Mrs. Keri Pratt, a 1st-grade teacher at Minneapolis Grade School, was selected as the USD 239 North Ottawa County Public Schools’ 2025 Teacher of the Year.
Mrs. Pratt graduated from Kansas State University with her Bachelor of Science degree in Elementary Education in 2000 and from Emporia State University with her Master of Science degree in Curriculum and Instruction in 2006.
She taught Kindergarten for 9 years in Olathe, Kansas, from 2002 to 2010, where she received the Horace Mann Foundation Crystal Apple Award. In 2010, Mrs. Pratt moved to Columbia, MO, where she taught Kindergarten for 7 years and received the Outstanding Educator: PK-2nd grade for Columbia Public Schools. In 2017, she moved back to her hometown of Minneapolis, KS, where she teaches first grade. In 2020, she received the VFW Smart/Maher Education Teacher Award.
Mrs. Pratt loves to witness and be a part of the amazing growth that students make, both academically and socially, during this critical foundational time. Students’ enthusiasm at this age is contagious; she is just as excited to be there! Mrs. Pratt strives to build a classroom environment where all students feel safe, loved, encouraged, and excited to attend school daily. She advocates for building positive relationships with students and their families through open communication between home and school. This helps create a team fostering a love of learning and a strong connection between home, school, and community.
Congratulations to Mrs. Pratt, and we all wish her the best as she competes to be the next Kansas Teacher of the Year!
