Orcutt Union School District teacher awarded Santa Barbara County Teacher of the Year

SANTA BARBARA COUNTY, Calif. – An Orcutt Union School District teacher was honored as the 2023 Santa Barbara County Teacher of the Year by the Santa Barbara Education Office on Thursday afternoon.

Joanna Hendrix, a preschool, transitional kindergarten, and kindergarten teacher at Ralph Dunlap School, teaches students who are deaf and hard of hearing and the school district said that she is very deserving of the award.

Her classroom is one of 17 special education preschool classrooms operated by the county Education Office countywide, according to spokeswoman Camilla Barnwell.

“I’m incredibly humbled and honored to have been selected for this prestigious recognition,” Hendrix said.

“I hope that throughout the coming year, I have the opportunity to highlight all of the ways that the Santa Barbara County Education Office team supports students with disabilities and students within special programs in each district, which includes adaptive P.E. specialists, occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists, audiologists, school nurses, interpreters, paraprofessionals, school psychologists, vision specialists, special education teachers, and teachers of the deaf.”

Hendrix has been employed by the Education Office for the past 21 years. She teaches students with a range of hearing ability, language development, and literacy skills, Barnwell said.

Hendrix was honored at the regular County Board of Education meeting at the county education office on Thursday after a months-long selection process.

All county school districts were invited to submit a nomination for the Teacher of the Year award in the fall, and the applicants had to have eight full years of classroom experience, Barnwell said.

Four finalists were selected for an interview round, and then a selection committee did a classroom observation of each finalist, Barnwell added.