Two veteran Lawrence public school district teachers Monday were surprise recipients of the first Mayor’s Excellence in Education awards.

“This touches me deeply,” fifth-grade teacher Frank Hoffman said at an assembly in his honor at Cordley School.

Hoffman and the other winner, Lawrence High School history teacher Michael Ortmann, received commemorative statues from Mayor Sue Hack.

“It’s one of those things that is so very humbling,” Ortmann said.

The recipients — both started teaching careers in 1977 — were chosen for demonstrating excellence in education, leadership and community involvement. The awards will be given each semester.

Hoffman, who has taught at Cordley for 26 years, chuckled during his acceptance speech when he realized his parents, Bettie and Melvin Hoffman of Leawood, had been ushered into the rear of Cordley’s gym.

“We think it’s wonderful,” Melvin Hoffman said. “We’re all proud of him.”

Besides fifth grade, Hoffman teaches social studies and history for students in fourth, fifth and sixth grades. He previously taught in Prairie Village and Lecompton.

He was nominated by Judy and Tim Keller, who wrote in their letter to the mayor that their two children regularly quote Hoffman at the dining room table “as the ultimate authority on all subjects.”

“The parents know he is calm and caring, patient and encouraging, direct and realistic,” their letter said.

Ortmann has been teaching world history at LHS nine years. He was a history teacher from 1986 to 1994 in Derby and from 1977 to 1986 in Newton.

Linda Finger, mother of one of Ortmann’s former students, said in her nominating letter that Ortmann was a “teacher who not only loves the subject he teaches but one who can make history come alive for students.”

“Mr. Ortmann gives the kids a gift that keeps on giving long after they leave,” Finger wrote.