Staff Spotlight: Maple Grove Senior High School art teacher Erin Boe

Erin Boe spends each day fostering a sense of community and belonging in her art classes at Maple Grove Senior High School (MGSH). In recognition of her outstanding work, Boe was recently named Art Educators of Minnesota (AEM)’s Art Educator of the Year.

Boe worked as a freelance children’s illustrator for ten years before deciding to pursue a career that allowed her to be around people more, with more community and belonging. She got her Masters in teaching at Augsburg University, which she said was extremely equity focused. Her coursework showed her what it looks like to allow for choice-driven classes with flexibility and empathy for how students can access material. She started at Park Center Senior High School for two years before moving to MGSH, where she is going into her third year as an art teacher.

“I truly feel like I found the perfect job for my personality and my values. Every day, I get to foster inclusion and belonging and create community. My extraverted self just loves chatting with people every day and just being around people and laughter,” Boe said.

MGSH is a Unified Champion School, which means they partner with Special OlympicsMinnesota to offer Unified art, music and physical education. These courses pair students of all ability levels together to foster belonging and inclusion in schools. In the art class, led by Boe, the special education and general education scholars come together to create beautiful works of art through the curriculum she created especially for Unified classes across the state.

One highlight for Boe was when Supt. Dr. Kim Hiel came into her classroom to film her “Holding Space with Dr. Hiel” video series. The students were working on a collaborative mosaic, with every student making a ceramic tile based on their favorite animal. The students had all of the instructions in front of them, but couldn’t move on until the student sitting next to them was ready as well. Boe was able to sit back and watch the students succeed because she had given them the tools they needed to be leaders.

“The students were feeling empowered and developing the connections. I remember feeling really proud but also just full of joy that these young people weren’t looking to me as the supreme source of information and knowledge,” Boe said. “They were building the community and connection and I had just facilitated it.”

In large part due to her work with the Unified Art curriculum, Boe was named the AEM 2024-25 Art Educator of the Year, their highest achievement. She will be recognized and awarded at the AEM conference in Mason City, Iowa on Sept. 27. However, Boe feels none of her work would have been possible without her amazing art team at MGSH.

“To me, it feels like it is not just a personal accomplishment. I hugely credit my art team here. They are just an incredible group to work with and I couldn’t have done any of this if I didn’t have their support and the support of administration as well, such as Dr. Becker and Dr. Hiel,” Boe said. “I think our district is focused on equity and inclusion in a way that has been really exciting for me, because I feel empowered and supported to be able to offer these opportunities.”

Boe wants to continue to grow her work, thinking bigger on how to change school culture, not just at MGSH but at schools across the state. She plans to speak at the regional conference in September and hopes to attend the national conference as well. At MGSH, the Unified Art class will continue to grow and expand. For trimester one of this upcoming school year, 75 students signed up for the 12 general education spots in the class.

“Special Olympics has come out with research to statistically support that unified programming in champion schools reduces bullying. Kids feel like their schools are better places to be,” Boe said.

In her free time, Boe enjoys roller skating, yoga, paddle boarding, reading, illustration and comic art and spending time with her children.