Two Wichita public servants awarded $2,500 for excellence

WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — Three Wichita-area public service employees are being honored this week with the 2023 Excellence in Public Service Award.

Two of the employees found out they won on Thursday. The third will find out on Friday.

Citizens could nominate a City of Wichita, Sedgwick County, or Wichita Public Schools employee. Then a committee of public and private sector representatives chose the winners.

The City of Wichita winner is Sean Jones, communications specialist for the Wichita Public Library. He was surprised while working at the Advanced Learning Library Thursday morning.

He said his director told him they needed to go to the first floor to look at something, and that’s when he found out he won.

“I am surprised and shocked,” he said. “I am very grateful. I love working for Wichita Public Library. This has been a dream job of mine. I have been here for about four years, and I just wake up every day just so thankful to work for such an amazing organization.”

The Wichita Public Schools winner is Tim Elsen, science teacher and Science Olympiad coach at Wilbur Middle School. He was surprised while at the zoo Thursday.

“Still a bit in shock from this whole thing,” he said. “I came around the corner. I was curious why my principal was here. I had no idea what was going on.”

He thanked the students, his family, staff and administration for all they do.

“Many teachers can speak to there are days, weeks, and months that go where you’re putting in effort you feel is unrecognized, and so to be recognized for all the efforts, all the weekends I dedicate, all the summers that I actually don’t get off because I’m doing what I love and trying to help students learn … it’s a huge honor.”

On Friday, we will learn which Sedgwick County employee won the award.

The winners get $2,500.

This is the 35th year for the Excellence in Public Service Award. The award is sponsored by the DeVore Foundation and KSN.