‘TEACHER OF THE YEAR’ Educator celebrated by Sarasota County Schools – NewsBreak

SARASOTA — In celebration of her commitment to learning and to her students, Venice High School’s Kelly Rozelle was named the 2025 Sarasota County Teacher of the Year.

The announcement came at the Ignite Education Teacher of the Year Award Celebration, hosted by the Education Foundation of Sarasota County at The Ora.

Rozelle will represent district educators throughout the 2025 calendar year and will serve as the district’s nominee for state Teacher of the Year.

Rozelle said she was “shocked” by the honor but she is excited to share it with her students, with whom she shared a message.

“I love you,” Rozelle said. “This is what I say to all my students: They are the reason I am here, and I will always do my best for them.”

Rozelle attended the celebration along with her fellow finalists — Rebekah Zech, Elementary School Teacher of the Year from Taylor Ranch Elementary School and Maggie Higgins, Middle School Teacher of the Year from Pine View Middle School.

With a career path headed to law, Rozelle said teaching wasn’t originally her main plan.

But after tutoring her teammates while playing soccer at Southeastern University of Louisiana, Rozelle found a passion of teaching history and changed her major upon transferring to the University of Florida.

Rozelle returned to the county she graduated from to pursue education, and has been teaching at Venice High now for 12 years.

“I want to make my lessons fun for them, because a lot of students come in (and) history … it’s their least favorite subject,” Rozelle said. “So, I want to show them my history can be fun and learning can be fun, but it’s also being critically and using skills outside of the classroom.”

Recently, Rozelle pioneered a new year-long Holocaust class — one of the first teachers in Florida to do so.

The 38-year-old teacher used artificial intelligence technology and primary artifacts to immerse her students in history focusing on the Holocaust.

She said the opportunity is not just to learn about history, but learn what not to do in the future.

“That’s what I want them to be able to do, is be better than us, and to use what they can hear to apply to their future,” Rozelle said.

Jenny Infanti, EFSC board member, said Rozelle’s teaching methods really stood out to her during the interview process.

Infanti said even her middle school son, who listened in on one of Rozelle’s interviews on speaker while Infanti was driving, got an interest in her AP history class just from listening to her talk.

“She’s literally gotten a boxcar to come (to VHS) so that students can feel like the Holocaust victims transport felt like,” Infanti said. “That’s just a whole different level of learning that’s way beyond a classroom as a sensory experience.”

Rozelle’s impact on her students goes beyond a history lesson.

Zoltan Kerestely, VHS principal, revealed some of Rozelle’s students had nominated her for the district’s High School Teacher of the Year for her commitment to them.

“Time and time again in the nomination email, they described how she built relationships with them in the classroom and made them want to come to school,” Kerestely said.

Rozelle said she attends plays, concerts and sporting events for her students as a way to build a relationship — one she said makes her classroom feel like a family.

“I want them to know that I actually care about another person and not just as a student,” Rozelle said.