WOODBURY, MN (WNN) – Stacy Bartlett, a Life Science and Computer Science teacher at Stillwater Area High School has made it to the list of finalists for Minnesota Teacher of the Year.

Presented by Education Minnesota, the 2025 Minnesota Teacher of the Year will be chosen from a field of 142 candidates. The 2025 honoree is set to become the 61st Minnesota Teacher of the Year in a program that celebrates the tradition of excellence in teaching in Minnesota. Eligible candidates include pre-kindergarten through 12th grade, Early Childhood Family Education and Adult Basic Education teachers, from public and private schools.

Bartlett was excited when she learned that she was in the list of finalists. “It feels a little unreal,” she said.” I didn’t expect to be a finalist!”

Bartlett was honored to be nominated in the first place. “There were so many great teachers in the semifinalists list,” she said. Nominations are made in the fall by parents, students, other teachers, and administrators.

Bartlett was one of the co-founders of Woodbury-based Math and Science Academy. “I took on this unique challenge in Spring 1999. I took a risk by leaving a tenured teaching position. I enjoyed the freedom to try things out,” she said. Bartlett pointed out that one of the positives of teaching at MSA was that you ended up teaching the same students 6th grade then 9th grade, and 11th grade too.

Bartlett believes that teachers play a very important role in the life of the children they teach. “Kids are bright, sensitive, inquisitive. Don’t we all remember a teacher that flipped a switch and made us love the content?”

In her career as a teacher, Bartlett is grateful to spend time with “the changemakers of the future.”

The Minnesota Teacher of the Year banquet is set for Sunday, May 4 at the Saint Paul RiverCentre. 

Education Minnesota, the 84,000-member statewide educators union, organizes and underwrites the Teacher of the Year program.