AUGUSTA, Maine — The race that will determine Maine’s top teacher is down to three.
The Maine Department of Education announced Thursday the three finalists for its 2016 Teacher of the Year Award.
They include the following:
— Talya Edlund, a third-grade teacher at Pond Cove Elementary School in Cape Elizabeth
— Brenda LaVerdiere, a fourth-grade teacher at Academy Hill School in Wilton
— Mia Morrison, a media and English teacher at Foxcroft Academy in Dover-Foxcroft
These three will be interviewed by a selection committee and visited at their school before the winner is announced. The nominees already have been through an intensive selection process that included professional portfolio reviews and oral presentations in front of panels made up of past Teacher of the Year award winners, school administrators, Department of Education staff and representatives of Maine education and business organizations.
The state picked 16 nominees, each representing one of Maine’s counties, in May.
The Teacher of the Year program is administered and managed for Maine DOE by Educate Maine.
For more information on the Teacher of the Year program, as well as information about each of the nominees, visit mainetoy.org.
Follow Nick McCrea on Twitter at @nmccrea213.