By Angelina Parisi, Reporter, Yucaipa/Calimesa News Mirror

For Kelsi Santos, kindergarten was more than the first year of elementary school. It was where she first imagined becoming a teacher.

Her grandmother was her kindergarten teacher, and the memory stayed with Santos long after she left the classroom. Today, Santos teaches kindergarten at Valley Elementary School, the same school where she has spent her entire 11-year teaching career. She was recently recognized as the Yucaipa-Calimesa Joint Unified School District’s 2026-27 Teacher of the Year at the YCJUSD Aug. 11 board meeting.

But, the honor did not stop at the district level. Santos has also been selected as a San Bernardino County Teacher of the Year and will be recognized by the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools on Sept. 15. Countywide winners are then forwarded for consideration by the California Department of Education, which selects a statewide Teacher of the Year each fall.

For Santos, the recognition came as something of a surprise. “I just never thought that it was something that I would receive…I was surprised but very honored,” she said.

“It’s a big honor. It feels like a little bit of pressure but very exciting to feel that everybody at my school, the district and the county supports me and believes in me so much.”

Each school year, the district selects its Teacher of the Year in conjunction with the Yucaipa-Calimesa Educators Association and the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools office. The districtwide honoree is selected from the school site-based Teachers of the Year named each spring. Interested teachers submit applications that are reviewed by a selection committee. But Santos’ story as a teacher is less about the title than what happens inside her classroom. “I knew I really had a passion for teaching reading. It’s been great. I’ve loved every single year at Valley.”

Her approach to teaching begins with something that cannot always be measured on a report card: understanding the child sitting in front of her. “The first thing is, I think that you have to come into your classroom knowing that not all kids come in every morning to learn. There’s a lot going on at home that we might not be aware of, and in elementary school it’s our job to teach the whole child and not just the academic side,” she said. For a kindergarten teacher, that can mean recognizing that a child who is struggling to learn may be carrying something much larger into the classroom.

When a student is having difficulty learning or does not seem willing to put in the effort, Santos said she tries first to understand where that child is coming from. “It’s really important to remember that, yes they’re your students and yes the academics are extremely important, but it’s also our job to understand the whole child first. Because if you don’t, they’re not going to learn.”

That philosophy has followed Santos beyond the walls of her classroom. In 2025, she received a $9,000 grant from Sprouts Farmers Market, which she used to completely remodel Valley Elementary’s garden and rebuild a retaining wall that was falling. “I used that to completely remodel our garden and rebuild a retaining wall that was falling. I worked all summer on that with volunteers,” she said.

For Santos, teaching has also meant being part of a school community that she describes as close-knit. “I love our team at Valley. We’re all really close…Whenever somebody comes here, everybody says it feels like we’re a family.”