AMY KIEL began her career at ABC-Stewart in January 1992.  She will continue team teaching in Children's Garden.  Amy attended Ball State and Indiana Universities.  She received training and certification at Meca-Seton Montessori Teacher Training Center, and is certified in childcare.

Amy and her husband, John, have sons, Henry and William.  In her free time Amy enjoys running, gardening and traveling.

Amy is the recipient of the 2010 Reams Family Award for Excellence in Teaching.

KYMBERLI ROCKHOLD returns to the Children’s Garden classroom.  She joined the staff in August of 1997.  She received her Montessori certification from the American Montessori Society.  She has also attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City.

Kymberli, her husband, Aaron, their daughter Maya, and son Elijah live in Brown County.  With her family, Kymberli enjoys singing, playing guitar, camping, hiking, canoeing, photography, gardening, enjoying wildlife and playing with their dogs.

Kymberli grew up on a 100 acre farm in Illinois with two brothers, a sister, horses, chickens, cows, pigs, ponies, rabbits, and a few sheep.  As a child she was active in 4-H, sports and she started acting in musicals at CIRCA 21 Dinner Theater.

PATTI KRAMB began her career at ABC-Stewart in 1992.  She will continue her work in Educare.   Patti divided her time between Stewart and Educare her first two years, and has since co-directed the Educare classroom.

Patti attended Northern Michigan University in Marquette, and Marazette College in Rochester, New York, where she majored in Special Education.  Prior to moving to Columbus she taught at Southminister Nursery School in Mt. Lebanon, a suburb of Pittsburgh, PA.

She and her husband, Rick, have four children and seven grandchildren.  In her free time Patti enjoys reading, knitting, gardening and walking.

KIMBERLY BEAN co-teaches in the Educare classroom and began at ABC-Stewart in 1999.  She received her Elementary Education degree from Indiana University.  She has worked in our pre-school Summer Days program, Splendid Days, and for two years in the reading area of Stewart School.  

Kim's husband, Nate is a teacher.    They are the parents of daughter, Meredith, and son, Mason.  They enjoy swimming and any outdoor activities, as well as watching movies together.

LORI  LYNN joined the ABC-Stewart staff in 1995.   Lori earned a degree in Elementary Education from Indiana University Bloomington.  She completed an Orton-Gillingham graduate reading course at Butler University.  Lori received the Reams Family Awards for Teaching Excellence for 2007-08, from the Heritage Fund of Bartholomew County.

She is one of the teachers in the first year room in the elementary school.  She team-teaches with Tonnie Lane.  Lori focuses on teaching reading, while Tonnie concentrates on the math area.  The both teach culture and science.  She enjoys working with the first year students and making their transition from the kindergarten programs to the elementary school go as smoothly as possible.  Lori and her husband, Keith, have a son, Bryce, and a daughter, Isabel.

JERRY MAULIN has been a Reading Room teacher for Stewart since 1998.  In his time at Stewart he has coached basketball and Spell Bowl.  He has also led many summer workshops for the students that include creativity and drama.  Jerry graduated from Indiana State University with a degree in Elementary Education.  He is also a recipient of the Distinguished Educator Award and the Red Apple Award.  Jerry received the Reams Family Awards for Teaching Excellence for 2009-10, from the Heritage Fund of Bartholomew County.

His wife, Hanna Guy Maulin, is the Bereavement Coordinator of Hospice in Columbus.  Their son, Joseph, a Stewart graduate, is a university student.  The family lives on an old dairy farm near school.

Jerry also is a performing songwriter, with two CD’s to his credit.  He also enjoys motorcycle riding, racquetball, golf and other sports.  While not holding an actual patent, Jerry believes himself to be inventor of  “Pin Dodge Ball”, enjoyed on rainy days here at Stewart.

CHRISTINE BUTLER returns for her 2nd year in the Stewart Reading room. She received her B.S. in elementary education from Indiana University, Bloomington. She is an avid reader of children's literature and is looking forward to sharing her love for reading with the students at Stewart.

Christine and her husband, Jordan, reside in Franklin. In her spare time, Christine enjoys reading, scrapbooking, cake decorating and spending time with family and friends.

TERRY HILEMAN begins his 9th year in the Science room of Stewart School. A graduate of IUPUC with a degree in elementary education.

Terry is married fellow Stewart teacher, Autumn Finnell. He enjoys spending time with his beautiful wife, and also values time spent outdoors with fishing and golf.

AMIE SMITH will return to the Stewart Culture Room this year, after having taught there in 2009-10, as well as in Children’s Garden (for 5 years) and Splendid Days.  She has also substituted in many of the classrooms since 1994.

She studied elementary education at Wright State and Ohio State Universities.  She holds a Montessori certification from the MECA-Seton Montessori Training Center near Chicago, and most recently has been training teachers in the Montessori method at a Carmel public school.

Amie and husband, Theo, have two daughters, Emma and Olivia, both Stewart graduates.  She loves to spend her free time at her daughters’ activities, as well as hiking, biking, reading, gardening, cooking and entertaining.

MICHAEL YATES is returning to the Culture room at Stewart, where he began in August 2001 and shares classroom responsibilities with Amie Smith.

A 2001 graduate of Huntington College with a Bachelor of Arts in History. Mike also holds a degree in biblical counseling from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville. He is a life-long native of Jennings County.

Mike married his wife, April, in June 2003.  They live in his childhood home, a farmhouse built by his great-grandparents.  Mike and April are parents of two daughters Cara and Rebekka.  When he is not at school, Mike enjoys spending time with his family, as well as reading and working around the house.

NANCY HIQUET returns to the Stewart Math Room, having joined the staff in 2002.  She has been married to Barry for 19 years and is the proud mother of girls, Kaitlin and Karly , and a son, Kamden.

Nancy considers herself a nerd who enjoys all things, including Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, crocheting, Scrabble, Sudoku and solving complicated algebra problems.

After attending Purdue University for two years, she graduated with honors from IUPUC with a B.S. in Elementary Education in 2000.  She taught in a public school for 2 years before settling in here at Stewart.  After a short stint at the ABC pre-school, she found her true home in the Stewart Math Room.

BOBBIE K OWENS, international artist and Columbus resident, returns to ABC-Stewart School as elementary art teacher.  He taught in this capacity in the early 1990's, and returned in 2002.

Bobbie K's paintings have been featured in exhibitions across the United States, Canada, Japan and Russia.  He exhibited his work in the first Visual Arts Exchange project in Russia.  He was then invited to have a series of three, one-person museum shows in Bishkek and Moscow.  Previously he showed in Soho, New York, at Atelier International Art Gallery.  Over the course of twenty-eight years of painting and exhibiting work, Bobbie K has had the good fortune to participate in shows with artists David Hockney, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Milton Avery.  Some of the artists he has had the opportunity to discuss art with are Philip Pearlstein, Daryl Pottorf, Robert Rauschenberg and Donald Lipski.

Bobbie K taught at IUPUC, ABC-Stewart, Art Gallery of Ontario School of Art, Ball State University, John Waldron Art Center in Bloomington, Dayton Art Institute and was resident artist at YMCA's of Greater Indianapolis.  He has worked with the NEA, The Kennedy Center and The Center for Arts and Basic Curriculum in Washington, D.C.  Bobbie dedicates most of his time to painting, however, enjoys sharing his art knowledge and experiences.  Bobbie and wife, Libby Jewel, have two daughters, Ale, an IU grad, who lives in Wisconsin and Carleigh, a college student.

LALITHA IYER will return to the Splendid Days program, after completing student teaching in the Stewart Elementary Reading room and assisting there one year.  In 2010 Lalitha also will teach computer class to the Stewart Elementary students.  She completed the Montessori Assistants program at the Montessori Training Center (MECA-Seton) during the summer of 2009.

She began teaching in Splendid Days in the Spring of 2007.  Her first ABC experience was volunteering when her daughter, Dee, started in the Two’s class.  She loved to be around children and as a result started her Associate Degree in Early Childhood Education at Ivy Tech.  She graduated in July 2007 Magna Cum Laude.

Lalitha was born in India and did her Bachelors in Science in Chemistry from Mambai University.  She has also completed a two-year computer course.

She believes in the motto that “Today’s children are tomorrow’s citizens.”  She has confidence that the education and cultural values that we instill in the children will carry them forward.

Lalitha has been married for eleven years to Vasu Iyer, who works at Cummins.  They have a daughter, Deetya (Dee), who is a student in the Stewart elementary.

MARIAN RODRIGUEZ  joined the Splendid Staff in 2007. She has been a volunteer parent for the past 7 years, helping with lunches, grading spelling and in Splendid Days.

Marian has completed the 2009 Montessori Assistant training by Meca-Seton (associated with the America Montessori Socity).

Marian has two daughters in Stewart Elementary - Leah, a 6th year student, and Kieran, a 3rd year student. She enjoys swimming, cooking (especially decorating cakes) and spending time with friends and family.