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Maine Teacher of the Year Finalists Announced

AUGUSTA, Maine - Three Maine teachers have been selected as finalists in the 2016 Maine Teacher of the Year contest.

The three are among 16 Maine educators named in May as County Teachers of the Year. The 16 were chosen from a field of more than 300 nominees.

Educate Maine Program Director Dolly Sullivan says Maine has one of the most rigorous teacher-of-the-year selection processes in the country.

"It is designed by teachers for teachers to be a professional development opportunity and an opportunity for them to reflect," Sullivan says.

The three finalist are Talya Edlund, who teaches at Pond Cove Elementary in Cape Elizabeth, Brenda Laverdiere, a teacher at the Academy Hill School in Wilton, and Mia Morrison, a teacher at Foxcroft Academy in Dover-Foxcroft.

Educate Maine partners with the Maine Department of Education for the Teacher of the Year program. The 2016 Teacher of the Year will be named at a surprise all-school assembly this fall.

Ed is a Maine native who spent his early childhood in Livermore Falls before moving to Farmington. He graduated from Mount Blue High School in 1970 before going to the University of Maine at Orono where he received his BA in speech in 1974 with a broadcast concentration. It was during that time that he first became involved with public broadcasting. He served as an intern for what was then called MPBN TV and also did volunteer work for MPBN Radio.