Cheryl Gustafson, a teacher at the Learning Alternatives Community School in the Spring Lake Park School District, is a semifinalist for Minnesota Teacher of the Year. 

Education Minnesota, the statewide teachers union, made the announcement Thursday. 

Gustafson is one of 34 teachers selected to advance from a list of candidates the organization named last month. 

A panel of judges will choose 10 finalists later this month and the group will name its 2012 Teacher of the Year on May 6. 

Three teachers in Fridley-area schools are candidates for the Teacher of the Year award sponsored by the Education Minnesota teachers union.

Other candidates from Fridley-area schools were Callie Bush, a science teacher at Fridley High School, and early childhood teacher Barb Saunders from Spring Lake Park, who the district honored last year.

Also advancing, from the Anoka-Hennepin district (which includes a small part of northwest Fridley), is elementary teacher Neil Eerdmans.