This Kansas City teacher just got a big surprise: Free rent for two years
Brooke Wurtz was teaching her third grade classroom about the planets and stars at Faxon Elementary, when local media and Kansas City Public Schools staff flooded her room.
She was under the impression that her class was being recognized for their adoption of a cow named “Fruit Loop.”
Instead, she won a free 2-year lease for a downtown Kansas City apartment.
In the middle of her lesson on Nov. 20, Wurtz was greeted by Kansas City Public Schools’ superintendent Jennifer Collier, and John Moncke, president of the Kansas City Power & Light District. The news the two presented made Wurtz emotional, as her classroom cheered her on.
It was all part of the Power & Light District and The Cordish Companies’ seventh annual apartment giveaway, which partners with KCPS to provide a local educator with a free 2-year lease at the Midland Lofts in downtown Kansas City. Last year’s winner was Imani Riley-Jones, a social studies teacher at Northeast High School.
Wurtz said that she works multiple jobs and that her biggest stressor this year was that working so much would be “taking me away from the classroom.”
“I feel so grateful, I’ve worked really hard,” Wurtz said. “My family’s worked really hard, so for something like this to happen, it just doesn’t feel believable,” Wurtz said.
In her application submission, Wurtz said that she has spent the past four years pouring her heart into KCPS, and that she’s proud to serve students who “often face challenges of their own.”
Over 100 people applied for the award, but it was Wurtz’s passion for teaching that stood out in her application.
“I think there’s just a creative and innovative approach that she’s taking. It feels great when you see someone as deserving as Brooke, and you see the kind of impact that we can positively have on her life,” Mocke told the Star.
Since 2019, the Kansas City Power & Light District has provided $500,000 to KCPS in direct support of teachers and students, according to the Power & Light District.
Collier praised the organizations that have helped support the school district’s teachers, but she admits that there is more work to be done to provide resources for educators. The average starting teacher salary in Missouri is $38,871, while the average teacher salary is $55,132 according to 2025 reports from the National Education Association.
“As a nation, we need to demonstrate that we really value our educators, and we need to find a way to pay educators more, the same way we pay doctors more in other professions,” Collier said. “It is a worthwhile investment, because when we invest in our educators, we are investing in children and the overall quality of the education system.”
As for Fruit Loop, the cow comes from a program where you can adopt a cow and get monthly updates on it while it’s residing at a dairy farm, according to Wurtz. A school official gifted Wurtz a welcome mat with a picture of a cow on it when she received her good news.
This story was originally published November 20, 2025 at 4:43 PM.
