'78 Stoughton High Grad Named Massachusetts Elementary School Principal of the Year

Jane (Szum) Tremblay, principal of the Summer Street Elementary School in Lynnfield, was named the 2012 recipient of the Thomas C. Passios award, which goes to the Massachusetts Elementary School Principal of the year.

Tremblay, a Stoughton native, was honored at a ceremony on May 2 in Hyannis. 

Tremblay will travel to Washington D.C. later this year where she will meet the U.S. Secretary of Education. She will also be among those in the running for national principal of the year, Lynnfield Patch reports.

Her sister-in-law, Dawn Szum, a Stoughton resident, sent the following to Stoughton Patch:

Jane and her family grew up on Turnpike Street in Stoughton.  She was a 1978 graduate of Stoughton High, graduated from Fitchburg State in 1982 with a degree in Early Childhood Education.  She started her Masters at Bridgewater and finished at Salem State in 1989.  

She was a teacher in Lynnfield for 18 and has been the principal of the Summer Street School for eight years.  She was nominated for the award unbeknownst to her by her Superintendant Dr. Thomas Jefferson, and was picked as one of three finalists from the State, and then picked as the recipient of the award and was acknowledged and given a plaque at the Principals Convention in Hyannis on May 2. She will also be attending a black tie affair at the White House in November.  

She is married to Greg Tremblay and has three children: Jennifer, 22; Gregory, 20; and Mary Margaret, 17, and resides in Danvers.  Her siblings are John Szum, Donna O’Hear, Mary Clough (deceased), Robert Szum and Joseph Szum (my husband, and we still reside in Stoughton). Her parents John and Ruth Szum are both deceased.

When Dr. [Robert] Evans presented her before the award he said how well Jane was liked by staff, children and parents of children and that she is the kind of person who “Says what she thinks, and says what she means.  She knows every child’s name, who their siblings are, and how they did at their Little League game the night before.” 

She has incredible personality, and is very approachable, and while giving her own speech she said, she "has learned that sometimes listening, is better than speaking.” 

She also said that she had thought about becoming principal for awhile but thought “someday” maybe when my kids get older, and “someday” when my life calms down, I will pursue it.  

Then her sister, Mary, was diagnosed with a brain tumor and before she died in 2002, they had their last  conversation where Jane asked her if she had any regrets.  Mary replied that she had always wanted to open a boutique but was waiting for “someday” when her kids got older and “someday” when life calmed down, but now that “someday” would never come.  That is what motivated Jane to not wait for someday and go for it, and credits that talk with her sister as to where she is now.  It was a touching story and there was not a dry eye in the room.

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Photos in the gallery are courtesy Dawn Szum and Lynnfield Patch.