CPSD Staff Spotlight: Karen Stillmaker

A Clover Park School District story.

Our Clover Park School District Staff Spotlight this week features Tillicum Elementary School first grade teacher Karen Stillmaker.

Karen has taught in CPSD for 39 years and is retiring from her teaching career this week. She spent 33 years teaching special education at Lakeview Hope Academy before moving to Tillicum to become an interventionist and first grade teacher. “I’ve taught different kinds of students in many ways, but at heart I am a classroom teacher,” she said. “I will love teaching until my dying breath.” 

As a first grade teacher, Karen knows that her teaching strategies will have a major impact on her young students, particularly when it comes to developing math skills as most children learn elements of reading outside of the classroom but are highly reliant on their teacher to understand many math concepts. “There is so much that has to be taught in first grade that is the foundation for everything else they will do for the rest of their academic career,” she said. “It’s a very big responsibility to be that pivotal in a child’s life.”  

After teaching for 39 years, Karen has seen the impacts of her work firsthand as she welcomes her former students’ children, and sometimes grandchildren, into her classroom. “When adults come back and let me know that I helped them keep going when they were struggling and I see them succeed, it is gratifying and the longevity of teaching becomes evident,” she said.  

After this week, Karen is excited to spend more time with her family. However, her ties to CPSD won’t end with retirement. Her daughter is a life skills teacher at Custer Elementary School and Karen hopes to volunteer in her class to return the favor for all the times her daughter joined her at Lakeview. “I’m excited to help my daughter, but I also want to volunteer here at Tillicum because I felt so connected to the students as well as our awesome staff,” she said.