Buellton teacher selected as Santa Barbara County Teacher of the Year

The Santa Barbara County Education Office named the county’s teacher of the year Thursday.

This year’s recipient is Jennifer Cline, a teacher at Oak Valley Elementary in the Buellton Union School District. Cline is in her seventh year of teaching at Oak Valley.

Cline was honored at the start of the county school board meeting in Santa Barbara. Now Cline is in the running to become California’s Teacher of the Year.

Cline says, “Teaching is an incredibly vital profession as well as extremely rewarding, we are responsible for creating inquisitive learners, critical thinkers, collaborators, and kind friends. We do this by facilitating a learning environment that brings all these aspects to practice every day.”

Teacher of the year is selected by a five person committee made up of administrators, local business leaders, and last year’s Teacher of the Year, Michelle Minetti-Smith, a first grade teacher at Mary Buren Elementary School in Guadalupe.