Education Notebook

Local teachers nominated for 'Teacher of the Year'

This year's "Teacher of the Year" campaign is underway, and a handful of southeastern Minnesota teachers have been nominated. In all, 106 teachers were tabbed. Here's the release, as well as our local teachers. The campaign is sponsored by Education Minnesota, the state teachers union.

RELEASE: One-hundred-six teachers have accepted their nominations and completed the required candidate materials to become eligible for the honor of 2010 Minnesota Teacher of the Year.
 
This year’s program will name the 46th Minnesota Teacher of the Year, celebrating the tradition of excellence in teaching in Minnesota. Candidates include pre-kindergarten through 12th-grade teachers, from public or private schools.
 
The 2010 Minnesota Teacher of the Year will be announced Sunday, May 2, at The Northland Inn in Brooklyn Park, Minn. Over the coming weeks, a 22-member panel of community leaders will name a group of semifinalists, and then finalists.

Local nominees:

Tom Fritz, Austin
Bryan Johnson, Kasson-Mantorville
Matthew McCartney, Owatonna
Nancy Matti, Triton
Patti Darbo, Winona

Dwayne Voegeli, Winona

Stories about good people: Teens recognized for 'Beating the Odds'

These teens have life stories that would make a Hollywood screenwriter drool, the kind of scripts that could make even the most apathetic teary-eyed.

The Rochester Community and Technical College Foundation will award this year's "Beat the Odds" scholarship winners on Thursday night, rewarded to students who have overcome significant obstacles in their pursuit of education. Five college bound students received scholarships of $2,500. Three other students will receive $1,000 scholarships. Two other students will receive $500 scholarships.

The entire list is here. Also, there's a story about one of the award winners, Dakota Heiserman.

Most parents would rather take a cab than depend on their teenager to become the sole family driver, but Dakota Heiserman isn't like most teens.

Both of Heiserman's parents are in wheelchairs.

Heiserman's father is a quadriplegic as a result of a 1988 car accident and his mother is living with multiple sclerosis. That has forced the teenager to assume more of the family duties, including grocery shopping, running errands, even hanging Christmas decorations.

LINK: Teens know how to 'Beat the Odds'

Swipe: Ex-Kasson-Mantorville school board member charged with sexual misconduct

Here's an article from Tuesday's paper, written by the PB's Matt Russell.

Former Kasson-Mantorville school board member charged

A former Kasson-Mantorville school board member has been charged in Dodge District Court with criminal sexual conduct with a teenage girl.

Steve Allen, 37, faces two charges of third-degree criminal sexual conduct with a girl who was younger than 16. Each count carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and a $30,000 fine.

The incidents occurred roughly between December 2008 and February 2009, in a parked vehicle between Mantorville and Wasioja, according to the complaint.

Allen resigned from the K-M school board in December, according to board chairman Guy Paradise. He declined to comment on any reasons Allen might have given for his resignation.

Allen had three years left in his four-year term, Paradise said. A replacement will be appointed this month and will serve until November, when an election will be held for a replacement to fill the remainder of Allen's term, Paradise said.

Kasson-Mantorville Superintendent Peter Grant could not be reached for comment.

LINK: Former K-M school board member charged with sexual misconduct

Byron, Lanesboro, Mabel-Canton and Spring Grove continue their best Don Larsen (Mark Buehrle?) impressions on No Child Left Behind's annual benchmarks

Four local school districts remain perfect on No Child Left Behind's adequate yearly progress. Since the measure was established in 2003, Byron, Lanesboro, Mabel-Canton and Spring Grove public school districts have each passed every year.

While No Child Left Behind's benchmark system can be debated, and a person can argue that larger schools are worse off due to student sample sizes (an article today and in the following bog post will examine just that), we should still tip our hats to the districts who have been able to make AYP, especially those who have done so every year.

Here are some other districts who have made it several years, with the years missed in parenthesis:

Kasson-Mantorville (2005)
Lewiston-Altura (2004)
Southland (2006)
Zumbrota-Mazeppa (2006).

(Apologies to the youngins who aren't familiar with Don Larsen, or the old-timers who bristle at putting Mark Buehrle in the same sentence.)