Journee Hayes, a veteran educator at Patagonia Union High School (PUHS), was named the 2025 Santa Cruz County Teacher of the Year at an awards dinner on August 8 in Nogales. Her good friend, Elgin School teacher Anna Coleman, was runner-up.
“I’m so honored,” Hayes said as she accepted the award. “Look at all these wonderful educators up here. I’m among the best.”
The Teacher of the Year contest is organized by the County School Superintendent’s Office. The process begins with teachers from each school in the county—public, private and charter—selecting the teacher they believe to be the best from their school. The school’s nominee then submits a statement outlining their educational philosophy, teaching history and degrees, along with three letters of recommendation, including one from a student. A committee of five volunteers then interviews each of the 22 nominees and selects the winners. “I’ll be on the committee next year,” Hayes said.
For now, Hayes will be very busy at PUHS, where she is the school’s English teacher. Among her duties are teaching the dual credit English classes for juniors and seniors. Juniors take Writing 101-102, a demanding course of poetry writing which includes learning the technical skills of writing, while seniors take Writing 125-126, where they have more fun and get creative writing short stories.
But that’s not all.
“I have been the Student Government Advisor for three years,” Hayes said,”and assist with theater-drama, fundraising, dances, Homecoming, etc. In the past I’ve taught two journalism classes, because every year a different elective is offered. It’s a small school so we all do lots of everything.”
Hayes also plans and organizes field trips. In November she’ll be taking her dual credit English students to see the musical “And Juliet” at the invitation of ASU Gammage in Metro Phoenix. Other students from around the state have also been invited, and all the kids are putting together projects they will present to the other students. Hayes’ students are now writing poetry that they will present. A dinner for all the invited kids will cap the day. This one-day trip includes the drive up to Phoenix, attending “And Juliet,” presenting their poetry, enjoying a group dinner, and then the drive home to Patagonia.
“Lots of caffeine required,” laughed Hayes. “I’m a little nervous and so are the kids. It will be fun.”
Hayes grew up in Queen Creek and received her BA in Journalism from NAU. “I don’t ever want to be a teacher, not ever,” she said at the time. She worked in Payson for two years and began dating Kenny Hayes, who was there coaching football.
The Payson football team became state champions, and Kenny was invited to coach football at South Dakota State University. The two discussed the job offer, and decided, “Sure, let’s go. It’ll be fun.” Long story short, Journee changed her mind about teaching, got her Masters in English, and landed a job teaching college-level English. The couple were in South Dakota for four years. Journee became pregnant, and when Kenny Hayes said, “Well, what do you want to do?” she answered, “I want to go home to Arizona.”
Jerry Rhodes, Dean of Students at PUHS and a good friend, encouraged the couple to move to Patagonia. They were both offered positions at PUHS with Mr. Hayes to teach History and Ms. Hayes to teach English.
“I’d really missed the high school environment—their culture, energy, the whole vibe, as they say, and was really happy to be teaching teens,” Ms. Hayes said. “I love this job.”