Susan Lee of GCMS Named Assistant Principal of the Year

Garden City Middle School’s Susan Lee was named the 2015 Assistant Principal of the Year by the Council of Administrators and Supervisors of Long Island.

“So many of our staff members have been honored and recognized,” Lee said as she accepted the award at Tuesday’s CASLI meeting in Plainview. “I’m one of many who have been awarded for all the good things the middle school has done.”

More than 40 staff members from GCMS filled the seats at the meeting to cheer Lee’s honor, including GCMS Principal Dr. Peter Osroff.

“Susie, we are all very proud of you for receiving this well-deserved honor,” Osroff said, adding with enthusiasm, “We are very fortunate to have you as a member of our middle school family.”

Lee has been a part of the GCMS family since 1993, when she was hired as a sixth grade science and English teacher. She held the post for 14 years before she became assistant principal in 2007.

Since then, she has juggled a supporting role for her two families at school and at home.

“When my daughter told us when our first grandchild was due, my first thought was, ‘That’s during the Earth Science Regents,’” said Lee, who raised two daughters in Garden City. “My girls share me with 1,000 students and 120 staff members. I’m well aware of how many times their mom had to work late.”

Lee added, “And when I finally got home, I was preparing for a new day that’s impossible to prepare for. Every day is different. Every student is different.”

Despite the variable expectations of daily life in the middle school, Lee’s approach has always remained the same, according to Osroff.

“She has always had this philosophy: Everything we do is for the students and everyone has to work as a team,” said Osroff, who was CASLI’s Principal of the Year honoree in 2014 and addressed the audience at Tuesday’s ceremony. “I saw as she was working with the teachers that she would ask, ‘What would I want if this child was my own?’”

Read more about Susan Lee in her 2012 Patch chat here.

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