Montezuma teacher, principal honored by the IBEA

      Kevin Gartman, Montezuma High School Business teacher, left, and Kelly O’Rourke, K-12 Principal at Montezuma, right, are shown with the awards they received last month at the Iowa Business Education Association (IBEA) Fall Conference last month. Gartman was named the Iowa Outstanding Secondary Business Educator and BEST in business awards and O’Rourke received the Distinguished Service Award to Business Education for his support of career and technical business education.

​By J.O. Parker
 
      Congratulations to Kevin Gartman and Kelly O’Rourke at Montezuma Community Schools after they received three business honors from the Iowa Business Education Association (IBEA) last month.
       Gartman, the high school business teacher, and O’Rourke, the K-12 principal at Montezuma, were both honored at the 2024 IBEA Fall Conference held Sept. 15-16 in Ankeny.
      Gartman was honored with the 2024 Iowa Outstanding Business Educator and BEST in Business awards while O’Rourke received the Distinguished Service Award to Business Education.
    The IBEA is the organization that oversees business teachers in Iowa, expands opportunities for professional growth and development, and works directly with the Department of Education to develop policies surrounding career and technical education opportunities.
      Gartman said he is thankful for students who care about learning and are willing to take chances in the classroom. He’s also thankful for teachers at Montezuma who are great at what they do as he has learned to lesson plan from them, learned about classroom management from them, has learned about how to grow a successful competitive organization from them, and so much more.
     “I'm also thankful for our administration that has enthusiastically supported our career and technical education department and has allowed our school to be at the forefront of financial literacy education within the state of Iowa,” noted Gartman. “Having the chance to be a part of a school that knows where we're going, has a plan to get there, and wants to be proactive rather than reactive is important and Principal O'Rourke and Rich Schulte (school superintendent) do a tremendous job with that.”
      “I have been blessed to walk into a school that has successful career and technical education departments with enthusiastic educators that want to push our kids to succeed at a high level,” said Principal O’Rourke. “Mr. Gartman has been on the forefront of financial literacy in the state and continues to provide unique opportunities to our students each year. I have the role of supporting his growth and giving him the time, resources and ability to continue to push the program forward.”