’s alumni Jaxson Sweum. He graduated in 2018 and is the brother of now senior Karsten Sweum. Mr. Sweum is a geometry and algebra two with trigonometry teacher and this is his second year of teaching. “All the staff has been very welcoming and very nice to me. They have given me materials that I need and they’re always asking if I’m doing all right. The students have been amazing too, realizing that I’m new here just being a second-year teacher, so I’m not as experienced as some of the other people so it’s going to be a learning experience and I’m glad that they understand,” Mr. Sweum said.  

Finally, Glacier Peak gained a Spanish one teacher, Matthew Mulka who is in year 21 of teaching. Mr. Mulka previously taught at Kamiak for two years and before that for 19 years he taught overseas. Some countries that Mr. Mulka taught at before coming back to Washington were Oman, Uzbekistan, Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico, Czech Republic, Ukraine, and Croatia. “The staff is wonderful and the students who have met me are very nice kids. They seem to like me, and they treat me well. The school is a great place to work. I love the leadership, the energy of the students, the views from the portables, and the feeling of being a Grizzly,” Mr. Mulka said.