SoWashCo Educators Miss Out On Minnesota Teacher Of The Year Award

WOODBURY, MN — Two educators from the South Washington County Schools system went to the 2022 Minnesota Teacher of the Year ceremony Sunday as finalists but left without the top prize.

Sarah Lancaster, a first-grade teacher in Onamia in Mille Lacs County, won the annual honor at Sunday’s ceremony at the Saint Paul RiverCentre. Lancaster is the first teacher of Asian Pacific Islander descent to be named Minnesota’s Teacher of the Year, according to Education Minnesota, the organization that hands out the award.

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Park High School teacher Younna Eiden-Giel and Cottage Grove Middle School teacher Andrea Welvaert are among 11 educators named as finalists for the 2022 Minnesota Teacher of the Year honor.

Eiden-Giel teaches social studies to juniors and seniors at Park Ridge High School, while Welvaert is an autism spectrum disorder and center-based program teacher for grades 6-8 at Cottage Grove Middle School.

Seventy-seven teachers were nominated for the award. An independent panel of leaders in education, business, philanthropy and nonprofits reviewed their portfolios to choose 25 semifinalists.

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Park High School teacher Kiersten Jaeger and East Ridge High School teacher MacKenzie Hildahl were also named among the initial batch of educators in the running for the award. Hildahl was later named as a semifinalist.

The South Washington County Schools system has never had one of its educators named as Teacher of the Year, according to Education Minnesota.

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