The North Dakota Driver Traffic Safety Education Association (NDDTSEA) has recognized Nick Cavallo, a driver’s education instructor at Central Campus High School, as the state’s Driver’s Education Teacher of the Year.
The NDDTSEA is a group of qualified traffic safety and driver educators that works to help young drivers form safe driving practices.
Originally from Minot, Cavallo started working as a teacher at Central Campus in 2013. He was asked whether he would be interested in teaching driver’s education after first looking for a job in history education. He agreed and declared that he enjoyed it after completing the necessary driver’s education course.

“The community should be proud of the program that we have at Minot Public. We have the best program that’s financially feasible or economical for parents,” Cavallo said.

Ages 14 and up are the target audience for this four-phase driver’s education program, which includes classroom instruction, range driving, street driving, and simulation driving. The driving range behind Jim Hill Middle School is what makes the program at Minot Public School special, according to Cavallo, who added that it is the only one of its kind in the region.
The driver’s education program, which already enrolls roughly 300 pupils a year, will become a summer-only offering starting with the next academic year. According to Cavallo, the driving element is the distance between Jim Hill’s driving range and the new high school, which is set to open in August. He claimed that traveling back and forth between the two places would squander an excessive amount of school time.

During the academic year, Cavallo will take a post teaching history, and in the summer, he will still teach driver’s education.
Because of her extensive travels and her assistance to other schools with their programs, Cavello was nominated for Driver’s Education Teacher of the Year. He has instructed summer driving education classes in Max, Velva, and Underwood, and this summer he will be back in Max to help out once more.

Cavallo said, “It’s a nice feeling to get recognized on the state level – especially when it’s a lot of work. In the summertime I have 30 kids and I have to do six hours a piece. That’s 180 hours in a car with a kid is a lot of work. It’s nice getting to spend time with students and see them get better. Every kid, no matter who they are, always gets a little bit of anxiety when they get in the car and it’s cool to see that melt away in time when they get better. It’s a nice feeling.”