Grand Forks Teacher up for North Dakota Teacher of the Year

(Emily Dawes. Photo provided)

(KNOX) – North Dakota State School Superintendent Kirsten Baesler celebrated four North Dakota educators who are finalists for North Dakota’s 2026 Teacher of the Year award.

They are:

Emily Dawes, a first-grade teacher at J. Nelson Kelly Elementary School in Grand Forks;
Hannah Sagvold, a business education teacher at Lisbon Public School;
Frannie Tunseth, who teaches grades 4-8 at Mayville-Portland-Clifford-Galesburg Public School in Mayville; and
Leah Wheeling, a sixth-grade teacher of physical education and digital literacy at Simle Middle School in Bismarck.

In April, Baesler honored 48 North Dakota educators who were named County Teachers of the Year from their respective counties. Dawes (Grand Forks County), Sagvold (Ransom County), Tunseth (Traill County), and Wheeling (Burleigh County) were picked as finalists from that group of 48 teachers. Once the 2025-26 school year begins, Baesler plans to travel to the finalists’ schools for events to honor their achievements.

“These finalists represent the skilled, compassionate educators that we blessed to have in our North Dakota schools,” Baesler said. “Our Teacher of the Year program is intended to lift up the teaching profession and show the respect, appreciation, and admiration we have for our teachers, and celebrate the work they do to educate the young people who represent our future.”