State School Superintendent Kirsten Baesler last week announced that teachers in Bismarck, Linton, Grand Forks, and Hunter are finalists for the 2023 North Dakota Teacher of the Year award.
The finalists are:
- Abby DuBord, of Bismarck, a first-grade teacher at Bismarck’s Centennial Elementary who is moving to the newly built Elk Ridge Elementary School in northwest Bismarck this fall;
- Megan Margerum, of Hunter, a third-grade English/Language Arts teacher at Northern Cass Public School in Hunter, in rural Cass County;
- Ivona Todorovic, of Grand Forks, an English Language instructor at Grand Forks Red River High School who teaches students who are not native English speakers, and
- Megan Wald, of Kintyre, a business education instructor at Linton High School and adjunct business teacher for the North Dakota Center for Distance Education in Fargo.
Baesler will visit the school of each finalist to celebrate their achievement. The 2023 Teacher of the Year winner will receive a $15,000 grant to use for promoting the teaching profession.
“As a state, we want to lift up our educators and give them the honor and respect they richly deserve,” the superintendent said. “They have handled some of the toughest educational challenges in the history of our state in recent years, and they have done it with aplomb. These four finalists are exemplars of excellence in their profession, and all of North Dakota should be proud of them.”
DuBord, Margerum, Todorovic and Wald were chosen from a group of 47 North Dakota County Teachers of the Year, who were named in April. They will be interviewed by an eight-member committee that included representatives of school administrators, teachers, school boards, nonpublic schools, the Department of Public Instruction, the Department of Career and Technical Education, and a Teacher of the Year.
Baesler and Gov. Doug Burgum will reveal the 2023 North Dakota Teacher of the Year in September. The selection process is described in state law (NDCC 15.1-02-21)
The winner will compete for the National Teacher of the Year award, which is administered by the Council of Chief State School Officers, a national education organization based in Washington, D.C.
(Article credit: North Dakota Department of Public Instruction)