On June 17, the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) announced the list of Missouri’s 2027 eligible Regional Teacher of the Year candidates.

The Regional Teacher of the Year program is designed to focus public attention on excellence in teaching and to honor classroom teachers in all regions of Missouri.

Across the state of Missouri, 301 teachers were named candidates for the 2027 Regional Teacher awards. From this list, all eligible Regional Teacher of the Year applications will be sent to the appropriate Regional Service Center. Each Service Center will have a regional selection committee composed of individuals from the teacher organizations; administrator organizations; and higher education. Thirty-four Regional Teachers of the Year will be chosen based on regional student population. For the Central Region, which includes the Santa Fe School District, two teachers will be selected as Regional Teachers of the Year.

Named on the list from the Santa Fe School R-X District was elementary teacher Mrs. Betsy Kitchen.

Mrs. Kitchen began teaching in the fall of 1997 in the Blue Springs School District, where she taught for eight years. She then took a short break to raise her family, and later began working for the Santa Fe School District in 2006. Since then, she has held a variety of part-time and full-time positions, and the last eight years she has taught kindergarten.

Other area teachers named on the list include Rachel Brunkhorst of Concordia R-2, Marissa Brunkhorst of Lafayette C-1, Sarah Chaney of Lexington R-V, Sequoia Garcia of Lone Jack school district, Audrey Ming of Marshall Public Schools, Tami Grubb of Odessa R-VII and Tyler Frerking of Sweet Springs R-VII.