Lucinda Crenshaw, center, a seventh-grade science teacher at West Middle School, was selected as a region 2 finalist for Kansas Teacher of the Year. She is pictured with Randall D. Watson, state commissioner of education, and Mark Carr, divisional sales manager of Security Benefit, the program's major corporate partner.

Lucinda M. Crenshaw, a seventh-grade science teacher at West Middle School, on Sunday was named a finalist for the 2016 Kansas Teacher of the Year distinction in region 2, which covers the second U.S. congressional district.

Each Kansas school district can nominate one elementary and one secondary teacher for the district’s teacher of the year. Those two then are offered the opportunity to complete an application for the higher designation, Crenshaw said.

“I know there’s a plethora of outstanding teachers in our district, and I was honored and surprised that they chose me for this year,” she said.

Selection committees in each of the four state regions can select six total semifinalists from those applicants, Crenshaw said — three elementary and three secondary. Then one elementary and one secondary finalist are selected from the six.

Lucinda Crenshaw

On Nov. 21, the one selected designee will be announced during ceremonies in Wichita, according to a news release from the Kansas State Department of Education, which sponsors the program.

Crenshaw has been teaching for 31 years, with about 27 of those in Lawrence, she said. She taught at Deerfield Elementary and has been at West since 2000.

“Lucinda’s passion for teaching and learning has impacted every aspect of the West Middle School community,” Principal Myron Melton said in a news release from the district. “Lucinda’s planning, preparation and attention to detail are impeccable. Students in her classroom are routinely exposed to learning opportunities that are engaging, relevant and challenging.”

Crenshaw said if she is selected as Teacher of the Year, one goal she has is to portray an accurate picture of what goes on in the schools — “the joys and the excitement, and yet the challenges that are there, too.”

“We have to figure out the best ways to educate our kids in our communities so people want to be there and businesses want to be there,” Crenshaw said. “We need an educated population to be able to do that.”

Lucinda Crenshaw, West Middle School science teacher, right, joined by her son Alex, 11, and husband, Wes, was honored with the 2015 Lawrence secondary teacher of the year Wednesday, March, 4, 2015.

She said she also wants to help teachers realize they have the opportunity to help students learn how to advocate in an appropriate and positive manner, looking at all sides of the issues and coming up with steps toward solutions.

“That’s the only way our country and our democracy works,” she said.

This year, 104 educators across the state were nominated for the Teacher of the Year distinction, according to the KSDE release.

The elementary finalist from region 2 is B. Jolene Pennington, a fifth-grade teacher at Sunflower Elementary School in Paola.