Northfield Has A Finalist for Teacher Of The Year

There were 115. Then  by March 1 there were 34. Now there are just 11 candidates for Minnesota Teacher of the Year thanks to a panel of 25 judges.

According to an Education Minnesota report, the Minnesota teacher of the year will be named May 15 and that person will be up for the national teacher of the year award.

One of those finalists is from Northfield: Jennifer Lompart, from Northfield High School, who teaches performing arts/ESL, grades 9-12.

To be eligible, nominees must teach in a public or private preschool through 12th grade school and must work directly with students at least 50 percent of the time. They must have a bachelor’s degree and a Minnesota teaching license, intend to teach during the 2016-17 school year, and have completed at least three years of teaching by the nomination deadline.

Other finalists are:

• Julie Beaver, Zimmerman Middle/High School, Elk River, math, grade 8
• Melanie DeWitt, Clear Springs Elementary School, Minnetonka, elementary, kindergarten
• Jill Hansen, Hermantown Middle School, Hermantown, science, grades 6-7
• Joe Lawrence, Delano High School, Delano, language arts, grades 9-10
• Maria Le, Central Park Elementary School, Roseville, elementary, grade 1
• Whitney McKinley, Hiawatha College Prep, Minneapolis, visual art, grades 5-8
• Juanita Ortiz, Phalen Lake Hmong Studies Magnet School, St. Paul, ELL/Latino Culture, grades kindergarten-5
• Erin Rehnblom, Otsego Elementary School, Elk River, elementary, grade 1
• Abdul Wright, Best Academy, Minneapolis, language arts, grade 8
• Koua Yang, Harding High School, St. Paul, social studies, grades 9-12

The Minnesota Teacher of the Year program, now in its 52nd year, is the oldest and most prestigious recognition program in Minnesota to honor excellence in education.

The last Minnesotan to be named National Teacher of the year was Mary Beth Blegen in 1996, who taught at Worthington Senior High. She died in January of this year after a bout with pancreatic cancer; she was 72.