St. Paul, Minn., March 19, 2008 – Ten teachers from across the state have been named finalists in the 2008 Minnesota Teacher of the Year program. A selection panel of 24 leaders in the areas of business, government and non-profits selected the finalists from a group of 28 semifinalists. There were 115 Teacher of the Year candidates for this program year.

The selection panel meets again May 3 to conduct individual interviews with the 10 finalists and to cast votes for the 2008 Minnesota Teacher of the Year.

The 2007 Minnesota Teacher of the Year, Michael Smart of Intermediate School District 287, will announce this year’s honoree at a banquet at The Northland Inn and Conference Center in Brooklyn Park on May 4.

Education Minnesota organizes and underwrites the Minnesota Teacher of the Year Program, which receives program and award support from the following organizations: The SMARTer Kids Foundation, The Northland Inn and Conference Center, the Harvard Club of Minnesota Foundation, United Educators Credit Union, McDonald’s Restaurants of Minnesota, Teacher Federal Credit Union, Pearson Education and Education Minnesota ESI. This year marks the program’s 44th anniversary.

The 2008 Minnesota Teacher of the Year finalists are:

District	Name	Subject	School
Hastings	Joe Beattie	Biology	Hastings High School
Hopkins	Carleen Gulstad	Language Arts	Hopkins North Jr. High School
Inver Grove Heights	Rose Regan	Elementary	Pine Bend Elementary School
Minneapolis	Diane Weiher	Science	Lake Harriet Community School
Northfield	John Bade	Visual Art	Northfield Middle School
Owatonna	Julie Buryska	Elementary	Wilson Elementary School
Proctor	Gordon Westendorf	Instrumental Music	Proctor High School
Rochester	Steve Brehmer	Physics	Mayo High School
Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan	Lynne Meyer	Elementary	Greenleaf Elementary School
Stillwater	Derek Olson	Elementary	Afton-Lakeland Elementary School