Kevin Madden strives to do everything with conviction. From teaching his gym class to helping run car rider dismissal like a well-oiled machine, Madden seeks to do everything to the best of his abilities.

For his efforts, Madden was voted by his peers as January’s employee of the month.  

“He is a dependable team player who willingly supports staff and students in any capacity needed,” said one coworker.  

“He has made a concerted effort to get to know and form positive relationships with essentially every student in the building,” said another coworker.  

Madden is in his third year working in the district as a gym teacher. Once a dedicated athlete himself, Madden strives to pass on that same dedication and life lessons he learned from sport to his students.

“I was lucky enough to have an awesome middle school gym teacher. From there we looked at career exploration and I thought being a gym teacher sounded pretty awesome,” Madden said.  

His top goal in gym class is safety, but beyond that, Madden hopes to teach the value of movement, while also using gym class as a vehicle to teach other lessons.  

“My number one goal is safety, my second goal is getting the kids to be active, and my third goal is good sportsmanship, which helps teach them to be a good human,” said Madden.  

“Gym class is a very open environment to establish connections like that and also teach life lessons. I try to build not only good athletes, but good humans.”  

In his role, Madden is able to interact with a large portion of the student body, using that wide reach to not only learn the names of every student in the building, but to also learn more about what interests them.  

“My biggest goal when I started here was to learn every student’s name. The first year was difficult because there were 400-500 new students. Now I only have to learn the new students each year,” Madden said. “I think it’s very important to establish good relationships, get to know the students, and get to know their families as well.”  

Beyond his class, Madden is an active part of the school community, ensuring that car rider dismissal is seamless for staff, students, and families, while also constantly looking for other ways to collaborate with coworkers throughout the building. Simply, Madden just wants to help out in any way possible.  

“We have to be in this together. We have to have a united front,” said Madden. “If someone needs help, I’m always more than willing to help out.”