A new school year means many new faces and wide eyes roaming the halls of Wayzata High School, both staff and students alike. This year, there will be a total of 24 new staff members joining the Wayzata High School community. Below is a list of the names of every new staff member and a few details about them. If you see them in the hallway, please give them a warm Wayzata welcome!
Art/Music:
Name: Per Gibralson
Will be teaching: Sculpture 1, Graphic Design 1, and Comic Arts 1
Years in education: this will his 8th year of teaching
Fun fact/hobby: He can still dunk a basketball at the age of 32
Name: Elijah Leer
Will be teaching: Choir (Varsity Choir, Cantori, Troubadours)
Years in education: 4
Fun fact/hobby: When he’s not teaching, he enjoys playing piano and eating large amounts of food
English/Language Arts:
Name: Sarah Gohman
Will be teaching: English 10 and Creative Writing
Years in education: 32
Fun fact/hobby: She enjoys reading, writing, hiking, traveling, cooking and listening to and playing music.
Name: Parker Blake
Will be teaching: English 9 and Science Fiction and Fantasy
Years in education: This will be his first year!
Fun fact/hobby: He loves endurance running and vintage clothes.
Name: Alexander Jazyk
Will be teaching: English 9
Years in education: This is his 7th year teaching
Fun fact/hobby: He was the mascot for 3 years at UCLA
Name: Abigail Genise
Will be teaching: English
Math:
Name: Eve Anderson
Will be teaching: Intermediate Algebra 1
Years in education: This will be her first year in education and she is very excited! She is also working at West Middle School this year teaching 7th and 8th grade math.
Fun fact/hobby: Her biggest hobby is running. She ran cross country and track in college and she also ran her first marathon this summer.
Name: Kati Gjevre
Will be teaching: Algebra 2, Algebra 2 Extended, and Intermediate Algebra
Years in education: This will be her 33rd year. She is joining the high school after 24 years at East
Fun fact/hobby: In the summer, she spends a lot of time either in her garden or on the lake. During the winter, she does a lot of skiing.
Name: Andrew Nyquist
Will be teaching: Math
Physical Education:
Name: Micah Schaefer
Will be teaching: Health and Unified PE
Years in education: This is her 7th year
Fun fact/hobby: She is pregnant with her first child due Sept 29th!
Social Studies:
Name: Charlie Carr
Will be teaching: He will be teaching World History and AP Euro/World history
Years in education: This will be his 22nd year as a teacher, 20th in Wayzata. He’s taught at Sunset Hill, East, and Central.
Fun fact/hobby: He played football and baseball in college. He has run 14 marathons, one of them was on a treadmill during Covid.
Name: Joseph Clark
Will be teaching: Multilingual Learners, Human Geography 9 and Econ/Public Policy 12
Years in education: He has been teaching for 7 years
Fun fact/hobby: Being outdoors (hiking, golfing, running), reading books and playing video games
Name: Christopher Hanson
Will be teaching: EAPPSA (Economics and Applied Public Policy)
Years in education: Nearly two decades in education: 2 years in corrections (maximum security prison), nearly 8 years at a college in China (Guangdong Teachers College of Foreign Language and Art), 8 years in Texas public schools (various high schools and one year at a middle school), and now he’s here.
Fun fact/hobby: He loves combat martial arts (my favorite is Muay Thai) and competed as an amateur actively until he was 40 (he suffered a severe shoulder dislocation, tore his labrum, and his wife said no more by telling him he “wasn’t as young as [he] thought [he] was.” Now he sticks to coaching, cornering, and/or working with new fighters. If any students know of a good Muay Thai gym, let him know!
Science:
Name: Brett Shand
Will be teaching: 9th Grade Earth Science and ALP Earth Science
Years in education: 8 years
Fun fact/hobby: He loves reading sci-fi books
Name: Peter Maas
Will be teaching: AP Biology and Ecology and Evolution
Years in teaching: This will be his 10th year
Fun fact: I have spent time working/living in Barcelona, Spain
Hobby: Golf, golf and more golf
Years teaching: This will be his tenth year
Special Services:
Name: Ashley Ashbeck
Will be teaching: Post-Secondary Seminar, Essential Strategies
Years in education: 12 years
Fun fact/hobby: Her day is made if she has a McDonald’s Diet Coke
Name: Theresa Carlson
Will be teaching: Special education
Years in education: She has been working in education for 17 years and she’s so excited to start teaching at WHS!!!
Fun fact/hobby: She played professional basketball overseas for 9 years.
Name: Bryan McCallum
Job title: Special services
Paraprofessionals:
Name: Allison Schwaller
Job title: Media Paraprofessional
Years in education: She has worked for Wayzata schools for almost fourteen years. Ten years at Oakwood, three years at East Middle School, and now she is excited to say that she is working at the high school.
Fun fact/hobby: She enjoys playing pickleball, golfing, traveling, spending time with her family, watching movies, and reading.
Name: Sherae Zaccardi
Job title: Bursar/paraprofessional–will be working in the activities office
Years in education: 12 years of experience at Eden Prairie High School
Fun fact/hobby: She has 4 daughters
Name: Amanda Forsythe-Peterson
Job title: Media Paraprofessional
Name: Laura Ratnayake
Job title: Attendance Office Paraprofessional
Student Support Services:
Name: Jake Mathiason
Title: School Psychologist- He works with Student Support Services teams at WHS and WMS
Fun fact/hobby: He enjoys coaching and watching his 2 kids’ youth sports teams
Years of experience: 17 years
Name: Brandy Castaneda
Job title: Achievement Specialist
Years in education: Second year in education!
Fun fact/hobby: I enjoy exploring new restaurants around the twin cities, I like to think that every meal is a new experience!